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Policy to cut carbon will provide jobs

that the fragile state of the U.S. economy strengthens the case for a cap on carbon rather than weakening it.

New Evidence on the Job Impacts of Climate Policy, THE HUFFINGTON POST, by Nathaniel Keohane, 21 May 2010, –– Why Now Is the Right Time to Cap Carbon,  “…… a must-read study released yesterday by the well-respected, nonpartisan Peterson Institute for International Economics shows that the reverse is actually true: passing climate legislation would provide the economy with a much-needed shot in the arm.
Trevor Houser and his co-authors use a widely respected economic model to analyze the impact on the U.S. economy of … energy and climate legislation ……. The study estimates that the legislation would more than double investment in the electric power sector, adding 203,000 jobs per year to the economy during the next decade relative to a “business as usual” scenario without policy. The reason is that when labor and capital are underemployed, as they are now, a policy that spurs new investment in the private sector will create jobs rather than simply taking them from other sectors. This lends quantitative support to the argument I’ve been making for over a year, which is that the fragile state of the U.S. economy strengthens the case for a cap on carbon rather than weakening it.

Nathaniel Keohane: New Evidence on the Job Impacts of Climate Policy — Why Now Is the Right Time to Cap Carbon

May 22, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general