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Trump's Coal Plan Will Kill People, but at Least It'll Create Jobs, Right? Wrong.
The idea was supposed to be that, well, people may die, but it’ll revive the industry. But it won’t. Our source on that? Trump’s own EPA.
Much has been written about how President Donald Trump’s new Affordable Clean Energy rule will lead to 1,400 premature deaths from increased pollution in our lungs.
Less has been written about the jobs impact of the new rule—a rule that acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said “supports economic growth and job creation.” There’s a reason. Expected job growth from the new rule is projected to be in the neighborhood of zero, zip, nada, and none, according to an analysis of the plan.
This jobs analysis is not the product of some mythical Birkenstock-wearing, coal-hating enviros. It’s from Trump’s own Environmental Protection Agency, and it’s buried in the 289-page technical analysis that accompanied this new rule to relax clean air standards. “There may still be employment effects, negative and positive, for groups of affected workers, even if the overall net effect is small or zero,” reads chapter 5 of the EPA report. That’s not a boast, it’s an admission. As far as the EPA’s own analysis is considered, the net impact on jobs is somewhere between zero and negligible.
The motivation behind Trump’s new rule is clear: it throws a bone to one of his largest supporters, the coal industry. It is designed to do little more than save some old, dirty coal plants that are already operating, while forcing some zero-carbon nuclear plants to close early and lower-polluting natural gas plants to never open. But at what cost to the American people?
Less has been written about the jobs impact of the new rule—a rule that acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said “supports economic growth and job creation.” There’s a reason. Expected job growth from the new rule is projected to be in the neighborhood of zero, zip, nada, and none, according to an analysis of the plan.
This jobs analysis is not the product of some mythical Birkenstock-wearing, coal-hating enviros. It’s from Trump’s own Environmental Protection Agency, and it’s buried in the 289-page technical analysis that accompanied this new rule to relax clean air standards. “There may still be employment effects, negative and positive, for groups of affected workers, even if the overall net effect is small or zero,” reads chapter 5 of the EPA report. That’s not a boast, it’s an admission. As far as the EPA’s own analysis is considered, the net impact on jobs is somewhere between zero and negligible.
The motivation behind Trump’s new rule is clear: it throws a bone to one of his largest supporters, the coal industry. It is designed to do little more than save some old, dirty coal plants that are already operating, while forcing some zero-carbon nuclear plants to close early and lower-polluting natural gas plants to never open. But at what cost to the American people?
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-coal-plan-will-kill-people-but-at-least-itll-create-jobs-right-wrong?ref=wrap
