Krugman: Pollution Won't Create Jobs

You can always count on Paul Krugman to deliver a wonky body blow to the GOP’s economic proposals. In his New York Times column today, Krugman notes a trend in the Republican’s various jobs proposals: a reliance on increased pollution. By dramatically reducing environmental regulations, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney seem to believe they can create 1.2 million jobs. But that figure comes from a study funded by the (not unbiased) oil industry, and the math is easily debunked. What’s more, a new Yale study suggests that the harm inflicted on the economy by high-polluting companies (by harming public health) actually outweighs any value it adds. “The reality is that more pollution wouldn’t solve our jobs problem,” Krugman writes. “All it would do is make us poorer and sicker.”