PA’s Dirty Dozen: PennEnvironment study uncovers the state’s largest climate polluters

The PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center released its newest study about climate change, Pennsylvania’s Dirty Dozen, which ranks the Keystone State’s largest climate polluters. Our report examined data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and ranked Pennsylvania’s top 12 climate polluters statewide, as well as region-by-region.

The statewide top 12 polluters — the Dirty Dozen — released nearly 46 million metric tons of climate pollution in 2021. That comes out to 18% of the state’s total global warming pollution from Pennsylvania’s energy and industry sectors. You can check out the Dirty Dozen here:

To release this report, we held five press conferences in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, the Lehigh Valley, and one news event virtually. We were joined by experts and elected officials including State Representative Elizabeth Fiedler, State Senator Carolyn Comitta, representatives from Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Sierra Club, Moms Clean Air Force, and more. The report has garnered more than 100 media hits, including stories in some of Pennsylvania’s biggest media outlets, like: the Philadelphia Inquirer, WESA radio, the Morning Call, PennLive and TV stations across the commonwealth.

The Dirty Dozen also includes recommendations on how Pennsylvania can reduce its overall greenhouse gas emissions, including:

• Accelerating the transition to clean, renewable energy: Pennsylvania should commit to obtaining at least 30% of its electricity from clean, renewable sources by 2030 on the way to powering the commonwealth with 100% renewable energy by 2050.
• Continuing Pennsylvania’s commitment to and participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI): In April 2022, Pennsylvania finalized a rule that formally allows the state to link with RGGI, a bipartisan market-based effort that includes 11 neighboring Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states that has dramatically cut carbon pollution from power plants since 2009.

In addition, PennEnvironment plans to urge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to finalize the strongest possible standards to cut carbon emissions from power plants. The EPA’s new rule was released last week and will be up for public comment soon.