U.S. coal, natural gas and motor fuel producers get implicit benefits worth tens of billion of dollars a year by not having to pay for the damage their products do to the climate and human health, a study said on Monday. Slideshow ( 2 images ) As the world begins to transition to technologies that emit less pollution to generate electricity and fuel vehicles, economists are attempting to estimate the cost to society of burning fossil fuels. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Yale University economist Matthew Kotchen calculated that U.S. fossil fuel companies get direct benefits of $62 billion a year in implicit subsidies due to what he calls “inefficient pricing”. The overall health, climate and transportation costs to society are about $568 billion, the study, titled “The producer benefits of implicit fossil fuel subsidies in the United […]