Later this month, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, and a raft of policy changes are sure to come. Among others, the president-elect has vowed to roll back proposed regulations covering power plant emissions, contending that they will hurt the economy and put U.S. industries at a competitive disadvantage.
Whether you agree with that or not, reducing carbon emissions is not necessarily at odds with economic competitiveness. For example, the Alliance for Industrial Efficiency (AIE) released a report last fall ranking states by their ability to slash carbon emissions through industrial energy efficiency. Since the industrial sector uses more energy than any other sector of the economy—approximately one-third of U.S. electricity use—reductions in industrial energy use could reshape energy demand and cut air pollution nationwide.