Killer Coal Kills 10,000 Americans Each Year. More than 9-11. Where's Our War On Dirty Energy???

[grahamhgreen]

Last edited Thu Nov 27, 2014, 01:54 PM - Edit history (4)

That's 27 of us a day.... killed by coal.

It is notable that the U.S. death rates for coal are so much lower than for China, strictly a result of regulation and the Clean Air Act (Scott et al., 2005). It is also notable that the Clean Air Act is one of the most life-saving pieces of legislation ever adopted by any country in history. Still, about 10,000 die from coal use in the U.S. each year, and another thousand from natural gas......


...estimates have suggested a 10% increase in health care costs in countries where coal makes up a significant fraction of the energy mix, like the U.S. and Europe (NAS 2010; Cohen et al., 2005; Pope et al., 2002). These additional health costs begin to rival the total energy costs on an annual basis for the U.S. given that health care costs top $2.6 trillion, and electricity costs only exceed about $400 billion. Another way to describe this human health energy fee is that it costs about 2,000 lives per year to keep the lights on in Beijing but only about 200 lives to keep them on in New York.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2012/06/10/energys-deathprint-a-price-always-paid/

[tech3149]

1. Typical externalize the cost business plan

It really sucks to live in a sacrifice zone but hell, someone has to pay.
Welcome to District 12!

[Ykcutnek]

2. And come January, one of Big Coal's biggest allies will be Senate Majority Leader. nt

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

3. Didn' you hear, the rise in health care costs is due to

Obama!

Some people don't care about others dying if it serves their ideology or agenda. It's OK if people die because they don't have health insurance or by the hand of a crazed gunman. It only matters it the deaths can be blamed on terrorists or Obama.

[grahamhgreen]

4. Well, he does support coal....

[Martin Eden]

5. Americans fear the wrong things

Thanks for the article.

[greatlaurel]

6. Interesting article. If anyone bothers to look USEPA and the Lung Assoc. have statistics on this.

This is not new information. The antiregulation nuts are also screaming about the revised ground level ozone standards. Of course, they ignore the costs to their fellow humans in increased health care costs and loss of life.

Thanks for posting.

[pampango]

7. "Obama to Introduce Sweeping New Controls on Ozone Emissions"

The Obama administration is expected to release on Wednesday a contentious and long-delayed environmental regulation to curb emissions of ozone, a smog-causing pollutant linked to asthma, heart disease and premature death.

The sweeping regulation, which would aim at smog from power plants and factories across the country, particularly in the Midwest, would be the latest in a series of Environmental Protection Agency controls on air pollution that wafts from smokestacks and tailpipes. Such regulations, released under the authority of the Clean Air Act, have become a hallmark of President Obama’s administration. Environmentalists and public health advocates have praised the E.P.A. rules as a powerful environmental legacy. Republicans, manufacturers and the fossil fuel industry have sharply criticized them as an example of costly government overreach.

The proposed ozone rule comes as the longstanding battle over Mr. Obama’s use of the Clean Air Act to push his environmental agenda is erupting in Congress and the courts. The ozone rules are expected to force the owners of power plants and factories to install expensive technology to clean the pollutants from their smokestacks. Next year, the E.P.A. is expected to make final two more historic Clean Air Act rules aimed at cutting planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants. Those rules, which are intended to curb pollutants that contribute to climate change, could lead to the shutdown of hundreds of power plants and freeze construction of future coal plants.

The Republican-majority Congress, to be led by Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the incoming majority leader, has vowed to block or overturn the entire group of rules. In a separate development, the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to take up a challenge led by industry groups against another E.P.A. rule intended to curb emissions of mercury from coal plants.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/26/us/politics/obama-to-introduce-sweeping-new-controls-on-ozone-emissions.html

The tea party wing of the GOP was upset by Obama's immigration action but the big business wing is going to be upset by this one.

[grahamhgreen]

8. ....and we welcome their hatred!