Decisions regarding Utah's future energy sources should be driven by science and the facts. Those facts indicate that the most broad-based public interest is not served by more coal.

Although standard wisdom is that coal is the cheapest source of electricity, the equation changes significantly when the full price of coal is calculated. Just as the true costs of smoking go far beyond the purchase price of cigarettes, the true cost of coal also goes far beyond the purchase price. Like smoking, the costs of the health consequences from coal combustion accumulate and reach into the billions. When these costs are factored in, the price of coal actually doubles, making it more expensive than all renewables.

Individually we can decide not to smoke, but we should not let others decide for us that we will breathe even greater quantities of NO2, SO2, carbon monoxide, mercury, arsenic, uranium, thorium, radium, polonium and lead — all products of coal combustion — even with strict emissions controls. To imply this is the price we have to pay to keep the lights on is disingenuous. It ignores the reality of clean energy alternatives and the cleanest and cheapest of all alternatives, serious conservation.

Proponents of more coal for Utah never mention that the proposed four new power plants will consume as much water annually as a municipality of 1 million people. In a desperately dry state, destined to become even drier and hotter, that kind of public policy is a brutal assault on an already vulnerable agriculturally based community. Ultimately, water is just as valuable as electricity.

People skeptical of our message emphasize that our air is cleaner now than 30 years ago, but that is largely due to better auto emission controls mandated by the federal government, the closing of Geneva Steel and improvements at Kennecott. Reminiscing about the air quality of 30 years ago fails to mitigate the health consequence of our current air pollution levels.

The characterization of Utah's air quality as "excellent" with "occasional inversions" contradicts the American Lung Association's declaration that Salt Lake City, Logan and Provo rank in the top 10 worst polluted cities in the country, at No. 5, No. 6 and No. 9, respectively. The forecast of worsening air pollution stems from (a) UDOT's projection of vehicle traffic (the source of 65 percent of our air pollution) doubling in the next 20 years, (b) the obvious impact of the proposed four new coal power plants and (c) climate change models predicting hotter, drier temperatures with more summer ozone buildup, more Western forest fires and more winter inversions.

The history of scientific progress teaches valuable lessons. Asbestos, lead, DDT, tobacco, PCBs and nuclear radiation were all accepted as harmless or even health-promoting in their day. Over time, we learned how dangerous they were, and public policy was changed. We have reached a similar threshold with air pollution, yet the editorial board's acknowledgement of air pollution's health impact was limited to "a tie to certain respiratory and heart ailments." Our interpretation of the recent scientific data matches that of the hundreds of scientists who did the research.