“The EPA is ignoring the cumulative economic damage new regulations will cause,” said Steve Miller, president and CEO, American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. “America’s coal-fired electric industry has been doing its part for the environment and the economy, but our industry needs adequate time to install clean coal technologies to comply with new regulations. Unfortunately, the EPA doesn’t seem to care.”
The ACCCE recently released an initial analysis by National Economic Research Associates (NERA) of the combined impacts of EPA’s “Cross-State Air Pollution Rule” and the “Utility MACT” Rule. Using government data, NERA’s initial analysis found these two proposals by the EPA would result in net employment losses of more than 1.4 million job-years by 2020. While the EPA claims the regulations would create jobs, the NERA analysis projects that four jobs are lost for every job that might be created. NERA also found the two regulations would increase electricity rates by more than 23% in some areas of the United States that rely on coal for electricity. In addition, consumers will be paying more than $8 billion per year in higher natural gas prices because of these proposed rules.
