’A report just released by the National Academies of Science estimates the ‘hidden’ costs of energy production and use. These costs, which include human health effects, physical damages to buildings and other structures, and reduction in grain crop harvests caused by air pollution are not reflected in market prices of coal, oil, other energy sources, or the electricity and gasoline produced from them. Known to economists as external costs, the report estimated these costs at $120 billion in the U.S. in 2005, Health damage from air pollution associated with electricity generation and motor vehicle transportation is the largest single item. Thomas McKone, a senior scientist in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD), and Adjunct Professor in the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, was one of 18 distinguished experts in public health, economics, and energy science who wrote the report. The report was released by the National Research Council (NRC) at the request of Congress. As a branch of the National Academies of Science NRC organizes studies using the best available science by drawing on NAS membership and carefully selected experts.’
– from greenpeace.org