Dr. Conca opines that as if we do not have enough problems with our health care system, burning coal for over third of our electricity makes the medical issues even worse. Studies show coal kills ten times more people than any other energy source per kWh produced, and ten times more people in the developing world than in America, as a result of our Clean Air Act. These deaths are mainly from fine toxic particulates emitted from coal plants.
In fact, the Clean Air Act is the single piece of legislation that has saved the most American lives in history, and is why coal kills about 500,000 people in China each year, but only about 15,000 Americans per year.
However, there are a lot more health effects beyond actual death, and several studies have attempted to quantify those costs .... costs that include lost work days, hospital visits, disability, prescription drugs and all the costs associated with illness in addition to death.
Natural gas is not bad. It only kills about 1,000 Americans a year. But all the other sources ... hydro, nuclear, wind and solar, have death rates so low, it is hard to count them. All together, there are less than 20 people a year, and that is only from accidents like falling from a height.
Using EIA levelized costs, present fuel and O and M costs, the cost to replace the 1.4 trillion kWhs each year generated from coal with a mix of natural gas, nuclear and renewables, would only be about $100 billion per year, after investing $70 billion per year in construction over 10 years. This would easily pay for itself with just a few years in health care dollar savings when coal is gone.
But worldwide, things are different. Coal is still the fastest-growing energy source globally, and natural gas is second. Just the growth in fossil fuel over the last five years has dwarfed renewables over the same time period. Nuclear and hydro are level but predicted to grow only moderately by some and significantly by others in the next few decades.
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