Economic Benefits from Advanced Coal Electric Generation
A coalition of key labor and energy industry groups agree that the next generation of advanced clean coal technologies – those that capture and safely store carbon dioxide (CO2) - will create millions of high-skilled, high-wage jobs for American workers.
The Industrial Union Council of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) today released a study entitled “Employment and Other Economic Benefits from Advanced Coal Electric Generation with Carbon Capture and Storage Technologies (Preliminary Results).”
The study estimates the employment and economic benefits resulting from deployment of advanced coal-based electricity generation facilities (power plants) equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies that reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Depending on how many CCS-equipped plants are deployed, some five to seven million man-years of employment could be created during construction and a quarter of a million permanent jobs added during operations (see table below.)
Conducted by BBC Research and Consulting, the study assumes that 20, 65 and 100 gigawatts (GW) of advanced coal-based electricity generation equipped with CCS are added to the nation’s generation mix. (One gigawatt provides enough electricity to power 300,000 - 400,000 homes. There are slightly more than 300 gigawatts of coal-based power plants in operation today). In addition, the study estimates the benefits of HR 6258, introduced by Representative Boucher in 2008, that provides independent funding support for the early commercial demonstration of CCS technologies.
View full ACCCE press statement
View full AFL-CIO statement - PDF
View full UMWA statement - PDF
We spoke with Doug Jeavons, managing director at BBC Research & Consulting, the firm that conducted the study, about the study's findings.
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