Secondary economic impact of acid deposition control legislation in six coal producing states: Final report

Abstract

Among the difficult policy questions on the US environmental agenda is what to do about emissions to the earth's atmosphere of pollutants that may result in ''acid rain''. The Congress has considered several pieces of legislation spelling out potential approaches to the problem and setting goals for emission reduction, mostly emphasizing the control of oxides of sulfur and nitrogen. Significant policy concern is the dollar costs to the nation's economy of achieving the intended effects of the legislation and the potential impacts on economic activity---in particular, losses of both coal mining and secondary service sector employment in states and regions dependent on the mining of high sulfur coal. There are several direct economic effects of regulations such as the acid rain control legislation. One of the more obvious effects was the switching from high sulfur coal to low sulfur coal. This would result in increases in employment and coal business procurements in low sulfur coal mining regions, but also would result in lower employment and lower coal business procurements in high sulfur coal mining areas. The potential negative effects are the immediate policy concern and are the focus of this report. 15 refs., 1 fig., 17 tabs.