Team Awesome, Green and Green Awesome
In our Environmental Issues class at Berea College, we used various references and
collections of data to provide information about Berea’s power usage in 2008. In the following
report should be found some examples of power usage and general examples of what needs to be
done in the form of graphs and data tables.
To begin, the class was presented with a great deal of general data that can be found at
http://faculty.berea.edu/pearcej/MAT108/assign/KU-Usage-2008.xls if need be. The table
provides extensive information about the city of Berea, and its use of KwH of energy. In our
group, we figured out that 1 KwH of energy used is equal to approximately 1.51 lbs of CO2
released into the atmosphere. With the ever rising level of CO2 and growing concern and
urgency associated with climate change, this is not something we want to happen. The following
graph was created with the data found at http://faculty.berea.edu/pearcej/MAT108/assign/KUUsage-2008.xls.
If we are going to try
to cut down on our energy
usage, we need to first know
where the energy is going.
The first option might be to
lower the amount of
electricity used by residential
locations, since that is the
section that uses the most
electricity. Although
residential settings use much
more than commercial and
industrial, one must keep in
mind that there are over
3,600 more residents than
commercial and industrial groups together. According to Electricity Usage in Berea (Chart 1), based off
of the information sent to Dr. Jan Pearce by the manager of Berea Municiple Utilities, industries use
significantly more electricity than businesses and residents combined. In fact, when broken down to
individual businesses, industries, and residents; industries use nearly 95 percent of all electricity used in
Berea (2008).


Figure 1: Sources of Power from Berea Municipal Utilities
 Carbon Emissions from different energy sources
Carbon Emissions from a comparable town with less coal/more clean energy
As you can see from the graph above in figure 1, the majority of Berea’s power comes
from coal. This is important to look at because it correlates with a significant amount of carbon
dioxide emissions, whereas hydroelectric power or other renewable sources would emit much
carbon dioxide at all. Hydro, Oil, Gas, and Non Hydro Renewables collectively make up less than
15% of our total energy sources. This tells us that we depend heavily upon coal when there are
other sources to be used. It is also important because nuclear power is the second highest
source of power within this company. Along with carbon emissions, nuclear power brings with it
nuclear waste, which is also harmful for the environment. Because so much of the power is from
coal, there needs to be ways in which we can begin to offset these harmful effects; one of the
possible offset options is to plant acres of trees. The information regarding the proportions of
sources of power is from the EPA website (How Clean is the electricity I Use).
Figure 3: Emissions of different types of Berea Municipal Utility customers
As shown in figure 3, the highest producers of carbon dioxide emissions are the industries that
are located within Berea (KU-Usage-2008). Each industry within Berea roughly produces a little over a
million pounds of carbon dioxide per year. Note that this is each industry individually, not all of them as
a whole, which is even more alarming (KU-Usage-2008). Although there are only 53 of them, they are
producing around 94% more per commercial customer. The industries have such a larger amount of
pounds of carbon dioxide emitted is due to inefficiencies within the system in regard to how the power
itself is transferred (Donald Blackburn).
There are large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions coming from the Berea area, including
sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and carbon dioxide. The amount of carbon dioxide that is emitted is
astonishing. For every megawatt of electricity generated, over 1,500 pounds of carbon is emitted into
the atmosphere (“Sample Power Profiler Report”). Carbon combines with oxygen to create carbon
dioxide, which then contributes to the problem of human-caused climate change. Berea released about
2.04x1014 pounds of CO2 (Chart 2) into the atmosphere last year. That’s about 2,040 trillion pounds, or
2,040,000,000,000,000 lbs. This number is extremely shocking. However, if the citizens of Berea know
how the electricity use is divided, they can make changes in the areas which consume the most power
(and therefore emit the most carbon). Therefore, the best area to cut down on electricity usage would
be within the industries.
Figure 2: Comparison of the size of Berea in acres and the number of acres it would take to offset
Berea’s carbon dioxide emissions.
As shown above in figure 2, Berea is made up of around 6,016 acres of land (Berea, KY). Though Berea is
a small town, it releases a very large amount of carbon dioxide. To offset the carbon emissions in Berea,
it would be necessary to have more acres of trees in the city. There is a problem here; this dramatic bar
difference is presented so that the audience can clearly recognize the problem we are facing. As you can
see, we are in need of more acres than is available for Berea’s carbon emission to be completely offset,
thus neutralizing the city’s harm to the environment. This simply is not possible. 1.35 acres of trees
offsets about 10,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions (Sample Power Profiler Report). This also
means that Berea has emitted 204,274,074 pounds of carbon dioxide. The most effective way of
reducing our carbon dioxide emissions is to examine which sources are the heaviest emitters, and then
examine how we can encourage beneficial change.
It is evident while looking over these figures and statistics that the energy industry in Kentucky
needs to change. It is very irresponsible to emit so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when we
do not even have the resources to offset those effects, as shown in figure 2. Coal represents 67% of our
total energy resources, and from that coal millions of pounds of carbon dioxide are also produced, as
shown in figure 1. From this we can begin to discern what change is crucial for Berea’s sustainability.
Those are: balance in different power sources, decrease in carbon emission, and applying these first of
all to the Berea Industries. If these actions are not taken, the results will be significantly detrimental.
Works Cited
Blackburn, James. Message to Jan Pearce. 5/11/2009. E-mail.
"Berea Municipal Utilities." All Business: A D&B Company N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2009.
<http://www.allbusiness.com/companyprofile/Berea_Municipal_Utilities/98AB688989EDE3D30
28F9BAD8E2B125A-1.html>.
"Berea, KY." Wikipedia Wikipedia, 2009. Web. 17 Nov. 2009. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berea,_KY>.
"Sample Power Profiler Report." Sample Power Profiler Report EPA, 2000. Web. 17 Nov. 2009.
<http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-and-you/report-large.html>.
KU-Usage-2008 Excel File.
"Carbon Sequestration." Wikipedia. 2009. Web.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_sequestration>.
EPA. "Power Profiler, How Clean is the Electricity I Use?." Environmental Protection Agency (2007): n.
pag. Web. 16 Nov 2009. <http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-and-you/report-large.html>.