Governors' Wind Energy Coalition Clean electricity standard carries $1.8T upside — study Source: By Miranda Willson, E&E News reporter • Posted: Monday, July 12, 2021 A new study reports that health and climate benefits from an 80% clean energy standard would exceed costs. Pixabay/Pexels. Smallman12q/Wikipedia. ulleo/Pexels. A national clean electricity standard would save thousands of lives and yield other health and climate benefits that would outweigh the policy’s costs, according to a first-of-its-kind study. Establishing a standard to reach 80% carbon-free power by 2030 would improve air quality enough to avert an estimated 317,500 premature deaths and generate health benefits totaling $1.13 trillion between now and 2050, said the analysis, released today through Syracuse University’s Clean Energy Futures project. Power sector greenhouse gas emissions would also fall by 98% from 2005 levels over the same period, the study projected — offering an additional $637 billion climate boost.