Report: EPA regulations would cost 1.5 million jobs over next four years

 A new analysis of EPA regulations that would impact the coal-based electricity industry projects that seven rules would reduce U.S. employment by 1.5 million jobs over the next four years. The analysis was conducted by National Economic Research Associates (NERA) on behalf of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity and described in a 129-page report, “Economic Implications of Recent and Anticipated EPA Regulations Affecting the Electricity Sector.”

“If the EPA is allowed to continue its aggressive anti-coal agenda, the American economy will lose another 1.5 million jobs in the next four years,” said Mike Duncan, president and CEO of ACCCE. “The EPA does not consider the economic consequences of their actions, which in this case will not only erase American jobs; it will raise annual costs to families by hundreds of dollars, the equivalent of a monthly grocery bill.”

Key findings of the NERA analysis include:

• The regulations will cause employment losses totaling 1.5 million jobs over just the next four years, with a quarter million of those job losses occurring in the Midwest. Employment losses will continue beyond that timeframe, averaging 544,000 to 887,000 jobs annually.
• Electricity consumers will spend as much as $67 billion more for electricity.
• The average family’s income will drop by $200 to $500 annually, which is equivalent to a family’s monthly grocery bill.
• An unprecedented number of coal-fueled power plants will be forced to shut down. Between 54,000 to 69,000 megawatts of coal-fueled electricity generation will be shut down, mostly because of the EPA regulations. This is roughly equivalent to the combined electricity supplies of Ohio, Virginia and Iowa. This is also more than the total electricity supply of either Pennsylvania or Florida.
• The electric sector faces enormous compliance costs. Electricity generators would be required to spend $15 billion to $16.7 billion annually on compliance costs over the next two decades.

A summary of NERA’s report is available on the ACCCE website at: http://www.americaspower.org/sites/default/files/NERA-Analysis-Highlights-Oct26.pdf