An Economic Analysis of Appalachian Power Industry Ecosystems County-level PIE Supply Chain Analysis

This report describes an effort to provide for the Appalachian Region a clearer picture of the implications for the Power Industry Ecosystem (PIE) of power generating technology transitions and the geographical variations in PIE impacts. We develop and implement three measures that reveal meaningful characteristics of the PIE at the county level in terms of industry and place-based PIE dependence, changes in PIE-dependent employment, and susceptibility to impacts from a continued energy sector transition. We then use these three measures-Dependence, Impact, and Risk-to form a typology that we apply to identify and focus on counties in three identifiable categories: Hardship counties, Vulnerable counties, and Depressed counties.