How would it work? The deal would phase out coal companies over 10 years, close and clean up the mines, write down the assets, retrain and re-employ some 87,000 workers, and create job opportunities and prosperity for coal-based communities. If at the same time the US accelerates expansion of renewable energy sources and transmission facilities, this could be accomplished with no interruption to electricity supplies, adding only about a penny or two to each kilowatt-hour on electricity bills. This one-time transaction would generate multiple benefits. It would eliminate USs largest single source of greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide from coal plants. Whats it worth to cut out at least one quarter of US carbon emissions? To assign a dollar value, wed need to put a price on carbon. Even without that number, though, we can already tally the direct health and environmental benefits of ending coal: the sulphur dioxide that causes acid rain, the nitrogen oxide that becomes smog, the particulates that provoke asthma, and the toxins like mercury, lead and cadmium that harm human brains, animals and fish. Estimates range from $100bn a year in a 2010 National Academy of Sciences report to $345bn a year in a 2011 Harvard Medical School study. theguardian/sustainable-business/us-coal-industry-buyout?CMP=share_btn_tw
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 12:07:44 +0000
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