The Coal Truth Part 1: Emissions

 

 

November 10, 2018 - As proud members of the coal industry, our purpose is simple: we want to advance human progress by providing the world’s most affordable, plentiful, reliable and safe energy to consumers and industry. We joined the coal industry because we believe it is the best source of energy for billions of people around the world.

Many believe that coal is an outdated, dangerous fuel of the past. We disagree. We believe that an unbiased look at the positives and the negatives of coal shows that the case against coal rests on widespread myths, and that the truth is coal is good for our lives, good for our health, good for our environment--good for human progress. 

You’ve heard the myths...now hear The Coal Truth.
 

Summary

 

Coal Myth 1: Coal power harms human health by generating unsafe emissions levels.

 

The Coal Truth: Modern coal power improves human health through providing reliable, affordable power at safe emissions levels. 

 

• To understand coal power's impact on health we need to look at the whole truth--both its health benefits and health costs.

 

• Assessing the benefits: Reliable, affordable energy from coal is crucial to human health.

 

• Assessing the costs: Modern coal power has low emissions levels that are perfectly healthy.

 

• The best policy: Communities should choose the energy sources that are the best combination of reliable, affordable, and safe--instead of the government discriminating against coal power. 

 

Coal Myth 1: Coal power harms human health by generating unsafe emissions levels.

 

Myth Part 1: Coal power generates large amounts of emissions such as sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxides, ozone, mercury, and particulate matter.

The Coal Truth: Modern coal power generates very small quantities of these emissions--at the same healthy levels generated by other industries and sometimes by nature. [1]

Myth Part 2: These emissions have been shown to cause asthma, heart disease, emphysema, and cancer.

The Coal Truth: At today's low emissions levels there is no demonstrated causation between coal-related emissions and these problems. [2]

Myth Part 3: Therefore coal is bad for our health.

The Coal Truth: It is dishonest to only look for negative health impacts of coal, and ignore the vital positive impacts on health that we get from reliable, affordable energy--from warmth to refrigeration to reliable medical equipment to more affordable healthcare.

 

The Coal Truth: Modern coal power improves human health through providing reliable, affordable power at safe emissions levels.

 

To understand coal power's impact on health we need to look at the whole truth--both its health benefits and health costs.

Assessing the benefits: Reliable, affordable energy from coal is crucial to human health.

• Cheap, reliable energy is necessary for high-tech facilities such as hospitals, data centers, and laboratories. High-tech processes like running an MRI or processing information require enormous amounts of energy. Hospitals run on tight budgets and can pay in the range of 50% towards energy costs. [3] In 2003 large hospitals “accounted for less than 1 percent of all commercial buildings and 2 percent of commercial floorspace, but consumed 4.3 percent of the total delivered energy used by the commercial sector”; In 2007, large hospitals consumed 5.5 percent of all delivered energy used by the commercial sector. [4] Any decrease in the price of energy results in large budget savings for these facilities, which further results in more investment in data capacity or better services in a lab or hospital. 

 

• Chemical manufacturing, which produces pharmaceuticals (as well as many other items including synthetic fertilizers, plastics and resins) uses over 180 thousand GWh of electricity, which is 20% of the electricity demand of the entire manufacturing sector in the US. [5]

 

• Air conditioning in the US is the single largest use of electric power in the residential sector, using more than 17% of the total electricity used by households on average. This is not simply a convenience but makes modern life healthier in arid regions like Southern California, Texas, and Nevada. [6]

 

• Refrigeration is now the single largest use of electricity in the commercial sector, using almost 14% of electricity in this sector. Refrigeration is a major milestone in human health, making sure our food and medication is preserved in a healthy condition. [7]

 

Assessing the costs: Modern coal power has low emissions levels that are perfectly healthy.

• Human health does not require eliminating coal emissions but bringing them down to safe levels: just as a certain dose of Tylenol is safe but a high dose can be deadly, the same is true for coal byproducts such as Sulfur Dioxide. 

 

• Thanks to improved coal technology, since 1980 Sulfur Dioxide levels in the U.S. have been reduced by 87% and since 2000 the levels of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers has decrease 42%. 

 

• No demonstrable harm to human health has been established for concentrations at today’s levels. [8]

 

The best policy: Communities should choose the energy sources that are the best combination of reliable, affordable, and safe--instead of the government discriminating against coal power.
 

[1] U.S. EPA Sulphur Dioxide; U.S. EPA Nitrogen Dioxide Trends; Alex Epstein - The Truth About Coal And Mercury; UNEP Global Mercury Modelling: Updates of Modelling Results in the Global Mercury Assessment 2013; U.S. EPA Ozone Trends; U.S. EPA Particulate Matter (PM2.5) Trends; U.S. EPA Particulate Matter (PM10) Trends

[2] CDC found little correlation between sources of human emissions and asthma prevalence and found an increase of asthma incidences since 1980, despite decreasing air pollution. U.S. CDC Asthma Data, Statistics, and Surveillance; James E. Enstrom - Fine Particulate Matter and Total Mortality in Cancer Prevention Study Cohort Reanalysis (2017); S. Stanley Young, Richard L. Smith, Keneth K. Lopiano, Air quality and acute deaths in California, 2000–2012, Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, Volume 88, 2017, Pages 173-184, ISSN 0273-2300. 

[3] Grumman-Butkus

[4] EIA

[5] EIA MECS

[6] EIA Electricity Use

[7] EIA Electricity Use

[8] U.S. EPA Sulfur Dioxide Trends; U.S. EPA PM2.5 Trends. CDC found little correlation between sources of human emissions and asthma prevalence and found an increase of asthma incidences since 1980, despite decreasing air pollution. U.S. CDC Asthma Data, Statistics, and Surveillance; James E. Enstrom - Fine Particulate Matter and Total Mortality in Cancer Prevention Study Cohort Reanalysis (2017); S. Stanley Young, Richard L. Smith, Keneth K. Lopiano, Air quality and acute deaths in California, 2000–2012, Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, Volume 88, 2017, Pages 173-184, ISSN 0273-2300.


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