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  • 🌅 Today’s stat: $1.2 trillion

🌅 Today’s stat: $1.2 trillion

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Sunrise Stat
February 05, 2025

$1.2 trillion - The public health benefits that could be unlocked by 2050 if the U.S. commits to a widespread transition to clean power and electric vehicles.
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WHAT TO KNOW

  • Achieving a widespread transition to clean energy would generate over $1.2 trillion in public health benefits by avoiding up to 110,000 premature deaths and 13 million lost work days due to poor air quality. The findings are based on a scenario in which all new passenger vehicles sold by 2035 and all new heavy-duty trucks sold by 2040 are zero-emission, and the nation’s electric grid is powered by clean, non-combustion sources by 2035.

WHY IT MATTERS

  • A widespread transition to clean energy would also be a boon for kids’ health, avoiding 2.79 million asthma attacks, 147,000 cases of acute bronchitis, and millions of other respiratory symptoms. For adults, achieving the passenger vehicle scenario alone would save nearly 90,000 lives.

CONNECT THE DOTS

  • The American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2024 report found 39% of Americans (over 131 million people) live in areas with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution, with people of color being 2.3 times more likely than white people to live in an area with the worst levels of pollution. Spikes in particle pollution last year were the most severe in the report’s history, finding Americans experienced the most days of “very unhealthy” or “hazardous” air quality in the past 25 years.