There will be job losses once the U.S. really starts controlling climate-change emissions, the government now admits.
The energy sector will be hardest hit, especially coal mining jobs, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
A new CBO analysis predicts that coal mining jobs will be hardest hit by any action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions because coal-fired power plants by far release the greatest amount of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary GHG said to be the major causes of global warming. CBO expects demand for coal to drop as America moves to reduce fossil fuel emissions that cause global warming.
The process of regulating coal-fired power plants gets underway next year. EPA just issued Clean Air Act rules that require utilities to reduce CO2 emissions.
One thing that might save coal mining jobs is if the industry were to develop clean coal technology that could somehow cheaply capture and store CO2 emissions.
The oil and gas production industry would also see some job losses as prices for gasoline and diesel increase. This might dampen demand as companies and commuters seek out more fuel efficient vehicles.
The natural gas industry may escape job losses and may even see some additions because some utilities have the option to switch from dirty coal to natural gas, which is much cleaner in terms of GHG emissions.
Energy-intensive industries might also be at risk of losing a few jobs because they’d be wrestling with higher energy costs, which would force some belt tightening. Industries in this group include metals, nonmetallic minerals (like glass), chemicals and transportation services.
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Tags: climate change, energy efficiency, EPA, GHG
May 27th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
No….. go on! Next you’re going to tell me that I really can’t keep my doctor.
May 27th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
If our rulers, oops, I mean public servants, could only find a way to repeal the laws of economics and physics, then this stuff would work. Seriously, are they too dumb to know how dumb they are to think they are smart enough to centrally plan the US economy? Is there anything they don’t feel is theirs to tax, regulate and control ? This bunch really could, finally, sink the country.
May 27th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
Gee…………….imagine that, more job’s gone – and oh no……………..the price of fuel will increase,
well you better start looking into a bicycle, I wonder if Steve is reading this?
Let me see I need a bicycle, candles and they have to be wax less, can’t BBQ (no charcoal and or natural gas) can’t burn wood, not good for the air and would need a burn permit, you know I am trying to make light of this, but it’s not working, what is going on America?
May 28th, 2010 at 1:16 am
This is madness, highest unemployment in decades, and we are going to help things out by eliminating more jobs, and adding costs to utilities for those unemployed and employed?
These guys are incompetent to the point of being dangerous !
I am beginning to think Glenn Beck has it figured out!
May 28th, 2010 at 8:29 am
You know, it’s not incompetence. It’s a lack of understanding. They literally don’t understand wealth creation, entrepeneurship, how to run a business. They’ve gotten their ticket punched at all the right schools. But they couldn’t run the third shift in paper cup factory. What Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Sam Walton did…it’s like voodoo to them. So they think they can use the power of the state to take a chunk of that wealth, or put onerous regulations in place, and somehow, magically, there won’t be any negatives.
On the other hand, they, our President in particular, know how to play politics. All the rhetoric aside, he hasn’t brought us together. He needs to be divisive (us vs them) to hold onto power. The idea that any politician “cares about the little guy” is absurd. He cares about himself, first. And if you have to give a fancy speech, while your union thugs are beating people up, well….that doesn’t sound like a new kind of politics to me.
May 28th, 2010 at 11:37 am
This is not a lack of understanding. Obama, Emanuel, Axlerod etc are smart individuals. They know exactly what they’re doing. They just are banking on the fact that not enough of us will piece together what they are doing until it is too late. I’d have to second the opinion on Glenn Back. This administration vilifies him because they have to discredit him or their scheme is ‘outed’.
Look into the Chicago Climate Exchange, see who is behind it, who profits from it, and how the proposed legislation will build the power of world governance and further handicap Americans and American businesses. It is a deliberate attempt to ‘level the world’s playing field’ by lowering America and Americans in the continued chase of ‘social and economic justice’.
Obama is a Marxist. His college records were sealed to hide that. People who voted for him bought a ‘box of soap’. A ‘product’ that was deliberately mislabeled and misrepresented.
May 28th, 2010 at 11:46 am
I think Mike and Gary are both correct. There is a certain amount of incompetence but on the whole Obama and his henchmen know exactly what they are doing. The EPA is overstepping its bounds with the blessing of the administration and they must be stopped. The political hacks at the EPA were not elected by the public and answer only to Obama. Demand your representatives rein in the EPA or that agency will be responsible for as much job destruction as natiionalizing the auto and health industries. Government can’t solve the problem, it IS the problem.
Vote out the encumbents in November or it will be more difficult to regain individual liberty and curtail this heavy handed government monster/mobster.
May 28th, 2010 at 11:54 am
p.s. Yes I know “incumbents” is the correct spelling for those already in office; however, “encumber” means to handicap or hinder and my variant of that (encumbent) designates our current crop of inept powermongers who have no interest but their own/union/lobbyists at heart. Sadly, the people they are there to represent seldom rank on any list of importance to them. Spread the word-encumbents!
May 31st, 2010 at 10:49 pm
I think Mike and Gary are both correct. There is a certain amount of incompetence but on the whole Obama and his henchmen know exactly what they are doing. The EPA is overstepping its bounds with the blessing of the administration and they must be stopped. The political hacks at the EPA were not elected by the public and answer only to Obama. Demand your representatives rein in the EPA or that agency will be responsible for as much job destruction as natiionalizing the auto and health industries. Government can’t solve the problem, it IS the problem.Vote out the encumbents in November or it will be more difficult to regain individual liberty and curtail this heavy handed government monster/mobster.
+1
August 12th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
The USEPA is moving to regulated a validated source of pollution that Republican Senators and Representatives refuse to recognize; the comments on this article are based on simplistic political ideology founded on total ignorance of the forces that regulate and thus control global climate. Given the opportunity to implement rational price-signals that would empower individuals to use the power of market capitalism to solve the greenhouse gas emission problem, the Republican Party and its’ loyal members in Congress blew it. Don’t blame Democrats or Obama for this regulatory initiative, blame the US Chamber of Commerce and myopic industry executives for failing to be honest with themeselves, not to mention their employees and the American public.
August 12th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
Mr. Bruderly, I appreciate your post at least we can start getting some good dialog here,
and I will take the sarcastic remark of simplistic political ideology as a compliment – when you have regulations – politics is not far behind or is it ahead it’s like the theory of the chicken and the egg which came first(?). The United States is the leading country in the WORLD when it comes to regulated and controled pollution, placing the United States ahead of the game, but it seems that the rest of the World and those in our present government blaming the United States for the pollution of the rest of the World, come on, now you are really making me believe that you think that most of us out here are as simplistic as you think we are. Between China, Russia and India, which are the highest in the populous index, and their industries have NO regulations. So let me get this right you deem it correct to implement a rational price-signals that would EMPOWER individuals to use the power of market capitalism to solve the greenhouse gas emmission problem, let me give you an example of how the power of marketing works with those enamoured by the greenhouse ideology, which trust me I believe in living clean, but let me give an example those light bulbs that are supposed to be green, you know the curly one, granted they may and I say may save on energy but they have MERCURY in them, so when they break or are done for and the need to dispose, what happens to that MERCURY? the other light normal regular light bulb which if you use some common sense, can be just as energy effective WITHOUT THE MERCURY. But then you have all these people running to get these light bulbs, our congress uses more toilet paper from the pooh that is coming out of there because of this nonsense, like lets give more unemployment benefits because it creates jobs. I know here it is again that simplistic political ideology, but the reason for it is that I am just trying to make a point – does it make any sense no Sir, regulations, tariffs, penalties and such are all ready in place, why create more that only complicates things, besides they are not playing in the same sand box, so we the American people have to be the ones to take on the rest of the worlds pollution penalties. the sixty’s mentality is over and done and it’s time for the rest of the world to get with it and that Sir is my opinion, call me simplistic – I thank you.