Economics- Sage and Julia

Outline how this energy source might be used to meet our energy needs for ​transportation
(mainly personal and commercial vehicles and planes) and ​agriculture​​.

http://energyskeptic.com/2014/natural-gas-used-in-agriculture/

Healthcare
- Miners and citizens have hospitalized from coal-fired power plants - shorten lives
- Costs associated with premature death due to coal is five times greater than the economic
benefits from the mining
Fish
- Poisoned from coal mine waste in streams - deprive predators+deprive fishermen
deprived fishermen = job loss
Future generations
- Impacted by global warming from CO2
Coal provides jobs - however not all coal costs are reflected in the market price
Tax payers pay cost of cleaning up environmental disasters
Industries rely on the ecosystems - fishing and touring in alaska
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/letters-to-the-editor/2015/08/26/exporting-natural-gas-is-
good-for-the-economy-and-environment
● Energy costs are down
● "benefits that come from export expansion more than outweigh the losses." - department
of energy
● Up to 665,000 jobs (ICF international)
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/economic-intelligence/2015/07/16/the-us-shouldnt-export-frac
ked-liquified-natural-gas
● “It projected that exports would boost U.S. gross domestic product by about $20 billion
by 2020.”
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/education_materials/modules/RenewableEnergyEcon.pdf
● Prices of renewables are already decreasing, “fell by 5-7% per year on average from
1998-2011 and by 11-14% from 2010- 2011, with further price declines expected”
https://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/smart-energy-solutions/increase-renewables/renewable-en
ergy-electricity-standards-economic-benefits.html#.W7YF_i-ZPow
● Jobs in solar energy- 119,000 (imagine if we fully switched)
● Jobs in wind energy- 75,000dc
https://www.perrymangroup.com/wp-content/uploads/Perryman-Oil-Impact-Study.pdf
● “The total economic benefits of oil and gas exploration and development activity
(including multiplier effects) are estimated to include almost $1.2 trillion in gross product
each year, as well as more than 9.3 million permanent jobs in the United States.”

Environmental- Amir and Kavya

Social justice- Mia, Jalen, and Emilie
- Birth defects, cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, lung cancer
- These health effects are directly correlated to the number of tons of coal that are
extracted from mines.
- http://www.kyenvironmentalfoundation.org/coal-mining-health-risks.html
- https://thinkprogress.org/oxfam-coal-poverty-report-4f780f845425/
-
- “The report, titled “More Coal Equals More Poverty,” argues that the vast majority of
energy-poor households in developing countries lack access to a traditional electricity
grid, meaning traditional energy sources like coal would do little to help bring electricity
to those currently living without it.”
-
- The problems of coal comes from coal ash which is the byproduct of coal. This contains
heavy metals. If inhaled this can cause cancer,nervous system impacts such as
cognitive deficits, developmental delays and behavioral problems, heart damage,
lung disease, respiratory distress, kidney disease, reproductive problems, gastrointestinal
illness, birth, defects, and impaired bone growth in children. Continuous exposure can
lead to a 1 in 50 chance of developing cancer.

- The EPA has estimated that 140 million tons of coal ash are generated annually. This
makes coal ash the second largest industrial waste stream in the US, second only to mine
wastes. You can’t recycle coal ash as if it gets in contact with water it is extremely
deadly.

- Health studies have been done in Appalachia,and the results have shown that there are
direct links to MTR and coal mining. ​Gregory J. Pond, an environmental biologist with
EPA Region 3 in Wheeling, showed that more than 90% of 27 Appalachian streams
below valley fill sites were impaired as per Clean Water Act standards

- Citation- ​Holzman, D. C. (2011). Mountaintop Removal Mining: Digging Into

Community Health Concerns. ​Environmental Health Perspectives​, ​119​(11),
a476–a483. http://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.119-a476

Foreign policy- Quinn and Bella

In relation to foreign policy, we believe that coal shouldn’t be used as a transitional

energy, as coal and other fossil fuel-fired plants emit billions of tons of CO2 emissions per year.

The Paris Climate Agreement, a global agreement reached at the conclusion of the 2015 United
Nations Climate Change Conference and implemented on November 4th, 2016, unites nations

through the common desire to carry out initiatives to fight climate change and its effects, which

encompasses CO2 emissions. In 2017, President Trump announced that he would withdraw from

the Paris agreement, leaving the US as the only nation outside of the agreement.

The Paris Climate Agreement possesses a variety of potent objectives and ideas, such as

the maintenance of a global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius, the execution of efforts

to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and the reaching of the

global peak of Greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible. Other goals include the

implementation of economy wide reduction goals in developed countries, the imparting of

reassurance to parties to conserve and strengthen Greenhouse gas sinks and reservoirs, the

enhancement of adaptation abilities, and the development of methods to handle the abysmal

effects induced by climate change. The agreement also advocates for willful contributions of

resources among parties, seeks to develop a technological framework for promoting international

cooperation, increase climate change education, awareness, and public participation, implement

policies of openness through party reports, and execute a global “stock-take” every five years.

These goals are centered around unification, cohesiveness, and organization, showing that the

transition from coal is underway and has the potential to accelerate with the assistance of these

objectives.

As countries continue to ratify the agreement, declines in coal use occur. Yet, as low

domestic periods of consumption occur in the US, coal producers are reliant upon exports to

international markets. According to ​Foreign Policy​, Trump has lowered the price of coal and
made it inexpensive enough for utilization in trade, showing the lack of concern for contributions

to detriment to the environment in favor of US benefit. The US must recognize the limitations to

its behaviors and the way in which its distance from attempts at unified policy is impacting the

economy, the environment, and the larger population due to the fact that climate change and

Greenhouse gas emissions don’t discriminate based on geographic location, denial driven

thinking, or isolation.

The largest factor in climate change is CO2 from burning fossil fuels. Therefore, we

believe natural gas is the best option for a transitional energy instead of coal. Even though

natural gas is not a renewable energy source and is not ideal, the effects of natural gas and

fracking are ultimately better than those produced by coal. For example, coal burns CO2 into the

air and while there are some positives affiliated with natural gas such as a lower water intensity,

there are no positive outcomes for the environment that come with coal. The transition from coal

to natural gas will diminish sulfur, nitrogen, mercury, and particulate matter air pollution.

Natural gas is the best option because of these advantages it has over coal.