The Northport Power Station is a natural gas

Natural gas

Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...

 and conventional oil electric power generating station located on the north shore

North Shore (Long Island)

The North Shore of Long Island is the area along Long Island's northern coast, bordering Long Island Sound. The region has long been the most affluent on Long Island, as well as the most affluent in the New York metropolitan area, which has earned it the nickname "the Gold Coast." Though some...

 of Long Island

Long Island

Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...

, at Waterside Avenue & Eatons Neck Road in Northport, New York

Northport, New York

Northport is a village in Suffolk County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the village population was 7,606. Students attend the Northport-East Northport Union Free School District....

. The facility was built by the Long Island Lighting Company

Long Island Lighting Company

The Long Island Lighting Company, or LILCO [ "lil-co" ], was an electrical power company and natural gas utility for the communities of Long Island, New York, serving 2.7 million people in Nassau, Suffolk and Queens Counties....

 (LILCO) in 1967. In August 2007 the Northport Power Station became part of National Grid USA as part of their purchase of KeySpan Energy

KeySpan

KeySpan Corporation, now part of National Grid USA, was the fifth largest distributor of natural gas in the United States. KeySpan was formed in 1998 as result of the merger of Brooklyn Union Gas Company and Long Island Lighting Company...

. The plant's electric output is distributed via Long Island Power Authority

Long Island Power Authority

The Long Island Power Authority or LIPA [ "lie-pah" ], a municipal subdivision of the State of New York, was created under the Long Island Power Act of 1985 to acquire the Long Island Lighting Company 's assets and securities...

 (LIPA).

Northport is the largest oil-fired electric generating station on the East coast. The four enormous smoke stacks

Flue gas stack

A flue-gas stack is a type of chimney, a vertical pipe, channel or similar structure through which combustion product gases called flue gases are exhausted to the outside air. Flue gases are produced when coal, oil, natural gas, wood or any other fuel is combusted in an industrial furnace, a power...

 which are a defining landmark of Northport can be seen as far away as Connecticut

Connecticut

Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

 across Long Island Sound

Long Island Sound

Long Island Sound is an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean, located in the United States between Connecticut to the north and Long Island, New York to the south. The mouth of the Connecticut River at Old Saybrook, Connecticut, empties into the sound. On its western end the sound is bounded by the Bronx...

. Each stack is 600 feet tall (183 m).

Age and pollution

In 2005, a coalition of New York environmental groups issued a report which named the Northport Power Station as the number one polluting plant on Long Island and the second most polluting plant in the Northeast. The plant outputs 5.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year. The reason for these concerns primarily lay with the age of the power plant. The plant was constructed in the 1960s and 1970s, using technologies which are now outdated. When Unit-4 was completed in 1977 it was among the last conventional oil fired-units built in the United States. The plant is exempt from Clean Air Act

Clean Air Act

A Clean Air Act is one of a number of pieces of legislation relating to the reduction of airborne contaminants, smog and air pollution in general. The use by governments to enforce clean air standards has contributed to an improvement in human health and longer life spans...

 emissions standards because it was grandfathered in when the law was passed.

As a result of pollution and health concerns, United States Senator Charles E. Schumer and Suffolk County

Suffolk County, New York

Suffolk County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York on the eastern portion of Long Island. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,493,350. It was named for the county of Suffolk in England, from which its earliest settlers came...

 Legislator Jon Cooper have been calling for modernizing

Modernization

In the social sciences, modernization or modernisation refers to a model of an evolutionary transition from a 'pre-modern' or 'traditional' to a 'modern' society. The teleology of modernization is described in social evolutionism theories, existing as a template that has been generally followed by...

the inefficient Northport Power Station.