Currently, the cost of burning coal does not include several "externalized" costs (read "subsidies") that other sources, aside from nuclear, don't impose.
Vehicle emissions are the leading cause of air pollution at around 60%. However, coal emissions are disproportionately more toxic. Of the $4 -6 billion in direct annual cost of air pollution to Utah's health, coal emissions account for approximately $1.5 to $3.5 billion per year. We estimate - at a minimum - coal emissions impose a $20 per megawatt premium that is not borne by the coal extractors or the coal consumers. Accounting for this cost prices alternatives to coal more competitive than coal (natural gas, geothermal, biomass, wind, and solar).
With a projected carbon tax (or cap-and-trade system), coal is priced beyond most of the alternatives. $20 to $40 per ton of CO2 emitted is the projected stabilized range for such a cost ($20 along the X axis is highlighted for reference).
Coal sourced airborne pollutants include Sulfur compounds, Mercury and its derivative compounds (methyl mercury), Uranium, Thallium and Thorium and their radioactive isotopes.
Our projections of Coal Emissions imposition on Utahns' health does not include indirect costs such as lost productivity due to illness or absenteeism due to the illness of a loved one, reduced learning capacity, reduced agricultural and forestry yields, reduced snowpack, increased burden on water resources and treatment plants, and compromised viewsheds (property values).
Image 1 from Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) with expanded text clarifications. Their study is based on 2004-2005 data which is not up to date for the cost of power plant construction (prices have increased) or for wind and solar (whose prices have dropped). Also not considered here is geothermal power (EPRI serves national power utlities with its research and the cost of geothermal power varies by location. In Utah, it is comparatively inexpensive due to the surface proximity of this resource and so should be considered.
Image 2 is the EPRI chart modified to include Direct Health Cost estimate provided from research by the Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment
