Invest, Divest and Prosper

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/28/opinion/krugman-invest-divest-and-prosper.html?ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 9:15 PM
Subject: re: Invest, Divest and Prosper
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

  Although I tremble to write it, professor Krugman has got the economics of coal wrong. Reducing or eliminating coal-fired generation would reduce the cost of electricity, even as it increased the rate on our bills. The scandal of coal is that the public bears huge externalities--in atmospheric warming, in ocean acidification, in mercury poisoning, in environmental degradation--that far outbalance the profits of the coal industry.  With every kilowatt-hour generated, American coal costs America far more wealth than the mine owners pocket.

Barry Haskell Levine