IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v123y2018icp558-568.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Coal-fired power plant regulatory rollback in the United States: Implications for local and regional public health

Author

Listed:
  • Thomson, Vivian E.
  • Huelsman, Kelsey
  • Ong, Dominique

Abstract

President Trump wants to promote coal and weaken Clean Air Act regulations that affect coal-fired power plants. We analyze which US regions have benefited from air quality improvements realized since adoption of two Clean Air Act power plant rules, the transport and mercury rules, which have been targeted by lobbyists and national officials. For 20 coal states, we create a pre-regulatory emissions scenario for the current (2016) fleet of power plants. Using the US Environmental Protection Agency's CO-Benefits Risk Assessment screening model, we estimate the differences between the impacts of pre-regulatory emissions and current emissions on fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations and on public health. We compare those impacts with voting patterns in the 2016 presidential election and with demographic data. Among the air quality and public health gains of the current situation relative to the pre-regulatory scenario are that: annual average PM2.5 concentrations are lower by 1–5 μg/m3; 17,176–39,291 premature mortalities are avoided for each year of lower emissions; coal mining counties and White, rural counties experience some of the best improvements in air quality; and, in several states, Trump counties benefit more than Clinton counties. We suggest refining these results with atmospheric dispersion models.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomson, Vivian E. & Huelsman, Kelsey & Ong, Dominique, 2018. "Coal-fired power plant regulatory rollback in the United States: Implications for local and regional public health," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 558-568.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:123:y:2018:i:c:p:558-568
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2018.09.022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030142151830627X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.09.022?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Adair, Sarah K. & Hoppock, David C. & Monast, Jonas J., 2014. "New Source Review and coal plant efficiency gains: How new and forthcoming air regulations affect outcomes," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 183-192.
    2. Donald Bellamy & Alfred Parks, 1994. "Economic development in southern black belt counties: How does it measure up?," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 22(4), pages 85-108, June.
    3. UNCTAD & World Bank, 2018. "Participation of Youth," World Bank Publications - Reports 29472, The World Bank Group.
    4. Jonathan I. Levy & Lisa K. Baxter & Joel Schwartz, 2009. "Uncertainty and Variability in Health‐Related Damages from Coal‐Fired Power Plants in the United States," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(7), pages 1000-1014, July.
    5. McCubbin, Donald & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2013. "Quantifying the health and environmental benefits of wind power to natural gas," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 429-441.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hauenstein, Christian & Holz, Franziska, 2021. "The U.S. coal sector between shale gas and renewables: Last resort coal exports?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    2. John O. Olawepo & L.-W. Antony Chen, 2019. "Health Benefits from Upgrading Public Buses for Cleaner Air: A Case Study of Clark County, Nevada and the United States," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-10, February.
    3. repec:ags:aaea22:335760 is not listed on IDEAS

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Enevoldsen, Peter & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2016. "Integrating power systems for remote island energy supply: Lessons from Mykines, Faroe Islands," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 642-648.
    2. Yang, Jin & Song, Dan & Wu, Feng, 2017. "Regional variations of environmental co-benefits of wind power generation in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 1267-1281.
    3. Emodi, Nnaemeka Vincent & Boo, Kyung-Jin, 2015. "Sustainable energy development in Nigeria: Current status and policy options," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 356-381.
    4. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Martiskainen, Mari & Hook, Andrew & Baker, Lucy, 2020. "Beyond cost and carbon: The multidimensional co-benefits of low carbon transitions in Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    5. Tabassum-Abbasi, & Premalatha, M. & Abbasi, Tasneem & Abbasi, S.A., 2014. "Wind energy: Increasing deployment, rising environmental concerns," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 270-288.
    6. Noel, Lance & Brodie, Joseph F. & Kempton, Willett & Archer, Cristina L. & Budischak, Cory, 2017. "Cost minimization of generation, storage, and new loads, comparing costs with and without externalities," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 110-121.
    7. Jenniches, Simon & Worrell, Ernst & Fumagalli, Elena, 2019. "Regional economic and environmental impacts of wind power developments: A case study of a German region," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 499-514.
    8. Tibebu, Tiruwork B. & Hittinger, Eric & Miao, Qing & Williams, Eric, 2021. "What is the optimal subsidy for residential solar?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    9. Jacqueline Adelowo & Mathias Mier & Christoph Weissbart, 2021. "Taxation of Carbon Emissions and Air Pollution in Intertemporal Optimization Frameworks with Social and Private Discount Rates," ifo Working Paper Series 360, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    10. Susana Silva & Erika Laranjeira & Isabel Soares, 2021. "Health Benefits from Renewable Electricity Sources: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-17, October.
    11. Zhou, Yishu & Huang, Ling, 2016. "Have U.S. power plants become less technically efficient? The impact of carbon emission regulation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 105-115.
    12. Grant, Don & Running, Katrina & Bergstrand, Kelly & York, Richard, 2014. "A sustainable “building block”?: The paradoxical effects of thermal efficiency on U.S. power plants’ CO2 emissions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 398-402.
    13. Zerrahn, Alexander, 2017. "Wind Power and Externalities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 245-260.
    14. Michaela Makešová & Michaela Valentová, 2021. "The Concept of Multiple Impacts of Renewable Energy Sources: A Critical Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-21, May.
    15. Jacobson, Mark Z. & Howarth, Robert W. & Delucchi, Mark A. & Scobie, Stan R. & Barth, Jannette M. & Dvorak, Michael J. & Klevze, Megan & Katkhuda, Hind & Miranda, Brian & Chowdhury, Navid A. & Jones, , 2013. "Examining the feasibility of converting New York State’s all-purpose energy infrastructure to one using wind, water, and sunlight," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 585-601.
    16. Wiser, Ryan & Bolinger, Mark & Heath, Garvin & Keyser, David & Lantz, Eric & Macknick, Jordan & Mai, Trieu & Millstein, Dev, 2016. "Long-term implications of sustained wind power growth in the United States: Potential benefits and secondary impacts," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 146-158.
    17. Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2015. "The political economy of pollution markets: Historical lessons for modern energy and climate planners," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 943-953.
    18. Ying Zhou & James Hammitt & Joshua S. Fu & Yang Gao & Yang Liu & Jonathan I. Levy, 2014. "Major Factors Influencing the Health Impacts from Controlling Air Pollutants with Nonlinear Chemistry: An Application to China," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(4), pages 683-697, April.
    19. Lifang Hou & Kai Zhang & Moira A. Luthin & Andrea A. Baccarelli, 2016. "Public Health Impact and Economic Costs of Volkswagen’s Lack of Compliance with the United States’ Emission Standards," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-6, September.
    20. Yung-Hsiang Lu & Ku-Hsieh Chen & Jen-Chi Cheng & Chih-Chun Chen & Sian-Yuan Li, 2019. "Analysis of Environmental Productivity on Fossil Fuel Power Plants in the U.S," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-27, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Clean Air Act; PM2.5; Power plants; Coal; Transport rule; Mercury rule;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:123:y:2018:i:c:p:558-568. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.