INTRODUCTION
We all know that new businesses and increased operations will bring a positive economic impact to a region. The environmental impact data in IMPLAN can now shed light on the associated impacts to our environment including everything from greenhouse gas emissions to toxic chemical releases.
EXAMPLE
Let’s take a look at an example where there is a potential to increase the Employment and Output in electricity transmission and distribution in the city of Buffalo, NY, on the shores of Lake Erie. In 2019, there were over 600 employees and $840M in Output in Industry 42 - Electric power transmission and distribution. In our example, let’s say there is the potential to increase the employment to 1,000 and the Output to $1.3M. Great right? Almost 400 new Direct jobs and $500M in new Direct Output! But, what if the city has set a limit on water usage associated with the power transmission and distribution firm’s operations of 1.5B cubic meters?
First let’s take a look at the economic impact. This example would increase the Output by $521,985,019 and Employment by 383 in Erie County, NY using the 2019 Data Year using our Industry Impact Analysis (IIA) detailed event. This gives us a total economic impact of 622 jobs, $104M in Labor Income, $255M in Value Added, and $643M in Output.
The Industry is currently responsible for 275M cubic meters of water withdraws. This new expansion would yield an additional 190.3M cubic meters of Direct water withdraw, with 135,000 cubic meters in Indirect water withdraws, and 122,000 cubic meters of Induced water withdraws; a total of 190.5M cubic meters of water withdraws.
This potential expansion would make the Industry responsible for 190.5M cubic meters; which would not be a violation of the policy of a firm level cap of 1.5B cubic meters. Sounds like they are set to move forward with the project.
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Written July 16, 2021
Updated August 27, 2026