POLLUTION CONTROL: A Sweet Side To Acid Rain

One reason the U.S. Government has been in a quandary about what to do on the issue of acid-rain pollution is the widespread assumption that the cost of a cleanup would be prohibitive. Now a computer model of the economic impact of two acid-rain-control bills before Congress suggests the opposite is true.

According to a study released last week by Management Information Services, a Washington-based research organization, legislation to reduce sulfur-dioxide emissions from coal-fired utilities would result in a net gain of up to 195,000 American jobs and $13 billion in annual sales for U.S. companies. "Far from hurting the industry," the report says, "the large purchase of capital equipment and supporting goods and services . . . will provide a much needed shot in the arm."

The benefits would not be evenly distributed, however. States producing high- sulfur coal, among them Kentucky, Illinois and Pennsylvania, would come up losers. But some coal-burning states in the Midwest would be among the biggest winners. Michigan, for example, a heavily industrialized state that would be in a position to manufacture pollution-control equipment, could pick up nearly 14,000 new jobs and more than $1 billion in annual corporate revenues.