With clean energy policies facing a more uncertain future, here’s something that might tip the scale: better estimates about just what it’s saving us in economic terms.

According to a number-crunching Berkeley team, it’s nothing to sneeze at. Over the past 10 years, the economic upshot of alternate energy use may have been as much as $110 billion in premature deaths averted.

Although hard to measure, especially nationwide, the impact of reduced pollution on premature death is likely to be significant, with the number of estimated annual deaths caused by air pollution clocking in higher than the number of fatalities caused by respiratory illness.

An additional conclusion weighs in clean energy’s favor. The net economic benefits, according to the Berkeley study, equal or outweigh the dollar amount of the state and federal subsidies provided to alternative energy initiatives and products over the years.

Read the full article on cost-effective clean energy by James Poulos at GOOD Magazine