Amy Goodman: Hidden US Cost of Burning Fossil Fuels = $120 Billion Per Year!

[Turborama]

Run time: 00:41 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjjlkfY4uBI   Posted on YouTube: October 20, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: October 20, 2009 By DU Member: Turborama Views on DU: 292

 
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12794">A new report by the National Academy of Sciences estimates that burning fossil fuels costs the United States about $120 billion a year in hidden costs. The study estimated that nearly 20,000 people die prematurely each year from air pollutants emitted by power plants and vehicles. The study found that coal burning was the biggest single source of such external costs. Environmental groups said the actual hidden cost of burning fossil fuels is even higher, because the study did not include expenses related to global warming. The National Mining Association criticized the report for ignoring what it described as the hidden benefits of coal-based generation.

Fossil Fuels’ Hidden Cost Is in Billions, Study Says

By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: October 19, 2009

WASHINGTON — Burning fossil fuels costs the United States about $120 billion a year in health costs, mostly because of thousands of premature deaths from air pollution, the National Academy of Sciences reported http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12794">in a study issued Monday.

The damages are caused almost equally by coal and oil, according to the study, which was ordered by Congress. The study set out to measure the costs not incorporated into the price of a kilowatt-hour or a gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel.

The estimates by the academy do not include damages from global warming, which has been linked to the gases produced by burning fossil fuels. The authors said the extent of such damage, and the timing, were too uncertain to estimate.

Nor did the study measure damage from burning oil for trains, ships and planes. And it did not include the environmental damage from coal mining or the pollution of rivers with chemicals that were filtered from coal plant smokestacks to keep the air clean.

“The largest portion of this is excess mortality — increased human deaths as a result of criteria air pollutants emitted by power plants and vehicles,” said Jared L. Cohon, president of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, who led the study committee.

Continues: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/science/earth/20fossil.html?_r=1

[bertman]

1. As always, when the "hidden costs" of our modern energy, farming, medical, transportation,

manufacturing, etc. industries are factored in to the ACTUAL costs, it don't look so good. Of course, if you can get the gummint to pay for all the cleanup and rehabbing it adds a whopping amount to the bottom lines of the corporate offenders.

Ain't runaway capitalism grand??!!

Rec.