Americans Will Pay a High Price to Save Coal

An interesting question raised by President Donald Trump’s misguided order to prop up uneconomical coal and nuclear power plants in the name of national security is: How much is this going to cost?

Not in climate terms, although here the indirect costs could be greatest in the long run. And not in terms of public health, although air pollution from a single coal plant causes hundreds of asthma attacks and dozens of premature deaths every year.