The Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) held hearings at the end of May, about an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) to add more energy production. Georgia Power proposed to add more fossil fuel power, and not enough solar. Here is Dr. Anne’s testimony:
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I am a pediatrician who specializes in environmental health – which means, how our health is affected by environmental exposures, whether the exposure is man-made or natural. I have worked for health departments and agencies at many levels, and I now work for Mothers & Others For Clean Air.
Who us among remembers those margarine commercials from the 1970s and 1980s, that ended with Mother Nature saying “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature” while thunder and lightning crashed in the background?
Yet, that is what Georgia Power is trying to do, and we are living with the consequences. By building more gas turbines and keeping coal plants open longer, they are trying to fool Mother Nature and pretend that methane and coal are a safe form of energy production. When we use fossil fuels such as methane gas and coal while pretending we are not hurting ourselves, we are trying to fool Mother Nature. In reality, we are fooling ourselves. Mother Nature doesn’t listen to our words, she goes by the natural laws in biology, chemistry and physics. In Georgia, we see the thunder and lightning from trying to fool Mother Nature – in increased illness and deaths, and in storms like Hurricane Helene.
Biology tells us that when people are exposed to particulate matter, ozone, and nitrogen dioxide from fossil fuels, our health suffers. Chemistry tells us that these pollutants cause inflammation and other cellular damage. Particle and ozone pollution from fossil fuels in the Southeast, including Georgia, put more people in the hospital for many different heart and lung conditions.
Biology tells us that every 1 μg/m3 increase in particle pollution decreases children’s IQ by 4 tenths of a point. Even at levels lower than the current annual standard of 9 μg/m3, particle pollution lowers children’s IQ by 1/8 of a point per 1 μg/m3. That may not sound like a lot, but with almost 3 million children in Georgia, it means a lot more children needing special ed, a lot more children needing extra help, fewer children in the high end of the IQ range, and most importantly: our attempt to fool Mother Nature and ourselves damages a lot of children.
Particle pollution also puts more people in the hospital for dementia, about 1-2% for every 1μg/m3 increase in PM2.5. Particle pollution made of sulfates, which comes from burning coal and biomass, is particularly good at causing new onset dementia. Particle pollution also causes more strokes and heart attacks, a 1-2% increase per 1 μg/m3 for each. Chronic exposure to particle pollution increases the risk of major cardiac or pulmonary events by 8-20% per 10 μg/m3. The Global Burden of Disease studies shows that in the U.S., 8% of all heart disease deaths and 12% of all heart events such as heart attacks or rhythm problems are caused by particle pollution.
Physics tells us that when the oceans are hotter, more water vapor and more energy gets into hurricanes. This makes the winds stronger and the rains heavier. It means we end up with more hurricanes like Helene. Chemistry and physics tell us that when we put more methane and carbon dioxide in the air, we trap the earth’s heat instead of letting it go out into space, and the air and oceans end up hotter. Our use of fossil fuels like methane and coal are making hurricanes more intense, and we end up with storms like Helene.
Hurricane Helene caused about $6 BILLION dollars of agricultural losses in Georgia. Hurricane Michael caused more than $3 billion in agricultural losses. You can use clever marketing to keep people from understanding what’s happening, but you can’t fool Mother Nature. Physics is physics, and the atmosphere and oceans respond to the heat that is there, not the clever words we use to try to fool people and Mother Nature.
As you can see, Mother Nature herself is telling us that fossil fuels like methane and coal are not safe. Neither are they reasonable cost – fossil fuels are already causing billions of dollars in agricultural losses from climate intensified hurricanes, and the air pollution from fossil fuels is making us sick, putting us in the hospital, and killing us. Utilities that use fossil fuels are cost-shifting, forcing us to pay for the damages their product is causing. We pay for storm cleanup, we pay higher health insurance premiums, and we pay more taxes to cover the damage and health problems.
Air pollution is so bad for our health, that you don’t have to care about climate change to want clean energy. We need it to keep our children healthy and smart, and to keep ourselves from getting heart attacks, strokes, dementia and lung disease.
Georgia’s most abundant natural resource is sunshine. It has about the same lifetime cost for the power company as building new gas turbines or keeping coal units open. Utility scale solar or wind with storage will prevent suffering and death and save billions of dollars in agricultural losses and health care costs.
We need to remember that margarine commercial: It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature. The PSC should require Georgia Power to close the coal plants on schedule, and to build far more solar with storage, so that we don’t have to live with the thunder and lightning of trying to fool Mother Nature.
