Bill takes steps for Illinois to remain regional leader in clean energy job growth through bold renewable energy policies, funding for workforce training and equity but falls short on climate action SPRINGFIELD — Last night the Illinois Senate passed comprehensive energy legislation that would make Illinois the first state in the Midwest to commit to 100 percent carbon-free power by 2045. However, the bill lacks a […]
America’s Clean Energy Powerhouse in the Wake of Covid-19
Summary:
Driven by the unforeseeable impact of last year’s pandemic and resulting economic crisis, California experienced its first decline in clean energy jobs in 2020 since E2 began tracking such occupations. California’s clean energy economy employed about 480,000 Californians at the end of 2020, down from 537,000 the year before.
However, since the sector’s losses peaked at the end of May 2020, jobs grew back by more than 13 percent compared to less than 6 percent in statewide economy overall. In fact, by the end of 2020 more than half of the clean energy jobs lost between March and May had been regained, leaving the sector down just 9 percent (about 52,000 jobs) since COVID-19. Thanks to decades of smart state climate policy leadership, California’s clean energy economy has proven to not only be a core part of the state’s economy – representing 3 percent of overall state employment – but resilient and robust in the face of crushing economy-wide pressures.
Findings
Despite the overall decline, clean energy remains the biggest job creator across America’s energy sector:
Clean energy employs nearly six times as many workers as work in fossil fuel extraction and generation
More Californians still work in clean energy than work as registered nurses, accountants, lawyers, software designers, or truck drivers.
Median hourly wages for clean energy jobs also are about 29 percent higher than the statewide median wage.
Over half of the state’s clean energy jobs – 244,790 – were in construction with the clean energy economy employing 28 percent of the state’s entire construction workforce.
Colorado Clean Energy Employment, 2020
Energy Efficiency
283,839
Renewables
130,403
Clean Vehicles
42,503
Storage and Grid
22,638
Clean Fuels
5,597
TOTAL
484,980
Policies Matter
While clean energy suffered like many sectors of the economy in 2020, the prospects for growth are greater than ever as detailed in this report. Smart public policy leadership created the market environment to position California’s clean energy economy as a global leader over the last 20 years. Furthermore, policies that drive clean energy investments and job growth can also help mitigate the human toll and the economic cost of climate including the over $100 billion lost to extreme weather events in the U.S. in the last year alone. Climate risk is business risk.
Members of Congress can turn risk into opportunity by passing a robust American Jobs Plan anchored in clean energy investments to fund grid modernization, energy efficiency and electric vehicle charging networks at scale to form the backbone of a cleaner, more resilient economy. California lawmakers must build on existing state climate policy leadership to ensure the state remains a hub of job growth and innovation. Lawmakers must codify our state’s carbon neutrality goals while tightening our emissions mitigation targets, and continue to build out complementary policies to drive climate action to meet these goals.
Background
This is the fourth annual Clean Jobs California report produced by E2 based on analysis of the USEER, which was first released by the DOE in 2016. E2 was an original proponent of the DOE producing the USEER and was a partner on the reports produced by the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI) and National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) after the Trump administration abandoned it in 2017.
For additional insight into E2’s Clean Jobs California or our other annual clean energy economic reports, visit e2.org/reports.
For the first time since Clean Jobs Midwest began tracking Wisconsin clean energy jobs in 2017, Wisconsin clean energy jobs declined during 2020’s pandemic-wracked economy. However, the second half of the year showed significant recovery and a strong promise for the future. Clean energy companies employed 69,343 Wisconsinites at the end of 2020, a 9.6% drop […]
According to E2’s analysis, as of 2021 more than 484,000 Californians worked in clean energy and more than $102 billion in public and private clean energy related investments have been injected into the state. California’s climate policies – including its leading Renewables Portfolio Standard and transportation electrification policies such as Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) rule and the Advanced Clean Cars (ACC) program – are key to this economic growth and future growth as well.
Almost 50 percent of the $8.3 billion in clean energy investments from California’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Funds have benefited disadvantaged and low-income communities and households across the state. The state’s climate policies funded by the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund have cut emissions by the equivalent of taking 14 million cars off the road.
How to Download: Use the tables below to locate and download all 120 factsheets for every California state legislative district. Each factsheet details out the district-specific jobs and economic impact resulting from California’s climate policies.
For more information on the source and methodology used to compile the numbers on this sheet, please see Understanding The Numbers or visit https://e2.org/reports/caclimateleadership/sources.
Statewide Jobs Report
For details on clean energy’s statewide impact on jobs in California, including data at the county, metro, congressional district levels, and for details by subsector and value chain, visit E2’s Clean Jobs California 2021 report page.
U.S. Energy & Employment Report (USEER)
This district-by-district report follows E2’s Clean Jobs America analysis which found the clean energy jobs account for over 3 million jobs across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Both reports expand on data from the U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER) produced by the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI) in partnership with the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO), using data collected and analyzed by the BW Research Partnership. E2 is a partner on the USEER, the fifth installment of the energy survey first released by the Department of Energy in 2016. Additional methodology on the private and public investment number and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund investments can be found in our About The Numbers reference document.
The pandemic drove employment in Minnesota’s renewable energy and conservation businesses down 10% to 55,329 last year, disrupting several years of double-digit growth. … The report was released by sponsors E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs) and nonprofits Clean Energy Trust and Clean Energy Economy Minnesota amid revelations that wind-and-solar power have become the cheapest forms of electrical […]
California is already suffering dire economic impacts from the effects of climate change, presenting significant business and economic risk to the world’s fifth largest economy. The costs of extreme climate events such as wildfires and droughts have risen steadily throughout the past decade, and are projected to increase dramatically in California if current trajectories continue. These costs are being borne by everyone who lives, pays taxes, buys insurance, or works in California.
At the same time, aggressively addressing climate change — reducing greenhouse gas emissions while growing the state’s clean energy economy — presents one of the greatest economic opportunities of the 21st century. Ambitious climate action produces robust job creation, sustainable economic growth, and California leading global innovation across a wide range of industry sectors. Members of Congress can seize this opportunity by passing a bold American Jobs Plan anchored in clean energy investments; California lawmakers must build on existing state climate policy leadership to ensure the state remains a nexus of investment and innovation in the 21st-century economy.
Findings
$55 Billion in direct property damage from California wildfires, 2017 – 2020
$47 billion in economic activity in California’s clean ocean economy under threat from sea level rise and ocean warming
$50.5 billion in overall production value of California’s 77,500 farms, which now face regular threats from droughts and other climate change-related impacts.
484,980 jobs – Nearly a half million Californians are employed in the clean energy economy, representing 285 of the state’s construction workers and 3% of California’s economy-wide workforce
#1 export – Electric vehicles were the state’s most valuable export in 2020, producing nearly $5.7 billion in revenue
About this Report
This report reviews and compares the damage to California’s economy from recent climate-related disasters and risks from future unabated climate change to the potential impact specific climate action policies could have on job and economic growth in the state’s core industries such as technology, construction, agriculture, and tourism. The report, made possible by the Leslie and Susan Gonda (Goldschmied) Foundation, uses publicly-available information and data from previous E2 analysis, BW Research, state and federal agencies, the University of California system, and other sources.
Looking for More Info?
If you are looking for additional insight into the clean economy and how it drives job growth, please see E2’s other clean energy employment reports, visit e2.org/reports.
Over 50,000 Missourians now work in clean energy jobs. That growing figure currently ranks the state a middling 22nd in number of clean energy jobs and 25th as a percentage of total employment. But renewable energy advocates in the state are particularly encouraged by Missouri’s recent surge in wind power production and new legislation that is expected to speed the […]
By E2 Interns: Kai Diep and Andrea Guerra California regulators have a critical opportunity to drive economic growth in the state’s blossoming zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) industry and help achieve state climate targets by advancing a strong Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) rule with a 100% electric truck sales requirement by 2035. This ambitious yet achievable goal […]
Missouri’s clean energy job market faced a considerable decline during 2020’s economic downturn but still managed to bounce back by the end of the year, according to a recent study. More than 9,300 clean energy workers filed for unemployment in Missouri at the peak of the economic crisis tied to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the 2020 Clean Jobs Midwest report from […]
The COVID-19 pandemic hit the Midwest clean energy job market hard, with more than 17,000 workers at one point filing for unemployment. But the industry appears to be rebounding, according to an analysis of employment data released by the nonpartisan business group E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs) and Clean Energy Trust. Clean energy companies employed 113,456 Michiganders at the […]
According to the nonpartisan business group E2, or Environmental Entrepreneurs, more than 115,000 Illinoisans worked in the clean energy sector at the end of last year, with workers in all of the state’s 102 counties. The final 2020 job numbers show an 8.2% drop in Illinois’ clean energy workforce from 2019, representing more than 10,000 […]
After Rough Year, Clean Energy Jobs on the Upswing in the Midwest
More than 677,900 Midwesterners worked in clean energy and clean vehicles at the end of 2020, making the sector a major – and promising – part of the region’s economy, according to this comprehensive analysis of employment data.
Like most of the economy, clean energy was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn in 2020. According to this year’s Clean Jobs Midwest, 2020 was the first year-to-year decline since E2 and Clean Energy Trust began tracking Midwest clean energy jobs. At one point, more than 131,600 Midwest clean energy workers had filed for unemployment, but the sector surged back 10.7 percent in the second half of the year to recover more than half of the jobs initially lost. The final 2020 job numbers represent an 8.9 percent drop in the Midwest clean energy workforce from 2019, or 66,100 jobs. Last year’s job losses were a dramatic change of pace for the industry. Last year’s job losses were a dramatic change of pace for the industry. In the 3 years leading up to 2020, for example, clean energy jobs grew almost 4 times as fast as overall employment.
MIDWEST HIGHLIGHTS
Energy Efficiency – 470,651 jobs
Clean Vehicles – 90,652 jobs
Renewable Energy – 84,881 jobs
Grid & Storage – 24,209 jobs
Clean Fuels – 7,525 jobs
ALL Clean Energy Sectors – 677,918 jobs
OTHER KEY FINDINGS
The biggest sector of the Midwest’s clean energy industry is energy efficiency, accounting for nearly 70 percent of the region’s clean energy jobs. But as more automakers and their suppliers continue to shift to electric vehicles, the advanced transportation sector saw a job increase of 3 percent across the region, with growth in most states. The sector added nearly 3,000 new jobs for a total of more than 90,000 workers.
Among clean energy subsectors, wind power, hybrid cars, and electric vehicles were the region’s brightest spots. Wind energy jobs in the region grew by more than 4 percent to 37,800 workers and the number of hybrid vehicle manufacturing employees grew by 6 percent to 43,000 workers. Electric vehicle (EV) jobs grew by an even healthier 8.5 percent, and are poised for future growth with supportive policies and significant commitments to EVs by major regional employers such as Ford and GM.
Clean energy jobs are found in every corner of the region. While big cities like Chicago (81,707), Detroit (50,229), and Minneapolis (34,958) were some of the largest hubs for clean energy jobs, more than one in five — or more than 143,800 — jobs are in rural areas.
DOWNLOAD
The complete report along with interactive breakdowns for all states is available at this link.
Federal judge blocks illegal regulatory attacks on clean energy by the Trump administration, providing a preliminary victory for wind and solar energy -- the quickest-to-deploy power available that keeps electricity prices affordable for consumers and compa...
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February 12 2026
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