Associated Press via Fox Business
President Donald Trump has declared that abandoning the Paris climate agreement would be a victory for the American economy.
Many economists have big doubts.
They say the agreement would likely help create about as many jobs in renewable energy as it might cost in polluting industries. Should the United States pull out of the pact and seek to protect old-school jobs in coal and oil, it would risk losing the chance to lead the world in developing environmentally friendly technology — and generate the jobs that come with it. What's more, over the haul, climate change itself threatens to impose huge costs on the economy.
"Withdrawing from the Paris agreement is hardly going to create jobs in the U.S.," says Cary Coglianese, professor at the University of Pennsylvania and editor of the book "Does Regulation Kill Jobs?" ''While specific environmental regulations can sometimes lead to job losses, they also can and do lead to job gains — with the result being roughly a wash." ...
Economists say that leaving the Paris deal and easing efforts to control emissions would hardly deliver a big payoff in jobs. A 2001 study by Eli Berman and Linda Bui, both then at Boston University, found "no evidence that local air quality regulation substantially reduced employment" when Los Angeles imposed stricter environmental restrictions.
"There's no doubt that regulations have costs, but they are not the primary driver of employment," says Michael Greenstone, an economist at the University of Chicago.
