Obama Coal Sales to Cost Society Billions in Global-Warming Damage

The global-warming damage caused by burning coal leased from federal lands under President Obama will eventually cost society tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars--far outweighing any economic benefit of coal leasing to taxpayers, a Greenpeace report concludes.

The leasing program charges companies only about a dollar a ton on average to mine coal, but the pollution from each ton burned is estimated to cost between $22 and $237, Greenpeace said.

The report uses the federal government's method of estimating the social cost of carbon, or SCC.  The SCC is a calculation devised by economists to express in today's dollars the price future generations ultimately pay for the damages caused by carbon pollution.

Obama Coal Sales to Cost Society Billions in Global-Warming Damage, Study Says