Study: coal-fired power plant closures may have saved 26,000 lives and improved crop yields from 2005 to 2016

Estimated number of lives saved by coal-fired plant closures, by county. (UC San Diego map; click on it to enlarge.)

Regardless of its impact on the job market, the decline of coal as an energy source in the United States may have saved lives. And probably improved local crop yields.

Electric utilities have increasingly switched to natural gas and renewable energy sources, forcing many coal-fired plants to close. According to a newly published study in the journal Nature, "More than 26,000 lives in the U.S. were saved over the course of a decade as a result of a drop in carbon emissions, along with smog and other pollutants tied with asthma and other ailments," Rebecca Beitsch reports for The Hill. "From 2005 to 2016, the period analyzed in the study, 334 coal-fired units were shut down, while 612 new natural gas-fired units came online across the U.S."

The study also found that, when coal-fired power plants closed, the drop in pollution tended to increase local crop yields, Beitsch reports. However, the study also notes that natural gas is "not entirely benign" and is a major source of the greenhouse gas methane.