Report | Environment Colorado Research & Policy Center

Wind Power for a Cleaner America

America has more than doubled its use of wind power since the beginning of 2008 and we are starting to reap the environmental rewards. Wind energy now displaces about 68 million metric tons of global warming pollution each year—as much as is produced by 13 million cars. And wind energy now saves more than enough water nationwide to meet the needs of a city the size of Boston.

Report | Environment Colorado Research & Policy Center

Report: The Costs of Fracking

Over the past decade, the oil and gas industry has fused two technologies—hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling—to unlock new supplies of fossil fuels in underground rock formations across the United States. “Fracking” has spread rapidly, leaving a trail of contaminated water, polluted air, and marred landscapes in its wake. In fact, a growing body of data indicates that fracking is an environmental and public health disaster in the making.

Report | Environment America

Dirty Energy's Assualt on our Health: Mercury

Our dependence on oil and coal-fired power plants has broad detrimental impacts on our health and our environment. Power plants represent America’s single biggest source of air pollution, affecting our waterways, destroying ecosystems, and polluting the air we breathe. Pollution from coal-fired power plants in particular contributes to four of the five leading causes of mortality in the United States: heart disease, cancer, stroke, and chronic respiratory diseases. Dirty Energy’s Assault on our Health is a series of reports examining the numerous threats that power plants pose to our environment and our health. Each segment in the series focuses on a different pollutant emitted by power plants. This report looks at the health and environmental impacts of mercury pollution from power plants.

Report | Environment Colorado

Too Much Pollution

America’s reliance on fossil fuels—oil, coal and natural gas—for energy creates a host of problems, including air and water pollution, global warming pollution, high and unpredictable bills for consumers and businesses, and the need to import oil from unstable parts of the world. Moving to clean energy—such as solar and wind power, more efficient homes, and plug-in cars—will cut pollution, help rebuild our economy, and reduce America’s dependence on oil.

Report | Environment Colorado

Lethal Loophole: How the ˜Clear Skies' Bill Allows Oil Refineries and Chemical Plants to Emit More Toxic Air Pollutants

The Bush administration has touted its so-called “Clear Skies” bill as a way to clean up power plant emissions of smog-forming nitrogen oxides, soot-forming sulfur dioxide, and toxic mercury.

Report | Environment Colorado

Stop the Rollbacks: Cleaner, Healthier Air for Colorado

For a quarter century, the Clean Air Act’s “new source review” program has protected Colorado’s families by requiring large industrial facilities to modernize their air pollution control equipment when they expand their operations and increase air pollution levels.

Report | Environment Colorado

Danger in the Air: Unhealthy Levels of Air Pollution in 2003

While air quality has improved in the last three decades, half of all Americans live in counties where air pollution exceeds national health standards.