10. COAL: Phaseout is only 'medically defensible' energy policy  -- physicians group (11/18/2009)

Patrick Reis, E&E reporter

The phaseout of coal as a major fuel source is the only "medically defensible" energy policy, a physicians group said in a report released today.

"Coal pollutants affect all major body organ systems and contribute to four of the five leading causes of mortality in the U.S.," says the group,

Physicians for Social Responsibility. "Each step of the coal lifecycle -- mining, transportation, washing, combustion and disposing of post-combustion waste -- impacts human health."

Coal production scars miners' lungs and allows heavy metals and other contaminants to enter water supplies, while coal combustion releases pollutants that contribute to asthma and other respiratory problems, says the report, "Coal's Assault on Human Health."

Children are at greatest risk from air pollution that can stunt development of their neural and respiratory systems, the report says.

The report also addresses health threats from climate change and points to coal as a major contributor. Global warming, it says, threatens human health by shrinking food supplies and forcing refugee migrations, as well as through increased frequency of heat waves, epidemics and natural disasters.

The group urges U.S. policymakers to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels to 350 parts per million and give U.S. EPA full authority to regulate CO2 under the Clean Air Act. It also calls for a ban on new coal plants and for existing power plants to be fitted with technologies to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury and other pollutants.

Such an approach, the report says, and funding for wind, solar and other renewable energy sources "comprise a medically defensible energy policy, one that takes into account the public health impacts of coal while meeting our need for energy."

The group is briefing lawmakers today, in hopes its health arguments can sway the Capitol Hill debate on energy policy, said Alan Lockwood, one of the report's authors and a neurologist at the University of Buffalo.

"Health is something that's important to every single person in the country," Lockwood said. "If they believe their health is being compromised by something that's preventable, they're going to want someone to take action."

Dan Riedinger, spokesman for the Edison Electric Institute, an organization of investor-owned electric utilities, said the power industry is already taking steps to clean up its emissions. The power sector has reduced its SO2 and NOX emissions by 50 percent since 1980 and will have further cuts as EPA tightens its standards, he said.

"We are addressing all of the concerns raised in this report in some very specific ways," Riedinger said.