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The Economy and the Environment: No More False Choices
by Paul Templet, Secretary of the DEQ (1988-1992) A clean environment is good for business—that is the lesson our nation’s most prosperous states are putting into practice today. Old thinking would have us believe that we have to pollute our air, water, and land in order to compete for jobs. But in fact, cleaning up the environment creates new jobs. In addition, 21st Century businesses, the kind that offer good jobs for the long-term, locate where they can attract highly qualified employees. Well trained and educated people don’t want to live in polluted places, nor will they accept a compromised quality of life that limits where they can hike, swim, and enjoy the outdoors. Witness the low pollution, high incomes, good jobs, and economic opportunities of the West Coast and Northeast states. Their populations are attracted to and insist on a clean environment. Here in Louisiana, we have been slow to learn this lesson even though we have seen it work. During the years when Buddy Roemer was governor (1988-1992), the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) focused on reducing pollution. As a result, manufacturing sector pollutants released to the environment declined about 50%, the greatest decline ever achieved by a single state in such a short time. Over the years 1987-1993, personal income increased over 15%, twice the national rate over the same period. Jobs in manufacturing also increased by over 24,000 as pollutants were declining. This represented a 15% gain in job creation at a time when the U.S. as a whole lost 717,000 manufacturing jobs. Contrary to sound bites offered by industry spokespersons, our state’s own experience shows that reducing pollution creates jobs.
From 1993-2004, state efforts to reduce pollution stagnated. During those years, Louisiana lost nearly 37,000 manufacturing jobs, even though we were granting property tax exemptions to the manufacturing sector worth some $3.6 billion. In effect, we paid to lose jobs, and we took tax dollars away from parishes that could have used the money to fund education and other public services.
Why would income and jobs increase when pollution declines? The answer is simple: spending money to reduce pollution requires industry to buy equipment and hire new employees. During the Roemer years, annual pollution control spending by industry peaked at about $1.1 billion, a figure that is still below the per state national average. For industrial suppliers, many of them located in Louisiana, the trickle down effect was substantial. These and other businesses saw major increases in revenue as a result of the Roemer years’ emphasis on pollution control.
We often hear that industry will be hurt if it is required to spend money on curbing pollution. But a look at how such costs are paid reveals that argument as false. Most of the industries in Louisiana are multinational and compete with their sister plants in other states for a share of the pollution control budget allocated each year by corporate head offices. If the environmental regulations in California are stronger than Louisiana’s, then the money goes to California and we lose out. When Louisiana’s policies and practices were aimed at reducing pollution, we got our fair share of pollution control money and the jobs and incomes that went with it.
Let’s stop accepting a false choice between jobs or a clean environment. The truth is that cleaning up our act will create more jobs, boost incomes, improve our health, and offer us more opportunities. It’s time Louisianians, like other citizens in the U.S., had access to these basic building blocks of the good life. |
