Energy Costs

Bradford Plumer looks beyond global warming:

The National Research Council just estimated that burning coal and oil imposes at least $120 billion in hidden costs on the United States each year in the form of health impacts from air pollution. And that's only a partial estimate of the full toll: "The figure does not include damages from climate change, harm to ecosystems, effects of some air pollutants such as mercury, and risks to national security." To set this in context, the health-related costs from coal and oil alone are steeper than what the CBO projects the House climate bill would cost the U.S. economyand that's before taking the dangers of global warming into account.