US and fossil fuels - friend or foe? - Oct 20 Click on the
headline (link) for the full text. Many more articles are
available through the Energy Bulletin homepage Fossil Fuels’
Hidden Cost Is in Billions, Study Says Matthew Wald, New York
Times Burning fossil fuels costs the United States about $120
billion a year in health costs, mostly because of thousands of
premature deaths from air pollution, the National Academy of
Sciences reported in a study issued Monday. The damages are
caused almost equally by coal and oil, according to the study,
which was ordered by Congress. The study set out to measure the
costs not incorporated into the price of a kilowatt-hour or a
gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel. The estimates by the academy
do not include damages from global warming, which has been
linked to the gases produced by burning fossil fuels. The
authors said the extent of such damage, and the timing, were too
uncertain to estimate. Nor did the study measure damage from
burning oil for trains, ships and planes.