U.S. Aluminum Plants Producing Huge Amounts Of Greenhouse Gases
div class="node-media"img src="https://crooksandliars.com/files/embeds/2022/12/53238.jpg" //divpRetrofitting in an important part of any climate change plan, and this story illustrates that. From Inside Climate News a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/aluminum-plants-us-are-far-polluting-counterparts-abroad-rcna57894"via NBC News:/a /p
blockquotepROBARDS, Ky. — Shielded by protective hoods and covered by a hard outer crust, giant pots brimming with molten aluminum bubble gently in a series of long, metal buildings here that make up the smelter Century Aluminum Sebree. This is one of the country’s largest sources of a potent greenhouse gas that remains in the atmosphere for 50,000 years, tetrafluoromethane (CF4)./p
pIn 2021, this aluminum plant vented 23 tons of CF4 as well as a ton of hexafluoroethane — both are perfluorocarbons, or PFCs, that are among the most potent and longest-lasting greenhouse gases on the planet, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. strongThe pollution equals the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 40,000 automobiles, ones that will effectively remain on the metaphorical road for tens of thousands of years./strong/p
pMeanwhile, a newer plant also owned and operated by Century Aluminum in Grundartangi, Iceland, emits strongjust one-sixth the PFC emissions per ton of aluminum/strong compared to the company’s Sebree plant, according to an Inside Climate News assessment of EPA data, as well as financial and environmental reports published by Century and Nordural, its Icelandic subsidiary./p/blockquote
pThat's shocking, right? What's going on?/ppa href="https://crooksandliars.com/2022/12/us-aluminum-plants-producing-huge-amounts" target="_blank"read more/a/p