Estimating Employment Impacts of Energy and Environmental Policy: Lessons Learned and Future Directions
For many policymakers and members of the public, estimates for how environmental policy can be expected to impact employment have become one of the deciding factors for gauging whether these policies are worth pursuing. This is due, in large part, to U.S. unemployment rates that now hover near 10%. Yet, current estimates for employment impacts resulting from enactment of environmental policies range widely, and no broadly accepted standard practices for how to conduct these studies or transparently report key underlying assumptions and uncertainties exist. To provide clarity on this issue, the Nicholas Institute recently presented a workshop for policy advisors and modeling practitioners that examined the state of jobs modeling, and ways to move forward.
This page provides links to the workshop summary outcomes paper, along with speaker and moderator bios, presentations, relevent papers and other resources.
Outcomes Paper:
Presentations:
Anne Smith, Charles River Associates, "CRA Analyses of Federal Climate Bills"
Trevor Houser, Peterson Institute for International Economics, "Assessing the American Power Act"
Adele Morris, Brookings Institution, "Consequences of Cap and Trade: Employment and Analytical Issues"
Neal Elliot, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, "Energy Efficiency & Jobs in APA+ACELA"
Robert Pollin, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, "Clean Energy Investments for the US Economy"
Rick Clayton, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "BLS Green Jobs Initiative"
Alan Krupnick, Resources for the Future, "Perspectives on the Jobs Metric"
Papers:
- Measuring the Green Economy. U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, April 2010
- How Policies to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions Could Affect Employment. Bruce Arnold and Molly Dahl, Congressional Budget Office, May 5, 2010
- Impact on the Economy of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (H.R.2454). Anne Smith et al., CRA International, May 2009
- Consequences of Alternative U.S. Cap-and-Trade Policies: Controlling Both Emissions and Costs. Adele Morris et al., Brookings, July 24, 2009
- Assessing the American Power Act: The Economic, Employment, Energy Security, and Environmental Impact of Senator Kerry and Senator Lieberman's Discussion Draft. Trevor Houser et al., Peterson Institute for International Economics, May 2010
- The American Power Act and Enhanced Energy Efficiency Provisions: Impacts on the U.S. Economy., Neal Elliott et al., American council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, June 2010
- Updated Economic Analysis of California's Climate Change Scoping Plan - Staff Report to the Air Resources Board. California Environmental Protection Agency, March 24, 2010
- Building the Green New Deal in the United States. Robert Pollin, 2010
- Accuracy a casualty as job arguments dominate Hill debate. Anne Mulkern, E&E article, July 29, 2010
Links:
- University of Massachusetts, Amherst's Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) has an ongoing research program exploring economic impacts of climate and energy policy.
- University of California, Berkeley's Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory has a research program focused on green jobs with relevant studies, aw well as a job calculator for the U.S. power sector.
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