I criticized this statement, noting that the actual
emissions from U.S. coal - burning power plants
declined only from 16.1 million tons to 12.4 million tons between 1980 and 1998 in the case of sulfur dioxide and from 6.1 million tons to 5.4 million tons between 1980 and 1998 in the case of nitrogen
oxides (mostly emitted as NO, not NO2, but by convention measured as tons of NO2 - equivalent).