Report: Environmental Protection Creates Jobs

Environmental regulations are frequently seen as being in tension with robust employment. There is evidence, though, suggesting that environmental protection can provide economic boons, including job creation.

A report [PDF] released last week by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation confronts the relationship between jobs and environmental protection and makes the case that, in many situations, pollution regulations benefit the economy.

“Sweeping assertions about economic ruin caused by environmental regulations are nothing new, and many economists have concluded that there is no substance to them,” reads the report. “Claims that a good quality of life demands a tradeoff between jobs and the environment have repeatedly been proven false over the last four decades.”

The report, provocatively titled “Debunking the ‘Job Killer’ Myth: How Pollution Limits Encourage Jobs in the Chesapeake Bay Region,” presents a number of case studies in which increased environmental regulation led to job creation in the Chesapeake region.

(Read more about Climate and the Environment at Campus Progress.)

Researchers point to the environmental labor sector which has emerged since the advent of anti-pollution legislation, which is now worth some $312 billion a year and employs 1.7 million individuals, as well as creating specialty jobs within existing industries. Seventy-five percent of those jobs, the report estimates, are attributed to government regulation.

In one case study, a dairy farm in Thomasville, Pennsylvania used a combination of federal funding and their own capital to invest in an up-to-date runoff control system. Previously, the owner had been forced to spread the manure from his herd of 170 cows on the frozen cropland during the winter, causing manure to run off into a nearby stream during the thaw.

Not only did that farm drastically improve its environmental footprint, according to the report, but it created employment in the community.

“The renovations and larger barn rejuvenated his family’s business by providing facilities large enough to expand his herd by 80 cows, to 250,” reads the report. “The construction reduced runoff pollution and gave a small boost to the local economy, which benefited through the hiring of 25 workers—including excavators, building contractors, concrete layers, designers, plumbers, and electricians.”

In another example, the report details investments by Montgomery County, Maryland in storm water pollution-control devices called “bump outs,” which use patches of flora to purify rainfall runoff. The county has invested $305 million and 3,300 workers over the next three and a half years to install hundreds of the systems in order to meet Chesapeake Bay pollution limits.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is a non-profit organization which campaigns for environmental protection of the Chesapeake Bay, an estuary bordering on Maryland and Virginia that has dealt with severe environmental threats since the 1970s.

Jon Christian is a staff writer with Campus Progress. Follow him on Twitter @Jon_Christian.

Related Stories

• Public Opinion Snapshot: Millennials Want a More Equitable Society
• Student Loan Debt Seems to Rise No Matter What the Economy Does
• Theatre of the Absurd: Former For-Profit College Advisor Takes His Story of Corruption to the Stage
• How Student Debt Impacts Students of Color
• REPORT: The Cost of College Will Soar if Interest Rates Allowed to Double