maths
coal kills 15 people in the us per terawatt hour. a human life is worth about $3m. which works out to about $.05 per kilowatt hour. which is a substantial portion of the national average $.12 per kwh. one suspects coal is externalizing at least some of those costs. ie they're not paying for those deaths. but we are. apparently that's a price we're willing to pay. okay compare to nuclear, which is some 400x less costly in terms of dead consumers. one can force coal to pay their death tax. which would mean higher rates for most of us. or one can give nuclear a subsidy. which would make it cheaper than natural gas. without all those dead people. just something to think about.