EPA’s Regulatory Rollback for Coal Would Cause an Estimated 3-6 US Deaths from Air Pollution for Each Coal Mining Job Supported
| WASHINGTON, DC—Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler recently signed a policy proposal that promises to reverse an Obama-era regulation requiring carbon capture technology at new coal-fired power plants. An RFF study authored by Fellow Daniel Shawhan and Research Assistant Paul Picciano that was published in July provides a “good starting point” to assess what might be expected if new coal-fired power plants are built as a result of EPA’s latest regulatory rollback.Based on that study, Shawhan estimates that “a large new coal plant coming online as a result of the rollback would cause an estimated 950–2,100 premature US deaths over 30 years while supporting about 350 jobs at coal mines.” The estimated deaths would be from the sulfur dioxide emissions produced by the new plants. The estimate does not include deaths from other emission types.
Shawhan then estimates the deaths per job: “Taking the ratio of these two effects produces the estimate that, over 30 years, new coal-fired power plants would cause an estimated 3–6 premature deaths in the United States for each job supported at coal mines.” Read Shawhan’s blog post here: EPA’s Regulatory Rollback for Coal: New Plants Would Cause an Estimated 3-6 US Deaths from Air Pollution for Each Job Supported at Coal Mines |
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