Why coal country must be part of the clean economy

One of the most remarkable developments in recent years has been the relatively drama-free embrace in many corners of the private sector of the concept of environmental externalities. Arguments over the indirect costs of fossil fuel combustion — climate change, mercury contamination, ground level ozone and the like — have been a form of hand-to-hand combat in utility rate cases and other regulatory actions for years.

Yet today, among the growing legion of companies investing heavily in renewables, announcements on things such as solar and wind power purchase agreements (PPAs) frequently reference a desire to address the environmental costs of fossil fuels. Environmental externalities are getting embedded into business operations as well. Microsoft's revolutionary internal carbon pricing scheme is probably the most notable example of doing this, but it's certainly not the only one.

Partly, it's because the business case for renewables keeps getting better. Companies are gobbling up clean electrons at a pace nobody would have imagined even a few short years ago. Wasting time arguing about environmental externalities is pretty pointless when your CFO is grinning ear-to-ear as she signs a solar PPA.

"Wasting time arguing about environmental externalities is pretty pointless when your CFO is grinning ear-to-ear as she signs a solar PPA."

Full story at http://bit.ly/2lQ7fP2

 

 

 

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