The people and land of West Virginia pay many of the true costs of coal. One example is detailed in the report of a new study. These are “externalized” costs, costs created by the coal industry but paid by us in a backdoor subsidy. It is paid in dollars as well as lives and health.

The Clean Air Task Force commissioned studies in 2000 and 2004, with a new update for 2010. The study is narrow and focused on one dimension of the costs we as citizens pay: death and disease from fine particle pollution by coal fired power plants. The information is in the table below. The table lists an assortment of power plants around the state, and the deaths and disease incidents attributable to that specific power plant. Note that this is only a partial list of West Virginia power plants.

The data is cold and crisp, but indeed stark. For example, this kind of pollution from Allegheny Energy’s Albright plant in Preston County was responsible for 18 deaths and 29 heart attacks in 2010.

Is there a solution? Yes - it’s one that’s well-known. We should be phasing out coal-fired power plants. We can do this by making new commitments to electric energy conservation and efficiency, while expanding renewable energy and the thousands of jobs it will bring.

The full report is available online at: http://www.catf.us/coal/problems/power_plants/existing/map.php?state=West_Virginia