“About clean power and public health”, 27 Aug 2015

Just as with the links between smoking and cancer, the ties between climate change and health impacts are clear…By 2100, global average temps will rise by 7.2 degrees F. Extreme heat is closely connected to premature death and illness. If we are serious about protecting citizens, reducing health care costs, and staying globally competitive, these new policies to address climate change are a medical necessity…[M]oving quickly away from coal-burning power plants yields immediate health benefits. Burning coal to generate electricity causes worker illness and injury, respiratory and cardiovascular disease, and mercury exposure that can hurt brain development. Emissions and fine particle pollution from America’s coal-burning plants cause an estimated 13,200 deaths, 9,700 hospitalizations, and over 20,000 heart attacks a year. Altogether, the health costs of air pollution from coal plants reach $100 billion a year. Cutting coal use will also reduce one of our most serious pollution problems: toxic coal ash waste, which is filled with heavy metals…[refers to Duke Energy]