Study: Energy Bills Job Losses To Hit Southeast, Great Lakes, and Texas-Oklahoma Hardest

East and West Coast elites in the media and Congress have long controlled the debate over U.S. energy policy, and they sometimes use that power to hamstring competitors in Southern, Midwestern, and Mountain states. For example, the Clean Air Act and other policies favor dirty eastern coal over cleaner low-sulfur coal in Utah. The same coalition of coastal elites regularly blocks new exploration in Alaska even though locals there overwhelmingly favor it. The latest round of energy proposals before Congress is no different, according the results of a new econometric analysis by CRA.

The study, which was commissioned by API, an oil-industry trade association, ran the bills through the MRN-NEEM modeling system and found that the energy bills now before Congress would hit some areas harder than others:

By 2030, the proposed legislation is projected to cause a net loss of roughly 4.9 million total jobs from baseline levels. While all regions of the country would be adversely impacted, the Southeast, areas around the Great Lakes, and Texas-Oklahoma regions would be disproportionately affected.

It will be interesting to see if legislators from these regions vote for higher taxes and more regulations that will hit their constituents hardest. Here’s the study’s job loss map: