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Get rid of coal, and benefit health, climate, and economy

it would be a mistake to view air pollution regulations only through an economic lens. The EPA says that the new cross-state border rule will provide $280 billion in public health savings at the cost of roughly $2.5 billion a year in plant upgrades — and many of those upgrades are already underway. Crunch the numbers that way and it seems like economic folly not to take action. Industry also has a habit of overestimating just how expensive clean air will really be

Coal Kills Every Day’: Michael Bloomberg Pledges $50 Million to Fight the Coal Industry, TIME, By BRYAN WALSH , July 21, 2011 “………now Bloomberg is taking on an even bigger and more pervasive American industry: coal. On July 21, the New York mayor announced that his charitable foundation would be donating $50 million over four years to the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. The purpose of the gift is simple: to help the nation’s largest environmental group push back against one of the world’s biggest sources of air pollution, plant by plant. “Coal kills every day,” Bloomberg told TIME. “It’s a dirty fuel.”

Coal has long been the archenemy of environmentalists, largely because of its role in adding to climate change; the carbon-heavy fuel is responsible for about 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. But as climate politics become increasingly polarized and the chance of any national action on greenhouse gases evaporates, environmentalists are going back to their old playbook, focusing on health issues instead — a case that’s far easier to make and far harder for non-greens to dismiss. Think soot and asthma, instead of carbon dioxide and warming. “This is a public health issue, just like our efforts to stop smoking or help with malaria,” says Bloomberg. “The pollutants and the toxins are a big problem.”…..

it would be a mistake to view air pollution regulations only through an economic lens. The EPA says that the new cross-state border rule will provide $280 billion in public health savings at the cost of roughly $2.5 billion a year in plant upgrades — and many of those upgrades are already underway. Crunch the numbers that way and it seems like economic folly not to take action. Industry also has a habit of overestimating just how expensive clean air will really be

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2084476,00.html

July 24, 2011 - Posted by | health, USA

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