Analysis: Climate Bill Will Stimulate Job Creation

A report on the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act by the nonpartisan Peterson Institute of International Economics shows that the bill’s provisions would prompt $41.1 billion in investments in the electricity sector annually between 2011 and 2030. “This stimulates US economic growth and job creation in the first decade, increasing average annual employment by 200,000 jobs,” the report said.

By pricing carbon, the bill would make fossil fuel prices more expensive, but efficiency improvements would “largely offset these energy price increases”, with households seeing between a $136 increase to a $35 decrease in average yearly energy expenditures. Between 2011 and 2030, households would see an average 3 per cent increase in electricity rates and a 5 per cent increase in gasoline prices, the report said. However, any rise in electricity or gasoline prices for households would be offset by energy efficiency gains.

The report said the bill would reduce US

oil imports by up to 40 per cent below current levels by 2030, cutting spending on imported oil by $93 billion per year.