CUTTING EMISSIONS CREATES JOBS

EPA's Power Plant Rules Would Spur Job Creation – Report
Gabriel Nelson, February 9, 2011 (NY Times)

"Despite claims that U.S. EPA's regulations are destroying jobs at a time of already high unemployment, two new sets of air pollution rules for power plants would create hundreds of thousands of jobs over the next five years…

"The power sector is bracing for a slew of new federal requirements…[that] will require power plants to install new air pollution controls and build new power plants to replace older units…And according to [New Jobs – Cleaner Air; Employment Effects Under Planned Changes to the EPA’s Air Pollution Rules] by the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts [and commissioned by Ceres, an investor advocacy coalition that focuses on environmental issues], it will take about 1.46 million years of new labor to make those changes happen over the next five years -- the equivalent of 290,000 full-time jobs…"

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"The job-growth estimates were based on projections that the two rules will force the power sector to invest nearly $200 billion to design, build and install equipment between 2010 and 2015. Those costs include about $94 billion for pollution controls and $100 billion for power plants with about 68,000 megawatts of generating capacity, making up for power plants that would be retired.

"The projects would directly create about 640,000 years of work through 2015, or 128,000 full-time jobs, the study says. Another 820,000 years of work would be created indirectly, as other companies provide goods and services to the projects."

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"Supporters of the regulations say these jobs would make a much-needed dent in unemployment at a time when the economy is slowly recovering from the worst recession in decades. After the massive job losses of 2008 and 2009, the U.S. economy gained just 950,000 jobs in 2010…[S]ome industry groups and top Republicans in Congress argue that the new rules will harm the economy. These critics argue that ordering companies to spend money on pollution controls will ultimately raise unemployment…lead to higher energy prices…[make] the United States less competitive and [slow] job creation…

"The new study dovetails with the message put forward in President Obama's State of the Union address: that environmental rules and protections will make the United States more competitive by growing an economy around cleaner forms of energy…In addition to protecting health, environmental protections will boost the development of renewable energy and increase America's share of the $700 billion global market for environmental technology…[EPA Administrator Lisa] Jackson said…[E]ven without creating a single job, the health benefits of the new rules already outweigh the costs, said Ceres head Mindy] Lubber…Put in dollars and cents, the rule would have an estimated $120 billion to $290 billion in annual benefits, compared with costs of $2.8 billion per year…"