Image via McClatchy

Despite being the leader in wind energy, Texas is also the leader in mercury emissions. If fact, Texas has so much wind that the Lone Star State “set a record on March 5 when wind turbines generated 6,272 megawatts of energy, or about 19 percent of the electricity on the state’s main power grid.” However, Texas also emits a lot of mercury into the environment, and mercury is a neurotoxin. More on the effects of mercury from the USGS:

Mercury occurs naturally in the environment and cycles among the atmosphere, water, and sediments. Human activities such as coal burning power plants and waste incineration increase the amount of mercury cycling in the environment. Since the industrial revolution, anthropogenic mercury emissions have increased atmospheric mercury levels about threefold, causing corresponding increases in mercury levels in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Mercury that is released into the atmosphere can be transported long distances and deposited in aquatic ecosystems, where it is methylated to methylmercury. Mercury is a neurotoxicant, to which the human fetus is very sensitive. Methylmercury is an organic form of mercury, the most toxic form, and the form that bioaccumulates in fish. Wildlife and humans are exposed primarily through consumption of contaminated fish. The factors that make some aquatic ecosystems susceptible to this bioaccumulation, however, are unknown, making protection of human health and the health of fish-eating wildlife a challenge.

Ohio’s coal-fired power plants are also significant sources of mercury emissions:

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