It required the EPA to determine the maximum contaminant levels for drinking water.
Primary air pollutants are released directly into the atmosphere, while secondary air pollutants are formed by chemical reactions in the atmosphere.
The main cause of undernutrition and food insecurity globally is lack of available food.
Forests play an important role in the hydrologic cycle by: recycling 75% of precipitation to the atmosphere by transpiration and evaporation. Conventional forestry practices that manage for timber production:
No human development is allowed in wilderness areas.
In economics, an external cost, or externality, is a negative effect of an economic activity on a third party. When coal is mined and used to generate power, external costs include the impacts of water pollution, toxic coal waste, air pollution, and the long-term damage to ecosystems and human health.
In the previous version of this study, done in 2004, it was estimated that coal pollution caused about 24,000 premature deaths annually. The authors cited EPA action in 2005 under the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) as resulting in the declining mortality figures. Though CAIR was struck down in Federal court in 2008, the pollution reduction requirements remain in effect until a replacement is established. In making their projections, the authors of the study assume similarly stringent requirements will be in place for the remainder of 2010.
Fine particulates are released directly from coal plants and also produced indirectly by sulfur dioxide emissions. According to a 2004 study released by the Clean Air Task Force, fine particulates from power plants result in nearly 24,000 annual deaths, with 14 years lost on average for each death.
A 2010 report from the Clean Air Task Force, The Toll From Coal found that, in the United States, particle pollution from existing coal power plants is expected to cause some 13,200 premature deaths in 2010, as well as 9,700 additional hospitalizations and 20,000 heart attacks.
Coal power, with about 340,000 megawatts of generating capacity, today produces about half of US electricity. After expected emissions upgrades, the coal fleet will continue to have plants, producing about 103,000 megawatts, that are still "lacking any major emission controls," the study says.
Further, coal-fired power plants are the single largest source of greenhouse gases in the U.S., emitting on average about a ton of CO2 per megawatt-hour of electricity produced, creating climate-related monetary damages range from 0.1 cents to 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, based on modeling studies.
According to the National Research Council report, in 2005 the total annual external damages from sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter created by burning coal at 406 coal-fired power plants (which produce 95 percent of the nation's coal-generated electricity), were about $62 billion.
A portion of mineral resource that is identified and from usable materials can be legally and economically extracted at the time of evaluation
acid mine drainage due to acidic run-off from coal tailings (wastes)- sulfur dissolves in water and form sulfuric acid
in earth's mantle, as magma cools, and at plate boundaries
the cost to the environment is not reflected in the price of the products that produce the pollution
It required the EPA to determine the maximum contaminant levels for drinking water.
Primary air pollutants are released directly into the atmosphere, while secondary air pollutants are formed by chemical reactions in the atmosphere.
The main cause of undernutrition and food insecurity globally is lack of available food.
Forests play an important role in the hydrologic cycle by: recycling 75% of precipitation to the atmosphere by transpiration and evaporation. Conventional forestry practices that manage for timber production:
No human development is allowed in wilderness areas.