Taking note: Top 10 industrial plants emitting greenhouse gases in Idaho

Power plants. Chemical plants. Paper plants. These are just a few of Idaho’s top greenhouse gas emitters.

Greenhouse gases emitted by people are the main driver of much of the observable changes to temperature, atmosphere and oceans that scientists have tracked in recent decades, according to United Nations scientists. And those changes are already affecting Idaho.

Across the U.S., 27% of our emissions come from transportation, 25% from electric power and 24% from industry, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In Idaho, more than half of the state’s emissions come from transportation: 57%, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Large plants and other locations are required to report emissions information, which is then verified and collected by the EPA. About half of U.S. emissions are reported by direct emitters. Using EPA data, here’s a list of some of the biggest emitters in the state as of 2019, the latest year for which verified data is available.

The data below is calculated as “CO2 equivalent,” or CO2e. That means that each source’s emissions are not all CO2. Rather, the EPA takes actual emissions of CO2 and emissions of other greenhouse gases, like methane and nitrous oxide, and coverts their effects to a comparable amount of CO2 so that the emissions can be represented as one number.

1. RATHDRUM POWER PLANT

The North Idaho natural gas and steam-powered power plant, owned by Kansas-based Tyr Energy, emitted 685,134 metric tons of carbon equivalent in 2019.

2. LANGLEY GULCH POWER PLANT

This New Plymouth natural gas-fired plant, owned by Idaho Power, emitted 563,878 metric tons of carbon equivalent.

The Boise-based company also owns the Nos. 8 and 9 plants on this list.

In an email, spokesperson Brad Bowlin said Idaho Power has an “active, successful and voluntary goal of reducing the carbon emissions intensity … of our company-owned resources.” The company is working to reduce its emissions by 35% from 2005 levels by 2025, and it has a goal of 100% clean energy generation by 2045, Bowlin said.

3. P4 PRODUCTION

P4 Production, a subsidiary of Monsanto, now a part of the German company Bayer, makes phosphorus “for use in herbicides, fire retardants, leavening agents, aviation fluids, carbonated beverages, and other products,” according to Bloomberg. The Soda Springs producer emitted 505,427 metric tons of carbon equivalent.

4, 6 & 7. AMALGAMATED SUGAR

This Boise-based sugar producer has three factories in Idaho: in Nampa, Twin Falls and Paul. Each is on the top 10 list of emitters.

The Nampa factory emitted 340,143 metrics tons, while the Twin Falls and Paul factories emitted 279,558 and 274,334 metric tons, respectively. The EPA notes that, at each factory, “some CO2 reported by this facility includes CO2 that is collected and later used on-site to manufacture other products. This CO2 is not emitted to the ambient air.”

5. CLEARWATER PAPER CO.

The Spokane-based paper company’s mill in Lewiston, which produces tissue and paperboard, emitted 334,050 metric tons.

In an email, spokesperson Shannon Myers told the Statesman that the company has reduced its emissions by 8% since 2019. Before the end of the year, the company plans to establish “specific targets and plans” to reduce emissions by a further 30% by 2030. Myers added that more than 60% of the company’s energy comes from renewable sources, and about 40% is self-generated. The company also reports its carbon emissions to outside groups, she said.

8. BENNETT MOUNTAIN POWER PROJECT

This Idaho Power-owned natural gas-fired power plant in Mountain Home emitted 185,834 metric tons.

9. EVANDER ANDREWS POWER COMPLEX

This natural gas-fired power plant near Mountain Home, which is also owned by Idaho Power, emitted 173,862 metric tons.

10. ITAFOS CONDA

This phosphorus fertilizer company in Soda Springs emitted 126,475 metric tons. The company is headquartered in Houston.

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The Idaho Statesman reached out to each of the companies on this list for comment. Except as noted, it did not receive comment.

OTHER NOTABLE EMITTERS

Other large emitters in the state include the Boise-based J.R. Simplot Co. Its Pocatello phosphate fertilizer plant emitted 124,683 metric tons. The fertilizer is primarily used for farming, turf and horticulture, while also being used for the fire retardant industry, a spokesperson, Josh Jordan, said in an email. The company has another plant, in Caldwell, that makes potato products.

“We recognize the need to decrease our carbon footprint,” Jordan said, noting that the company has a goal of reducing its global carbon emissions by “20% per ton of product by 2030.”

Landfills can also emit a lot of greenhouse gases, as gas is a natural byproduct in decomposition. Canyon County’s landfill, the Pickles Butte Sanitary Landfill, in Nampa, emitted 108,688 metric tons. Ada County’s landfill, in Boise, emitted 81,774.

Ada County’s landfill has a gas capture system, where collected gases are turned into electricity or burned off, spokesperson Rebecca Weeks said in an email.

The Canyon County landfill is “in the process” of installing such a system, spokesperson Joe Decker said in an email.

Micron’s Boise semiconductor manufacturing plant, which is used for research and development, emitted 53,972 metric tons. The company has set “aspirational commitments” to have net zero emissions in its operations and purchased energy by 2050, spokesperson Lynda Friesz Martin said in an email. With 2020 as a baseline, the company plans to reduce emissions from operations by 42% by 2030.

WHAT ARE GREENHOUSE GASES, AND WHY DO THEY MATTER?

The Earth absorbs heat from the sun, and that heat gets released as radiation. Gases in the Earth’s atmosphere stop some of that heat from leaving and send it back toward the surface. That heating, or greenhouse effect, is what makes life today possible. But too much of it will change — and is changing — the planet’s ecosystems and weather patterns, and it could have other effects not yet known.

WHO PRODUCES GREENHOUSE GASES?

Every American emits carbon when driving to work in a gasoline-powered car. Emissions also come from shipping products to market, from other forms of transportation, agriculture, industry and residential heating and cooling. They also come from all over the world.

For more than 100 years, almost all of the carbon emitted came from Europe and the U.S., according to Our World in Data. But other regions have caught up. In 2017, 27% of global carbon emissions came from China, and 6.8% from India. Fifteen percent came from the U.S., and 17% from Europe. On a per-capita basis, the U.S. still emits much more than India and China.

HOW IDAHO ALREADY IS AFFECTED

Most of the state has warmed between 1 and 2 degrees over the last century, according to the EPA. Snowpack levels in the high mountains of Central Idaho are declining, which is related to lower streamflows during the summer. “In the coming decades, streams will be warmer, populations of several fish species may decline, wildfires may be more common, deserts may expand, and water may be less available for irrigation,” according to an EPA publication from 2016.

Five of the top 10 hottest years on record in the Boise area have occurred in the last decade, according to the National Weather Service. Seven of them have been in the last 20 years. This summer and last summer were the third- and first-warmest on record.