Less Coal = Better Cognition

This sounds like a fantasy, but it's true.

Closing Coal-fired Power Plants Improves Cognitive Development Of Children, New Study Suggests

Closing coal-fired power plants can have a direct, positive impact on children's cognitive development and health according to a study released by the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. The study allowed researchers to track and compare the development of two groups of children born in Tongliang, a city in China's Chongqing Municipality -- one in utero while a coal-fired power plant was operating in the city and one in utero after the Chinese government had closed the plant.
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"This study provides direct evidence that governmental action to eliminate polluting coal-burning sources benefits children's neurodevelopment," said Frederica Perera, DrPH, professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health, director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, and lead author of the study. "These findings have major implications for environmental health and energy policy as they demonstrate that reduction in dependence on coal for energy can have a measurable positive impact on children's development and health -- in China and elsewhere." - ScienceDaily

Just more evidence that coal is unhealthy, period. Sure, we have a lot of it, and sure, it's an economic engine for parts of Virginia with little else to provide jobs, but expanding our coal-based economy has consequences, and we need to consider them carefully in debates over energy going forward.