North Carolina coal ash spill, another example of externalities

Again, a lot of this isn’t priced into your power bill as it engages the resource of government to clean up and manage whenever it happens:

“Coal ash – the residue left over from the burning of coal at power plants – reportedly contains a number of toxic heavy metals, including mercury and lead. And, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), coal ash is one of the largest industrial waste sources in the U.S., with more than 136 million tons generated in 2008 alone.

There have been...