How clean is the electricity I use?
Not all electricity is created equal. If you live in Vermont or Idaho, most of the power you use comes from hydropower and emits few pollutants. If you’re a resident of Washington, DC, your power comes completely from burning coal, which is much dirtier.
How does your electricity compare? You can get the answer from EPA’s Power Profiler website. It says it takes 5 minutes, but it only took me about 5 seconds. All you do is enter your website, and choose your power company.
The electric power I buy is less polluting than average:
That’s because more of my power comes from renewables (like wind and solar), hydro, and natural gas (which emits fewer conventional pollutants like nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide than coal, but still releases a lot of CO2, which causes global warming).
The website is part of a recent update to the agency’s eGRID program, which I’ve used a bit in projects examining the emissions related to water use. Most people don’t think about it, but water use accounts for a great deal of energy use. More about that later.