It turns out that strong climate policy, similar to the Energy Innovation Act, would provide substantial economic benefits to America’s rural communities. Wind and solar energy would expand dramatically, and construction and maintenance of these renewable projects would bring jobs and money to communities in need of the boost. Further, over 80% of the financial benefits would flow to District’s currently held by Republicans! CCL has worked with consultants to generate estimates of the direct annual revenue accruing to each District as a result of a policy similar to a carbon tax, and we’ve produced a two-page summary handouts explaining the benefit for each (similar to the Household Impact Study). 


Join Jerry Hinkle, CCL Research Coordinator for a training on CCL district-specific research that estimates the annual direct revenue accruing to each district from the renewable energy buildout that would result from strong climate policy.  This analysis synthesizes the recent reporting done by RMI and work from UPenn Researcher Kevin Ummel, and it demonstrates that renewable energy development offers significant rural America economic development opportunities.


Skip ahead to the following section(s):
(0:00) Intro & Agenda
(2:57) Background - the Benefit
(5:15) The Policy Scenario
(9:47) Estimating Economic Benefits
(22:34) Advocacy Tools


Rural Economic Benefits of Climate Policy Resource Page: http://community.citizensclimate.org/resources/item/19/103 
Interactive Map: https://community.citizensclimate.org/tools/rural_economic_impact_map 
Presentation Slides: https://cclusa.org/rural-economic-benefits-slides