Environmental Stewardship

Coal and the Environment

According to the U.S. EPA, emissions of criteria air pollutants considered harmful to human health have decreased almost 40% in Ohio since 1970 – even though the overall consumption of electricity has more than doubled. The use of coal to generate electricity has tripled in that same period.
The United States’ electric utilities have invested more than $50 billion in new clean-coal technologies.
Levels of most monitored air pollutants have dropped substantially in Ohio in the past 20 years, and continued to improve in the last study cycle, according to the 2002 report from the Ohio EPA on the agency’s 20-year air quality trends report.
Ohio is the driving force behind clean coal research and leads the nation in deployment of clean coal technologies, according to the Ohio Coal Development Office.