by Jess Zimmerman. If you live west of D.C. and east of Omaha, there's a good chance you're pretty close to one of the 25 dirtiest coal plants in the U.S. Twenty of them are 50 to 100 miles away from major urban areas, according to Climate Progress. What does “dirtiest” mean? Well, these 25 plants represent 4 percent of the country's coal plants, and provide about 8 percent of the country's electricity generation, but account for 30 percent of mercury emissions from the U.S. electricity sector.

More on SKCEA.org:

• Four House Republicans give a nod to biking, walking
  by Jonathan Hiskes Are Congressional Republicans moving beyond blanket opposition to the Obama administration? Here's an interesting signal: Four GOP House members signed a letter praising Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood for putting bikers and walkers on equal footing with au...
• New hope for rare lemurs in Madagascar
  A survey of a remote forest area in Madagascar turned up seven new groups of silky sifaka, a critically endangered lemur threatened by habitat destruction. The finding raises hope that the species—which is listed as one of the world's 25 most endangered primates—is surviving in M...
• Remember that massive clean-energy bill Obama signed?
  by Jonathan Hiskes. If you read everything that bloggers declared a "must read," you'd have time for little else. I'll just say that if you want a lucid tour of the Obama administration's work to remake the country's energy and transportation landscape, it's tough to beat Michae...
• Housecats Susceptible to Wild Feline Disease
  There are really two types of cats out there: the cute and cuddly house cat and the vicious predator wildcats. However, for bacteria and viruses, there is no difference. The domestic cats are equally vulnerable to the same diseases that afflict wild bobcats, cougars, and others. ...
• 2010 hottest year on record for Canada
  Canada had its warmest year on record in 2010, according to the country's environmental agency, with the biggest impact seen in the Arctic region. The national average temperature for the year was 3 degrees Celsius above normal, based on preliminary data, according to a report pu...