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A Plan for a Sustainable U.S. Chemical IndustryMay 2011 -- In this report examining the U.S. chemical industry, James Heintz and Robert Pollin show that a shift to the production of chemicals that are safer for workers, the environment, and our health can create jobs and new markets. The industry has shed 300,000 jobs since 1992, and has under-invested in research and development. These job losses, and their continuation under the status quo, are not inevitable. The study finds that shifting the chemical industry towards greater disclosure, appropriate regulation (such as reform of the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act), and long-run sustainability would encourage innovation, support competitiveness, and renew American manufacturing jobs. >> Download "The Economic Benefits of a Green Chemical Industry in the United States: Renewing Manufacturing Jobs While Protecting Health and the Environment" Regulating Airborne Emissions: Creating Jobs & Cleaner Energy February 2011 -- In this study commissioned by Ceres, James Heintz, Heidi Garrett-Peltier, and Ben Zipperer examine the economic impacts of air pollution regulations forthcoming from the Environmental Protection Agency: the Clean Air Transport Rule governing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions, and the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Utility Boilers rule, which will set limits for hazardous air pollutants. Focusing on 36 states, the study assesses the potential employment impacts of the transformation of the nation’s energy generation plants to a cleaner, more efficient fleet, through investments in pollution controls and the retirement of outdated plants. >> Download “New Jobs — Cleaner Air: Employment Effects Under Planned Changes to the EPA’s Air Pollution Rules” The Economic Impacts of the CLEAR Act March 2010 -- Congress is expected to take up the Carbon Limits and Energy for America’s Renewal (CLEAR) Act in the coming months. In preparation for that debate, James K. Boyce and Matthew E. Riddle have updated earlier analyses of the household-level impacts of the cap-and-dividend plan, and how these differ among states. In their newest paper, the authors not only consider the specific parameters of the CLEAR Act, but also add an assessment of the state-by-state job creation from the bill. Boyce & Riddle find that interstate differences in the bill’s impact on household incomes are small: much smaller than differences across the income spectrum, and vastly smaller than the differences in other federal programs, such as defense spending. As a result, the CLEAR Act delivers positive net benefits to the majority of households in every state. Where there are interstate differences, Boyce & Riddle suggest ways in which the CLEAR Act could be modified to reduce or eliminate them altogether. Cap and Dividend: A State-by-State Analysis REVISED, November 2010 August 2009 -- This new study by James Boyce and Matthew Riddle (in partnership with the Economics for Equity and the Environment Network) shows how the increased cost of fossil fuels created by a carbon cap policy could be distributed across the population, based on the carbon footprints of households in different income brackets in each state. With a carbon price of $25 per ton, Boyce & Riddle estimate that the annual cost to the median family ranges from $239 per person in Oregon to $349 in Indiana. Under cap-and-dividend, each person would receive dividend payments of $386 per year. The median family would end up with a net gain ranging from $37 per person in Indiana to $147 in Oregon, in addition to the benefits of curbing global warming, At the same time a cap-and-dividend policy would send a clear price signal that burning fossil fuels has a social cost, giving businesses and consumers a strong incentive to invest in energy efficiency and clean energy. >> Download “Cap and Dividend: A State-by-State Analysis” Green Prosperity: How Clean-Energy Policies Can Fight Poverty and Raise Living Standards in the United States June 2009 -- “Green Prosperity: How Clean-Energy Policies Can Fight Poverty and Raise Living Standards in the United States,” by Robert Pollin, Jeannette Wicks-Lim, and Heidi Garrett-Peltier (co-commissioned by Natural Resources Defense Council and Green For All), considers the employment and other policy effects of a $150 billion annual investment in clean energy (from a combination of public and private sources) in terms of its ability to raise living standards for lower-income workers and families. This report shows that investments in clean energy can benefit lower-income families first by expanding job opportunities, and also by lowering household utility bills through energy efficiency investments and transportation costs by making public transportation more accessible. Together with the co-released report "Economic Benefits," (above) these reports significantly strengthen our understanding of how a transition to a clean-energy economy can play a major part in lifting the U.S. out of the current recession, and setting us on a course towards both environmental sustainability and raising living standards, especially for lower-income workers and their families. The Economic Benefits of Investing in Clean Energy June 2009 -- “The Economic Benefits of Investing in Clean Energy: How the Economic Stimulus Program and New Legislation Can Boost U.S. Economic Growth and Employment,” by Robert Pollin, James Heintz, and Heidi Garrett-Peltier, (commissioned by the Center for American Progress) assesses the cumulative economic impact of the clean-energy aspects of the American Clean Energy and Security Act and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and estimates the employment effects of the $150 billion in annual public and especially private clean-energy investment they are likely to encourage. The study also considers the potential impact of these policy initiatives on long-term economic growth, and assesses the range of models which have been used to estimate the economic impact of cap-and-trade legislation. "Economic Benefits" includes fact sheets for each of the fifty states which show the specific clean-energy investment level likely to occur in that state, and estimate the statewide macroeconomic impacts of that investment. >> Download “The Economic Benefits of Investing in Clean Energy" Clean-Energy Investments and Jobs: A Response to the Heritage FoundationAugust 2009 -- The Heritage Foundation recently released a response to “The Economic Benefits of Investing in Clean Energy" by Robert Pollin, James Heintz & Heidi Garrett-Peltier, which, surprisingly, finds consensus on the central point of that study: that investments in clean energy will generate roughly three times more jobs than spending the same amount of money within our fossil fuel energy infrastructure. Where the PERI authors and Janet Campbell of Heritage differ, however, is over the question of whether this job creation is inherently a good thing for the U.S. economy. In this brief response paper, Pollin, Heintz & Garrett-Peltier lay out their case that the U.S. economy will benefit greatly from creating an abundance of new job opportunities for people at all levels of income and credentials, and that it is a double benefit that these new job opportunities will mean mobilizing the U.S. workforce to the project of building a clean-energy economy and thereby defeating global warming. >> Download “Clean Energy Investments, Jobs, And U.S. Economic Well-Being: A Third Response To Heritage Foundation Critics” State Economic Forecasts under Cap-and-Trade LegislationApril 2009 -- Several organizations have attempted to forecast the effects of cap-and-trade policies on economic performance, despite the near impossibility of producing reliable forecasts. In this series of state fact sheets, PERI has evaluated the economic implications of the forecasts generated by the most prominent of these groups, the American Council on Capital Formation and the National Association of Manufacturers (ACCF/NAM). Even under ACCF/NAM’s worst case scenario, a cap-and-trade policy will have only a minor impact on the performance of the U.S. economy over time. PERI applied this scenario to the economies of 29 states, and demonstrates the degree to which economic vitality and environmental prudence can coincide under cap-and trade policies to limit carbon emissions. >> Go to the cap-and-trade website to download state fact sheets or the detailed technical appendix Congressional Testimony on a Green Economic Stimulus ProgramOctober 2008 -- In the face of the current crisis, federal policymakers are considering how to structure a second economic stimulus package. In this testimony for the House Committee on Education and Labor, Robert Pollin recommends for a program focused on three areas: educational services, public infrastructure, and green investments. A program that combines these areas will have the capacity to generate nearly 3 million new jobs in the short run in response to an increased outlay of government spending of $150 billion. Over the longer term, at least another 400,000 jobs should be created because public infrastructure and green investments will create an enhanced climate for private business investment. >> Download the full written testimony Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy September 2008 -- In this major report produced with the Center for American Progress, PERI economists examine the benefits of a rapid program of private and public investments in clean energy. Green Recovery – A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy, models the impact of a $100 billion government-financed program that would combine tax credits and loan guarantees for private businesses with direct public investment spending. The authors, Robert Pollin, Heidi Garrett-Peltier, James Heintz and Helen Scharber, estimate that this combination of private and public investments aimed at jumpstarting a low-carbon economy would create two million jobs throughout the country over a two-year period. This short-term stimulus program is the first of a two-stage collaboration. Later this fall, PERI and CAP will publish a long-term economic program built on renewable energy and efficiency. Job Opportunities for the Green Economy: A State-by-State Picture of Occupations that Gain from Green Investments June 2008 -- In this report, commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council and coalition of environmental and labor organizations, PERI Co-Director Robert Pollin and Assistant Research Professor Jeannette Wicks-Lim provide a snapshot of the kinds of jobs are needed to build a green economy in the United States. They focus on six key strategies for attacking global warming and highlight some of the major “green jobs” associated with each of these approaches. |
Political Economy Research Institute
