ackerman-coal-ash-regulation-jobs-oct2011-f2d25eab69364a8b.pdf

This research paper by Frank Ackerman of the Stockholm Environment Institute – U.S. Center analyzes the employment effects of regulating coal ash disposal in the United States under Subtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The author critiques an industry-sponsored study that claimed massive job losses and provides an alternative analysis using the IMPLAN model, concluding that strict regulation would actually result in a net gain of 28,000 jobs.

• The author concludes that strict regulation of coal ash disposal under Subtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act would result in a net gain of 28,000 jobs per year.
• The author argues that a study commissioned by the Utility Solid Waste Action Group (USWAG), which predicted losses of 183,900 to 316,000 jobs, is based on unbelievable and implausibly large numbers.
• The USWAG study is criticized for containing significant numerical errors and unexplained gaps, with approximately one-sixth of its high-end estimate attributed to incorrect calculations or missing explanations.
• The bulk of the USWAG job loss estimate relies on a 1 percent increase in electricity prices, based on a single unpublished paper by Olivier Deschênes. The author notes that Deschênes himself cautioned that employment effects are only "weakly related to electricity prices" and that his research has significant limitations, including the omission of general equilibrium effects.
• The author rejects the industry claim that regulating coal ash disposal would create a "stigma" that discourages ash recycling and destroys jobs in construction and wallboard manufacturing, noting that many other hazardous materials are recycled without such stigma.
• Using an industry cost estimate of $6.47 billion annually (which is 4.3 times higher than the corrected EPA estimate), the author's IMPLAN model shows that new utility expenditures would create 117,253 jobs, while the resulting electricity price increases would cause a loss of 89,210 jobs.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (n.d.). ackerman-coal-ash-regulation-jobs-oct2011-f2d25eab69364a8b.pdf. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate-mitigation-adaptation/Economics_of_climate_policy/Ackerman-coal-ash-regulation-jobs-Oct2011.pdf

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. ackerman-coal-ash-regulation-jobs-oct2011-f2d25eab69364a8b.pdf. n.d. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate-mitigation-adaptation/Economics_of_climate_policy/Ackerman-coal-ash-regulation-jobs-Oct2011.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=ackerman-coal-ash-regulation-jobs-oct2011-f2d25eab69364a8b.pdf |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate-mitigation-adaptation/Economics_of_climate_policy/Ackerman-coal-ash-regulation-jobs-Oct2011.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitutendackermancoalashregulationjobsoct2011f2d25eab69364a8bpdf, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{ackerman-coal-ash-regulation-jobs-oct2011-f2d25eab69364a8b.pdf}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate-mitigation-adaptation/Economics_of_climate_policy/Ackerman-coal-ash-regulation-jobs-Oct2011.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }