Burning fossil fuels is bad for your health and bad for the economy, too, to the tune of, at a minimum, $120 BILLION per year.
Specifically, burning oil and coal has number of hidden costs that may surprise all the fans of drill, baby, drill (or in the case of coal “Tear down Old Rocky Top”) who insist that using fossil fuels is safe and that they represent our best choice for supplying America with the energy our nation needs, as a recent study by the independent National Research Council (or “NRC”) demonstrates:
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WASHINGTON — Generating electricity by burning coal is responsible for about half of an estimated $120 billion in yearly costs from early deaths and health damages to thousands of Americans from the use of fossil fuels, a federal advisory group said Monday.
A one-year study by the National Research Council looked at many costs of energy production and the use of fossil fuels that aren’t reflected in the price of energy. The $120 billion sum was the cost to human health from U.S. electricity production, transportation and heating in 2005, the latest year with full data.
Although the NRC also looked at the costs associated with fossil fuels including those created by climate change, increased mercury pollution, damage to fragile ecosystems and national security, it didn’t put a cost estimate on those. In other words, that $120 BILLION DOLLARS of hidden costs is an UNDERESTIMATE of how much our addiction to fossil fuels costs us every year. And yes, the ALL CAPS is justified in this case. Because the NRC didn’t have enough time for a comprehensive analysis of all the hidden costs of our fossil fuel addiction. Not by a long shot:
The report says it’s impossible to put a monetary amount on all the hidden costs of energy, in some cases because of a lack of information but also because the study had limited time and resources. It focused on the costs of air pollution on health.
Coal-fired power and motor-vehicle transportation accounted for roughly 99 percent of those costs. The other approximately 1 percent of the estimate was from heating for homes, buildings and industrial purposes, mostly from natural gas.
Got that? The $120 BILLION DOLLARS of hidden costs the NRC did document only covers the costs to human health from air pollution caused by our dependence on coal, oil and gas. Just the health costs. How many other hiddden costs do we spend to subsidize the profits of major energy companies? Who knows, but it’s a safe bet that figure is significantly greater than the costs they did uncover.
Oh, and by the way, the NRC is not some bunch of hippy liberal environmental whackos, as I’m sure Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and their pals in the right wing disinformation industry will likely characterize them, The National Research Council of the National Academies (i.e., The National Academy of Sciences, The National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine) is the federal government’s top science adviser.
The National Research Council (NRC) functions under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and the Institute of Medicine (IOM). The NAS, NAE, IOM, and NRC are part of a private, nonprofit institution that provides science, technology and health policy advice under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln that was originally granted to the NAS in 1863. Under this charter, the NRC was established in 1916, the NAE in 1964, and the IOM in 1970. The four organizations are collectively referred to as the National Academies.
The mission of the NRC is to improve government decision making and public policy, increase public education and understanding, and promote the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge in matters involving science, engineering, technology, and health. The institution takes this charge seriously and works to inform policies and actions that have the power to improve the lives of people in the U.S. and around the world.
The NRC is committed to providing elected leaders, policy makers, and the public with expert advice based on sound scientific evidence. The NRC does not receive direct federal appropriations for its work. Individual projects are funded by federal agencies, foundations, other governmental and private sources, and the institution’s endowment. The work is made possible by 6,000 of the world’s top scientists, engineers, and other professionals who volunteer their time without compensation to serve on committees and participate in activities. The NRC is administered jointly by the NAS, NAE, and the IOM through the NRC Governing Board.
The core services involve collecting, analyzing, and sharing information and knowledge. The independence of the institution, combined with its unique ability to convene experts, allows it to be responsive to a host of requests.
In other words, the NRC’s founding organization was established initially under President Abraham Lincoln over 140 years ago, and the NRC specifically was chartered by Congress 93 years ago. This is not some fly by night organization. It includes many of the most prestigious scientists in the country, whose work for the NRC is voluntary and uncompensated. Goit that conservative propagandists? These distinguished scientists serve on behalf of their country for zip. Nada. Bupkis. No one serves on the NRC to make the big bucks by trying to obtain government grants for personal gain. It’s all pro bono work. There’s no liberal conspiracy to profit off “junk science” or aid President Obama’s secret “redistribute the wealth” agenda, like right wing blogs and corporately funded conservative think tanks are fond of falsely alleging. The NRC is not a subsidiary of by Al Gore, Inc. The NRC has a long and honorable history of providing sound scientific advice to our government’s leaders, be they Republicans or Democrats.
And if anything, the NRC’s report on the use of fossil fuels for energy production is too conservative in its assessment of the hidden costs to human health and our economy caused by our nation’s dependence of fossil fuels. Not that a independent federal advisory organization which works under the auspices of the National Academies and receives no direct government tax dollars is going to change the hearts and minds of those who, for whatever reason, are determined to deny to their last breath that the use of fossil fuels are hazardous and unsustainable. After all, when the facts are against you, as they are so frequently in cases where science conflicts with conservative dogma, we know what is the standard right wing response: deny, deflect and attack the messenger. Republicans didn’t use to base their decisions solely on faith based politics. Unfortunately, however, that’s what they have become in the 21st Century: a bunch of ideologues who see science as their enemy, and who reject out of hand any advice or scientific result that doesn’t square with their preconceived fantasies about the world really works.
So expect the NRC to be vilified by the usual suspects for daring to publish a report which suggests coal and oil are bad for us, and by us I mean the United States of America. One could say the such refusals to accept the nature of reality represents a sign of a profound mental disorder, a psychosis in which delusion meets with desire and greed to create a “new reality.” Well, we all saw where that got the last administration who was fond of ignoring the facts and creating their own realities based on their delusions of omnipotence and righteousness, didn’t we.