Power-plant regulations cost jobs at plants and coal mines, but create jobs in retrofitting industries

When the Environmental Protection Agency announced new air-pollution standards for power plants last year, utilities and the coal industry protested, saying electricity rates would soar, plants would close and workers would lose jobs. Bloomberg Businessweek's Elizabeth Dwoskin and Mark Drajem report that regulations do cut jobs, but those are almost completely replaced by jobs created at companies that make retrofitting equipment for power plants.

The Institute of Clean Air Companies, a trade group that represents emission-reduction companies, said 300,000 jobs could be added per year through 2017. "The job creation and the job destruction roughly cancel each other out," said Richard Morgenstern, researcher with the non-partisan Resources for the Future.

The job figures are national, so the regulations could cost jobs in certain geopgraphical areas and add them in others. Studies also show that reduction in air and water pollution around power plants decreases illness, medical tests, missed work and hospitalizations in the work force.

Utilities and states reliant on coal are suing EPA to block the regulations. The federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., put the new rules on hold until the suit is resolved. (Read more)