LANSING– Coal-fired power plants in seven Michigan counties have been linked to hundreds of premature deaths in the state.
Michigan coal-fired plants have been linked to deaths, but utilities worry that new EPA regulations will hurt customers' wallets. Photo: gynti_46 (Flickr)
Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency has adopted tougher regulations intended to lessen the health risks of coal-fired power plants.
A report from Environmental Health and Engineering Inc. in Needham, Mass., commissioned by the Michigan Environmental Council, linked 180 cases of premature death to emissions from the nine oldest coal-fired plants in the state.
Emissions from those plants, built between 1949 and 1968, are also responsible for 660 premature deaths in surrounding states, according to the report.
The report shows that in addition to causing deaths, plants are damaging cardiovascular and respiratory health in Michigan and surrounding states, resulting in health care costs of $1.5 billion and $5.4 billion respectively.
“These nine plants, we think, can be mothballed,” said James Clift, policy director for the council, a coalition of local and statewide environmental groups.
Clift said coal has been the cheapest fuel option because the associated health costs had not been considered.
Once the health costs of coal are taken into account, renewable energy will be the best, Clift said.
“We would like to see it replaced with a combination of investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy and you might convert some of these facilities to natural gas for at least a limited time,” Clift said.
Here’s the Michigan report:
And a voluminous report prepared for the American Lung Association by the same environmental company.
http://www.lung.org/assets/documents/healthy-air/coal-fired-plant-hazards.pdf
