RALEIGH, NC. – A new analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) will rank North Carolina as one of the “Toxic 20” worst states in terms of toxic air pollution from electric power plants.

Using the latest federal Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data, NRDC will hold a phone-based news conference at 11:30 a.m. EDT on Thursday, Aug. 9, to discuss its second annual analysis and ranking of the “Toxic 20” states whose residents are exposed to the most toxic air pollution from by coal- and oil-fired power plants.

An expert will be available to discuss the North Carolina-specific findings.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) collects data for the TRI, a national database of toxic emissions from industrial sources, annually. The reported emissions include key power plant pollutants such as mercury, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, ammonia and others.