Citizen monitoring motivates big companies to beef up their emissions tracking
Emissions from coal-burning power plant (Credit: U.S. Department of Energy)
Private citizens who monitor industrial emissions are encouraging companies to get their own high-tech monitoring equipment, according to Bloomberg. Officials at the U.S. EPA say this could lead to more complete and accurate emissions figures.
More on-the-spot data will help companies address unknown emissions violations. More accurate numbers may also help companies tackle emissions problems before they become catastrophic.
Citizen monitoring helped the U.S. EPA discover massive illegal benzene releases by Tonawanda Coke Corp. near Buffalo, N.Y., in a 2013 case resulting in nearly $25 million in fines. Officials with the agency say crowdsourced data may help find other blockbuster violations.
Image: Emissions from coal-burning power plant (Credit: U.S. Department of Energy)
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Jackie James Creedon
June 13, 2014 at 1:35 pm
I represent the community group that was credited with holding Tonawanda Coke accountable. It is good to hear our work has made a difference.