The Impact of Environmental Policy on U.S. Job Growth and Unemployment

Nicholas Institute Discussion Memo Prepared for the National Religious Partnership for the Environment

Author(s): Joshua Schneck

Published: June 2010

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As legislative proposals for addressing climate change continue to be put forth and debated, they’re accompanied by a steady stream of studies estimating the likely impact such policies would have on U.S. job growth and unemployment.  Many of these studies reach wildly different conclusions, with some saying that the results would be economically devastating for families and job creation, and others predicting that climate legislation would rapidly propel the creation of millions of new jobs.  The studies are almost always partial in nature, sometimes purposely so, but other times because those developing the studies are not fully aware of the complexities of the job issue or the methods that may be available to create more reliable estimates, as well as how to be more transparent about what their studies include and exclude.

This memo examines issues at play in the climate-jobs debate, and presents findings from a range of well-publicized studies estimating the employment impacts of proposed climate or energy legislation.  Our objective is not to definitively answer the question of whether a price on carbon would result in a net increase or decrease in U.S. jobs, but rather to help interested parties in discerning what kinds of information to look for in these reports, and to become better positioned to arrive at your own conclusions when considering a specific policy proposal.