"Mercury emitted from coal-fired power plants comes from mercury in coal, which is released when the coal is burned. While coal-fired power plants are the largest remaining source of human-generated mercury emissions in the United States, they contribute very little to the global mercury pool. Recent estimates of annual total global mercury emissions from all sources
-- both natural and human-generated -- range from roughly 4,400 to 7,500 tons per year. Human-caused U.S. mercury emissions are estimated to account for roughly 3 percent of the global total, and U.S. coal-fired power plants are estimated to account for only about 1 percent."
BTW, existing law calls for a 70% reduction in mercury emissions from US power plants over the next few years which means that mercury emissions from US coal-fired power plants will be about 0.03% of the total.
It is misleading and off-topic even as amended. Some folks think that you shouldn't be egging BobbyG on at any time of day or night no matter how transparent the motive.
Dave Houston *starts* yet another off-topic thread on mercury/CFLs.
Comp.home.automation has devolved into the Fox News of groups, forums and boards on the internet dealing with home automation.
Reality check indeed. Dave searches for a quote on the internet that can be misinterpreted to mean that mercury from coal fired plants are a small problem in the US.
The global surface area is 510065600 km^2 The US surface area is 9161923 km^2 So the US is less than 2% of the land mass.
But according to the quote, US human sources _alone_ account for 3% Global _total_ which includes human and natural. So the total US emissions ( human
natural) is greater than 3% (but we can't know how much greater from the numbers provided).
Even with what we are provided, we know that US is _still_ a mercury hotspot despite the misleading statistics presented to make the US look good because US > 2% of area.
The real "reality check" is that 40% of mercury emissions and most of the current biologically mobile mercury released into the environment in the US today comes from coal.
And that there were 3,221 fish advisories in 2004 including the entire state of Kentucky where Dave lives.
Globally there are important sources of anthropogenic mercury that are not tolerated in North America. For example, mercury is boiled off in vast amounts for gold refining in South America.
So the global total is not what matters to US children (to use BobbyG's point of concern).
"BTW", USEPA under the Clinton administration determined that mercury emissions had to be reduced and was to issue *final* regulations by Dec 2004.
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The regs were scuttled by the Shrub administration. And they would and will take years to put in place now under the best of circumstances.
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Dave Houston *starts* yet another off-topic thread on mercury/CFLs.
Comp.home.automation has devolved into the Fox News of groups, forums and boards on the internet dealing with home automation.
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