A recent report by the Environmental Integrity Project has linked premature mortality to coal-fired power plants in 13 states including Alabaman, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

The study found that 18 coal-fired power plants across the states listed above were so deadly that the societal cost of premature deaths related to plant pollution exceeded the retail value of the electricity generated by each facility in 2011.

The study outlines the electricity value and coal-related death cost for the 18 communities, highlighting Georgia’s Yates plant as the most “out of balance in terms of social cost/produced electricity value”

The EIP says up to 5700 deaths a year can be attributed to 51 of the most polluting coal-fired power plants in the US and that these plants have no announced plans to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions.

The total social cost of these deaths was estimated to equal $23-47 billion.

“A closer look suggests that the social cost of many of the dirtiest plants far outweighs the value of the energy they produce,” EIR director Eric Schaeffer said.

“Coal helped to power America’s industrial revolution, and electricity is obviously vital to our economy today. But we have better choices now than we had more than forty years ago, when most of these plants were built.

“Investments in advanced emission controls can greatly reduce the dangerous buildup of fine particles, and investments in renewable energy and efficiency improvements can secure our supply of electricity - and generate the jobs we need - without the death and disease that are the price we pay for dirty coal plants.”

Boston University professor of environmental health Jonathan Levy conducted the study on pollution-related premature deaths.

“My analysis estimates that fine particulate matter concentrations attributable to the 51 power plants I was asked to review contributed to between 2700 and 5700 premature deaths in 2011,” he said.

“The relationship between fine particulate matter pollution and premature mortality is well established, and the data are sufficient to provide a reasonable estimate of the number of premature deaths that will result from power plant emissions that increase fine particulate matter concentrations.”

The report titled Net loss: comparing the cost of pollution vs. the value of electricity from 51 coal-fired plants can be view in full by clicking here.