title: Full cost accounting for the life cycle of coal.
abstract: 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 are thus often considered "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. Many of these so-called externalities are, moreover, cumulative. Accounting for the damages conservatively doubles to triples the price of electricity from coal per kWh generated, making wind, solar, and other forms of nonfossil fuel power generation, along with investments in efficiency and electricity conservation methods, economically competitive. We focus on Appalachia, though coal is mined in other regions of the United States and is burned throughout the world.
authors.affiliation: Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. paul_epstein@hms.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Paul R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Epstein
authors.forename: Jonathan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Buonocore
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Eckerle
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hendryx
authors.forename: Benjamin M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Stout Iii
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Heinberg
authors.forename: Richard W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Clapp
authors.forename: Beverly
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: May
authors.forename: Nancy L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Reinhart
authors.forename: Melissa M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Ahern
authors.forename: Samir K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Doshi
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Glustrom
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D057231:Climate Change; D003031:Coal; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D003031:Coal