The Full Cost of Coal

Full cost accounting for the life cycle of coal – Paul R. Epstein, Jonathan J. Buonocore, Kevin Eckerle, Michael Hendryx, Benjamin M. Stout III, Richard Heinberg, Richard W. Clapp, Beverly May, Nancy L. Reinhart, Melissa M. Ahern, Samir K. Doshi, and Leslie Glustrom

The Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences recently published a report by Associate Director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Paul Epstein, which elucidated the “full costs of coal use.” By completing a life cycle analysis, an examination of a given resource at all its stages, the report aggregates what have commonly been considered the “hidden costs” of coal use.  Its findings were staggering: Coal, generally regarded as the cheapest form of electricity, and which generates 40% of electricity worldwide, costs more—at least in the US—than it is worth.

The report notes,

Each stage in the life cycle of coal-extraction, transport, processing, and combustion-generates a waste stream and carries multiple hazards for health and the environment. These costs are external to the coal industry and thus are often considered as ‘externalities.’ We estimate that the life cycle effects of coal and the waste stream generated are costing the U.S. public a third to over one-half of a trillion dollars annually.

These externalities include,

damages due to climate change; public health damages from NOx [nitrogen oxide], SO2 [sulfur dioxide], PM2.5 [particle pollutants], and mercury emissions; fatalities of members of the public due to rail accidents during coal transport [approximately 246 in 2007]; the public health burden in Appalachia associated with coal mining [approximately 2,347 deaths each year]; government subsidies; and lost value of abandoned mine lands.

In Appalachian communities alone, the report estimates that public health burdens from coal mining cost $74.6 billion each year; the economic benefit tops out at roughly $8.08 billion dollars, a mere 10% of the overall costs.

But the $74.6 billion public health cost is relatively small in comparison to the additional costs associated with air pollutant emissions ($187.5 billion), and the costs associated with greenhouse gas emissions ($61.7 billion – $205.8 billion), and the  impacts from land disturbances, toxic spills, declines in property values, tourism loss, and crop damage ($3 billion – $10 billion).

In an interview with Living on Earth, Dr Epstein further points out that what is important to consider when regarding these figures is that “This is just in Appalachia. We’re not talking about Wyoming, or Colorado, or other places in the nation that also mine coal.”

The report concludes with a very straightforward message.

Accounting for the damages [from externalities] conservatively doubles to triples the price of electricity from coal per kWh generated, making wind, solar, and other forms of non fossil fuel power generation, along with investments in efficiency and electricity conservation methods, economically competitive.

It is to the benefit of the American public and economic health to recognize the full costs of coal use, and to begin transforming the American energy profile, increasing funds for clean technology, and investing in alternative industrial and farming practices, which, especially when keeping in mind this report’s findings, do not appear to be such a costly endeavor.

Share on Facebook

Tweet