EPA Climate Regulations Expected to Hit Manufacturing Sector Especially Hard

A short paper recently released by the Heritage Foundation takes a look at the expected manufacturing job losses as a result of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan. Predictably, they are significant.

Using a social cost of carbon (SCC) equal to $37 per ton, the Heritage Energy Model (HEM) was used to determine the economic impact such climate regulations would have on the U.S. economy down to the state and, most interestingly, even to a congressional district level.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Rust Belt, home to what remains of the country’s once dominant industrial sector, can expect to see the largest losses in manufacturing jobs by 2023. Historically impoverished communities in many southern states that rely heavily on manufacturing jobs will also not be spared.

Environmental regulations cannot be imposed in a vacuum – the U.S. economy is a very dynamic institution. Policymakers should definitely keep this axiom in mind.