"Coal-fired power generation and its notoriously dirty emissions are rapidly declining, but the potential health gains from cleaner air are being stymied by biomass burning and combustion sources, Harvard University researchers found in a new study.
The study, published online today in the journal Environmental Research Letters, examines the number of early deaths linked to soot from power plants, boilers and other stationary combustion sources from 2008 through 2017.
As coal-fired electricity plants steadily retired during that time, the share of premature deaths linked to soot from sources like natural gas-fired power plants, wood stoves and industrial boilers that burn wood pellets climbed to an estimated 70% or so of the total, the paper found.
And in California, Virginia and at least 17 other states, the number of early deaths linked to gas-fired emissions outpaced those attributable to coal in 2017, according to the findings."
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