Former New York Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote an op-ed for the popular blog the Huffington Post yesterday, arguing for the advantages both economic and environmental that can be gained by converting coal burning power plants to natural gas.

He begins by outlining the well-documented hazards of the coal power plant age: Ozone and particulates from coal plants cause widespread illnesses and disease. Acid rain emissions have destroyed the forests and polluted waterways. The industry’s strip mines have altered the landscape and coal which supplies 46% of the nation’s electric power, is the biggest contributor to our greenhouse gases.

Pointing to the inefficiencies in America’s antiquated coal plants – they “burn 20% more coal per megawatt hour than modern large coal units and are 60-75% less fuel efficient than high-efficiency gas plants” – Kennedy illustrates the necessity of this transition. This move would immediately lessen the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere, as the oldest of these coal plants “can be eliminated very quickly–in many instances literally overnight by substituting power from America’s existing and underutilized natural gas generation, which is abundant, cleaner and more affordable and accessible today than dirty coal.”

In terms of local economies, this substitution not only helps ensure that no jobs are lost, but in many instances, creates more opportunities both for workers and investors. Kennedy cites California’s Bright Source, a company that just won a massive contract to build a solar array in the Mojave Desert capable of supplying nearly 2.6 gigawatts annually, as an example of the huge potential of these untapped markets in smarter, cheaper renewables.

With more and more companies and investors looking to capitalize on the trajectory of green technology, we’re only witnessing the beginning of this transformation, a trend that will benefit the bottom line while saving our planet in the process.