It turns out the nasty things I thought were limited to coal fired plants still emerge from natural gas fired plants, like mercury and arsenic.... which surpris

It turns out the nasty things I thought were limited to coal fired plants still emerge from natural gas fired plants, like mercury and arsenic.... which surprised me. The social contract when issuing a operating permit for a plant to burn things is that the social good of the energy produced for society outweighs the social costs of the pollution. Clearly, since they aren't selling the power they produce exclusively to the public... there's no social good at play, only socialized costs.