Adverse Impacts/True Costs

True Costs Add Up

Using fossil fuels releases pollutants and greenhouse gases. How much are healthy air, clean water, and a stable climate worth? Dependence on foreign oil promotes conflict. What are peace and security worth? Almost all of the money spent on gasoline, heating fuels, and electricity leaves local communities. What is a robust economy worth?

Almost every aspect of daily existence in the Cape & Islands region and elsewhere in the developed world is influenced by energy consumption and the sources from which this energy is derived.

The ability of populations to extract and use energy resources, particularly for electricity generation, largely defines their prosperity and quality of life. However, “true costs”—adverse economic, environmental, and social impacts not reflected in the prices paid for energy commodities—are becoming increasingly evident on scales from the local to the regional to the global.

This page will document how the current energy situation harms local communities. Listed below are the many possible “true cost” impacts:

Air Emissions, Aquatic Discharges & Solid Wastes

• Air Quality: effects of NOx, SOx, and particulate emissions, including smog, regional haze, etc.
• Water Quality: airborne deposition leading to nutrient loading, mercury contamination, acidification, etc.
• Water Quality: effects of chemical and thermal discharges
• Combustion By-Products
• Nuclear Wastes
• Ecology: bioaccumulation, eutrophication, anoxia, etc.
• Public Health: air quality, fish contamination, etc.

Quality of Life

• Cost of Living
• Traffic Congestion
• Visual Impacts
• Light Pollution
• Health: asthma, cardiovascular and respiratory ailments, mercury poisoning, etc.
• Stress

Climate Change

• Sea Level Rise
• Aquifer Infiltration
• Storm Frequency/Severity
• Insurance Rates
• Coastal Properties
• Temperature & Precipitation Patterns
• Ecosystem Integrity
• Tourism
• Public Health

Land Use & Terrestrial Ecology

• Sprawl
• Habitat Fragmentation

Spills & Contamination

• Water Quantity & Quality
• Ecology
• Aesthetics
• Public Health: shellfish and groundwater contamination
• Economics: tourism, real estate, shellfishing, etc.

Economic Development

• Competitiveness
• Capital Flight
• Resource Allocation
• Tourism/Seasonal Residents

Fuel Security

• Price Volatility
• Supply Vulnerability

Foreign Policy

• International Relations
• Homeland Security

Content Guide
Homeowners
Students & Educators
Voters & Taxpayers
Businesses & Organizations
Municipal & Regional Officials
Entrepreneurs, Consultants & Developers

Dirty Roof

Conventional asphalt shingles are
the cheapest roofing material around but, as is usually the case, there is a cost: They are manufactured using petroleum by-products and, once they reach the end of their useful life, they must be landfilled as construction debris or “downcycled” as road materials or in other low-value uses. Credit: Houston Advanced Research Center

More Facts

Current Vision

Green Roof

Thatching represents an attractive and sustainable roofing solution. This thatched roof, gracing a barn in Yarmouthport, transforms an invasive wetland plant (Phragmites sp.) into a useful, biodegradable shelter.

More Visions