Abstract
We examine fossil-fuel power plant employment impacts of new nitrogen oxides (NO x ) provisions under Title I of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAAs). These provisions required installation of reasonably available control technology (RACT) for NO x emissions for major stationary sources in the Ozone Transport Region and in more stringently classified ozone nonattainment areas. Standard approaches using nonattainment designation to identify regulatory impacts abstract from important implementation aspects such as when regulatory changes occur, where regulations are in effect, and which specific regulations apply. Omitting these factors can introduce bias by contaminating the control group, leading to underestimation of historical employment impacts and overestimation of projected impacts from tightening regulations. Our results indicate that the new NO x RACT requirements negatively impacted power plant employment. We find no significant impacts on generation, suggesting that installation of pollution controls may have contributed to labor-saving technical change at affected units.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 111-149 |
Number of pages | 39 |
Journal | Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 2019 |
Keywords
- Clean Air Act
- Electric power utilities
- Employment
- Environmental regulation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Economics and Econometrics
- Nature and Landscape Conservation
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
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Dive into the research topics of 'How did air quality standards affect employment at US power plants? The importance of timing, geography, and stringency'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Datasets
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NOx RACT and power plant employment
Shadbegian, R. J. (Contributor), Ferris, A. E. (Contributor) & Sheriff, G. (Contributor), Environmental Protection Agency, Jan 1 2020
DOI: 10.23719/1506073, https://doi.org/10.23719%2F1506073
Dataset
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NOx RACT and power plant employment
Shadbegian, R. J. (Contributor), Ferris, A. E. (Contributor) & Sheriff, G. (Contributor), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Repository, Jan 1 2020
DOI: 10.23719/1506073, https://edg.epa.gov/metadata/catalog/search/resource/details.page?uuid=https://doi.org/10.23719/1506073
Dataset