According to Peng, one of the strengths of the research is its relevance to Pennsylvania policymakers and regulators. Aligned with her group’s mission to develop human-centered energy systems models to inform more realistic and durable climate policies, Peng and her team engaged with state agencies and other stakeholders in the research process to build models that provide the most relevant information.

“Our work is very action-oriented,” Peng said. “When we designed the scenarios, we had the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in mind. With both this paper and our previous one, we thought about the kinds of analyses that would be helpful to them as decision-makers.”

Still, the team is continuing to expand their model to provide information about several other relevant factors, such as the impact of retirement decisions on local job loss and creation. In their current model, for example, coal retirements in Pennsylvania often spurred energy generation in other areas of the PJM Interconnection, meaning that jobs in local communities associated with coal may not be replaced with new energy sector jobs in the same community.

“People care about having better air quality and lower pollution, but they also care about their jobs,” said Campos Morales. “So not only is it important to understand how these retirement decisions could impact people’s livelihoods, but also to think about how we can help people who have been working in the coal industry to transition to careers in renewable energy or other industries.”