What’s the Problem with Fossil Fuels?
// Today, our energy landscape is dominated by the use of non-renewable fossil fuels. Nearly 90 percent of our electricity comes from polluting sources of energy like coal and nuclear power. Coal itself generates 54 percent of our nation’s electricity and is the single largest air polluter in the United States. A typical coal plant will burn 1.4 million tons of coal a year. Multiply that by the approximately 600 coal plants in the US, and you come up with one huge problem! Coal plants in the US release 98,000 pounds of mercury into the air each year. Coal pollutes at every level of production: when it is mined, transported to the power plant, stored and burned. Burning coal causes smog, soot, acid rain, global warming and toxic air emissions. The deadly costs of coal energy are not being paid for by the companies that produce or sell the energy, but rather citizens, who bear the burden in the form of serious health problems and costly clean-up. According to the Natural Resources Defens
