Originally at https://inthesetimes.com
Under the right-wing policy manifesto Project 2025, Americans could lose more than 1.7 million jobs and see a hike in electricity prices to the tune of more than $32 billion by the end of the decade, according to a new study published by the nonpartisan think tank Energy Innovation.
By comparing projections for two distinct paths that the U.S. could go down in the near future, the nonpartisan think tank found that a scenario of “continued climate leadership” — which would see the United States pursue policies to hit Paris Agreement targets — would result in more jobs, improved public health, and cheaper energy prices for households compared to the Project 2025 scenario.
Project 2025, which has become a flashpoint in the presidential election, was developed by the conservative Heritage Foundation. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has disavowed his connections to Project 2025, but the plan was developed by dozens of former officials in Trump’s administration.
But while Trump and like-minded conservatives have said pro-climate policies would kill jobs, the study projects that doubling down on fossil fuels and impeding a transition to green energy would be far worse for both workers and the economy in the long run.
Energy Innovations predicts that by sticking with investments in clean energy projects and providing the foundation for nationwide electrification, a continued climate-centered approach would add 2.2 million jobs to the economy by 2030, with over one million of them coming from the expansion of the clean energy industry. While the Project 2025 scenario would see job growth for those in the fossil fuel industry, those additional jobs are overwhelmingly offset by the losses that would be incurred elsewhere in clean energy.
According to Climate Power, a progressive climate change policy group, more than 334,000 clean energy jobs have been created since Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act in late 2022. These jobs enjoy the support of the federal government, which now provides tens of billions of dollars in investment in work to upgrade power grids, build new clean energy infrastructure, and disaster-proof rural communities in need.
In tandem with this growth, the Biden administration has also pushed for the use of Project Labor Agreements for both federally and privately funded energy projects to protect workers and ensure fair wages. As the total number of clean energy jobs rose by more than 4.2% last year, which was double the rate of job growth in the rest of the industry and economy more broadly, so did the unionization rate. This is in part due to clean energy-producing jobs in utilities development and construction, two sectors that already have high union density compared to other job industries.
In a significant reversal of that progress, Project 2025 outlines a climate vision that would eliminate various agencies within the Department of Energy and diminish the administrative capacity of the Environmental Protection Agency. It also calls for the comprehensive repeal of many tax credits for clean energy projects passed in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. It would even ban the Environmental Protection Agency from researching the effects of toxin exposures on waterways, farmlands, and our urban centers, undermining efforts to combat our ability to understand how the climate is being negatively affected.
All of these initiatives would revert U.S. policy back to the aggressive deregulation of Trump’s administration, which rolled back over 100 environmental rules and regulations between 2017 and 2021. Trump also went to extreme lengths in stacking the EPA with corporate lobbyists and climate deniers. The former president also repealed the Clean Power Plan and a variety of clean automobile standards which would have prevented needless emissions from being released into the atmosphere.
The left-leaning Center for American Progress Action projected in April 2020 that the Trump administration’s anti-renewables policy had led to the loss or suppression of more than 600,000 jobs.
And despite repeated claims that these deregulations boosted the economy, the data shows that jobs in the auto industry, for example, declined over the last two years of Trump’s presidency. The main result of these deregulations was a setback in the efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and experts say that the United States lost precious time in its fight to reach net zero by 2050.
Under the current set of policies designed to hit the Paris Agreement targets, Americans would save more than $110 billion in energy bills across all households by 2050, the Energy Innovation study said. In stark contrast, the think tank says consumers’ energy costs under Project 2025 would increase by more than $24 billion over the same period. The study also found that climate advancements made by the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as the CHIPS and Science Act, have helped put the United States on track to meet its commitments to the Paris Agreement.
If Project 2025 is implemented under a second Trump administration, America’s greenhouse gas emissions could increase by more than 2.75 billion tons above the trajectory we have committed to by 2030, the study said. And with the continued use of fossil fuels and the relative increase in emissions, the U.S. could see more than 4,000 additional premature deaths occur by 2050 instead.
This story was first posted by More Perfect Union.
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