US: the hidden costs of energy use

ELECTRIC cars offer few, if any, overall savings compared with oil-powered vehicles, according to a report on the "hidden" costs of energy production by the US National Research Council (NRC). Commissioned by the Congress, Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use puts figures on the non-climate related costs of US energy production from a range of pollutants. These are costs that are not reflected in their energy sources' market prices and are mainly health-related damages, stemming from sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone and particulate matter. The authors came up with a cost of $120bn for 2005 – the latest year for which data was available – mostly re