Burning fossil fuels costs the U.S. 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. According to the New York Times, the damages are caused almost equally by coal and oil, according to the study, which was ordered by Congress.
The study was not kind to corn ethanol. A mixture of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent unleaded gasoline, or E85, showed slightly higher damages to environment and health than ordinary gasoline, because of the energy required to raise the corn and make ethanol from it. As this blog noted, the opposite finding was made by medical researchers in Brazil, where replacing diesel with cane ethanol would save hundreds of lives in Brazil every year.
Filed under: Biofuels, Climate Change, Corn, Enviroment, Ethanol, GHG | Tagged: Clean Air, E85, Ethanol, GHG, National Academy of Sciences, pollution
