New EPA regulations will cause 183,000 jobs to be lost - study

New EPA regulations will cause 183,000 jobs to be lost - study


September 23, 2011
Source: American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity

As the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to vote on the TRAIN Act, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, released a comprehensive analysis conducted by National Economic Research Associates (NERA) showing that several of EPA’s new and proposed regulations would lead to 183,000 lost jobs per year and significant increases in the price of electricity and natural gas.

“America’s coal-fueled electric industry has invested nearly $100 billion, so far, to achieve impressive reductions in air pollution. Now is the wrong time for EPA to blindly push ahead without even pausing long enough to understand how all of these rules could hurt American jobs and consumers,” said Steve Miller, president and CEO of ACCCE.

The analysis, done on behalf of ACCCE by NERA, relies on state-of-the-art modeling tools, as well as government data for almost all of its assumptions. NERA’s analysis projects that EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and proposed Maximum Achievable Control Technology, coal combustion residuals, and cooling water intake requirements for power plants would, over the 2012-2020 period:

Cost the power industry $21 billion per year;
Cause an average loss of 183,000 jobs per year;
Increase electricity costs by double digits in many regions of the U.S.;
Cost consumers over $50 billion more for natural gas; and
Reduce the disposable income of the average American family by $270 a year.

“EPA is moving much too quickly to adopt several of the most expensive regulations ever written for coal-fueled power plants without understanding or explaining all of the harm they will do to our struggling economy,” said Miller. “EPA has failed to analyze the full impact of its own rules. The TRAIN Act is a common-sense bill that requires EPA to slow down and explain the full impacts of all these regulations on jobs and energy costs.”

Miller also added, “We expect that the TRAIN Act will be amended by the House of Representatives to include more protections for consumers and jobs, and ACCCE will support reasonable amendments to the legislation."

Thanks to investments made in clean coal technology, emissions of major air pollutants from coal-fueled power plants have been reduced by 84 percent per kilowatt-hour of electricity.

The Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts of the Nation Act of 2011, or the TRAIN Act, would set up a government-wide committee to analyze the cumulative impacts – such as energy price increases and job losses – of a host of major new EPA regulations. In addition, the bill would delay two of the most expensive rules to give power plants enough time to comply with new rules, as well as providing guidance to EPA in writing the final version of the two rules.

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) is a non-profit, non-partisan partnership of companies involved in producing electricity from coal. Because coal is America’s most abundant energy resource, ACCCE supports energy policies that balance coal’s vital role in meeting our country’s growing need for affordable and reliable electricity with the need to protect the environment. ACCCE also advocates for the development and deployment of advanced clean coal technologies that will produce electricity with near-zero emissions.