Although it appears innocuous, lighting causes air pollution. Here's how: Each day, your local power plant will commonly burn coal, oil, and gas to generate electricity for your lighting system as well as for your other electrical needs. While burning these fossil fuels produces a readily available and instantaneous supply of electricity, it also generates air pollutants: carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen oxides (NOx)

Each of these pollutants causes environmental damage. Carbon dioxide (CO2) causes global warming, sulfur dioxide (SO2) causes acid rain, and nitrogen oxides (NOx) cause both acid rain and smog.

Reducing the energy equivalent of a 500 megawatt powerplant will help to decrease air pollution and environmental damage by the following amounts each year:

By removing those quantities of pollutants from the air, reducing the energy equivalent of a 500 megawatt powerplant will have the same affect on the environment as:

Source : U.S. Environmental Protection Agency