Study Shows Clean Energy Is Most Cost-Effective Way To Power U.S.

October 24, 2013- A new study finds that it costs less to get electricity from wind turbines and solar panels than coal-fired power plants when climate change costs and other health impacts are factored in. The findings, published in Springer's Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, show that carbon pollution from power plants can be cut cost-effectively by using wind, solar and natural gas.

The study also shows it's cheaper to replace a typical existing coal-fired power plant with a wind turbine than to keep the old plant running, and that new electricity generation from wind could be more economically efficient than natural gas. Data came from the official U.S. government estimates of health and environmental costs from burning fossil fuels. Carbon pollution imposes economic costs by damaging public health and driving climate change.

“Burning coal is a very costly way to make electricity. There are more efficient and sustainable ways to get power," said Dr. Laurie Johnson, chief economist in the Climate and Clean Air Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "We can reduce health and climate change costs while reducing the dangerous carbon pollution driving global warming.”

Johnson co-authored the study "The Social Cost of Carbon: Implications for Modernizing our Electricity System," with Chris Hope of the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge; and Starla Yeh in NRDC's Center for Market Innovation. Power plants are the nation's single largest source of such pollution, accounting for 40 percent of our national carbon footprint.

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