BIG COAL BRINGS ON THE END OF BIG COAL

2 More Utilities Retiring Aging Coal Plants in Wake of Health Report
Mara Mackinnon, December 3, 2009 (Solve Climate)

"Two of the nation’s biggest power providers, Exelon and Progress Energy, announced plans this week to retire more than a dozen of their aging coal-fired power plants. Both moves are about money, but they also stand to have an impact on human health.

"In North Carolina, Progress Energy, under pressure from the state to upgrade its emissions scrubbing equipment, announced Tuesday that it would close 11 coal-fired units by the end of 2017 and shift to cleaner-burning natural gas. The targeted units represent nearly 30 percent of the company’s statewide coal fleet…Exelon followed up on Wednesday, announcing its own plans to shut down three of its coal-fired units in Pennsylvania by the end of 2011. In addition, Duke Energy plans to retire several of its aging coal-fired units over the next decade…"

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"…The medical and public health group Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR)…connected coal and its emissions to a number of serious health issues, including increased risk of heart disease, cancer, asthma and lowered IQ’s…While coal accounts for 50% of the nation’s electricity production, it is responsible for 87% of the total utility-related…pollution, PSR found…[and] is associated with detrimental effects on human health throughout its lifecycle — from mining to transporting, burning and finally disposing of waste products…[E]xposure to pollutants can increase…cellular damage…This can lead to deadly strokes…[E]xposure to particulate matter and ozone…can result in respiratory inflammation and oxidative stress. This can lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S., and lung cancer, the deadliest cancer in the U.S. for both men and women…[P]articulate matter in the air also increases the probability of… heart disease and heart failure.

"In fact four of the top five causes for mortality in the U.S. — heart disease, cancer, stroke and chronic lower respiratory disease — are shown to be induced or exacerbated by the air pollutants from coal, PSR writes. Cumulatively the four claimed half a million American lives in 2006, and the number of diagnosed cases was likely far higher. Not surprisingly, coal’s effects on children can be dire…"

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"The health impacts of coal carry a hefty cost, though it is not incorporated into the going price for coal-powered electricity…[A] University of West Virginia [paper] calculated the value of the premature deaths attributable to coal mining in Appalachia [between 3,975 and 10,923 each year] at $42 billion a year. This figure dwarfs the $8 billion in economic benefits brought to the region annually from coal-mining… [T]he National Research Council estimated coal’s external costs to national health at $55.8 billion, not including global warming-related health issues. The health costs amounted to 90% of the total external costs associated with coal, which include harm to infrastructure, agriculture and forestry.

"Aging coal plants like those being shut down by Exelon, Progress Energy and Duke, are the worst perpetrators of these health problems. Many power plants that were grandfathered in at the time of the Clean Air Act in 1970 have yet to meet modern requirements for air quality. Today the average age of a coal plant in the U.S. is about 40 years, and many provisions intended to keep watch over the pre-Clean Air Act plants have been skirted…As greenhouse gas emissions heat up the atmosphere, the health outlook is becoming grim…PSR considers it is a public health imperative for the U.S. to take swift action to cut atmospheric emissions of greenhouse gases to a safer level of 350 ppm from the nearly 390 ppm today…[P]olitical recommendations include setting strict carbon caps, as well as making full use of the Clean Air Act to empower the EPA to regulate carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants…"