John Amos Power Plant, West Virginia

According to the plant's owner, American Electric Power, this 2,900 megawatt plant burns five million tons of coal per year, which "equates to roughly 500 coal mining jobs" and can power two million homes. Unit 3, completed in 1973, was the first 1,300 megawatt power plant in the United States. The plant is one of the highest producers of emissions in the nation (second to the Bowan Steam Electric Generating Plant in Bartow, GA). In 2007 as a result of a lawsuit brought by the EPA among others, AEP agreed to pay a $15 million fine as well as committing $60 million on emission mitigation efforts. At the time this was the largest environmental enforcement settlement in U.S. history. By 2011, three wet flue-gas desulfurization scrubbers had been installed.