WASHINGTON, DC – During his address to Congress on Wednesday night, President Biden is expected to speak about his American Jobs Plan that promises to create millions of good-paying clean energy jobs with investments in infrastructure, clean vehicles and climate action. Following is a statement from Bob Keefe, executive director of the national nonpartisan business […]
At the same time, many businesses and utilities recognized that the broader economy was heading toward renewable sources of energy, in large part because wind- and solar-generated energy has become much cheaper than energy generated from fossil fuels. There are about 3 million clean energy workers in America, according to the latest annual jobs report […]
The U.S. had reported as many as 600,000 clean energy job losses at one point last year, but a strong rebound reduced that number to about 307,000 job losses by the end of the year, said Bob Keefe, executive director of Environmental Entrepreneurs, on Monday. Colorado’s clean energy industry employed 58,182 people at the end […]
The only industries to come out ahead in 2020 were wind, which saw a modest growth of 2,000 jobs, and electric vehicle manufacturing, which grew by 3% and added over 12,000 jobs. Those electric vehicle gains “would not have happened if companies like Ford, GM and VW had not decided in the latter half of […]
Bob Keefe, the executive director of E2, said many clean energy companies are struggling to find enough workers with the right training. The country already has more clean energy workers than real estate agents, farmers or bankers, his organization noted. “They’re not blue state jobs, they’re not red state jobs,” Keefe said. ‘These are red, […]
Other Biden environmental goals, such as increasing the use of electric vehicles, have drawn concerns from unions that fear such a move could imperil the jobs of autoworkers. Still, clean energy employs nearly three times as many workers in fossil fuel extraction and generation, according to an employment report released Monday by Environmental Entrepreneurs, a […]
Wind, solar, and other clean energy jobs rebounded in late 2020 from devastating losses stemming from Covid-19, but the sector has roughly 300,000 fewer jobs than it did before the pandemic, according to a Monday report
Clean energy sees first recorded drop in overall jobs, yet policies hold promise for unparalleled growth in years ahead Sector recovered 300,000 jobs since unemployment peaked in Q2 Clean vehicles and wind energy finish year in the positive, despite early losses WASHINGTON, DC – Clean energy jobs surged nearly 11 percent in the second half […]
In 2020, the number of clean energy jobs in America fell for the first time since E2 began tracking nationwide employment across the entire clean energy sector in 2015. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic contraction and the lingering impacts of policies from the previous administration that encouraged fossil fuels over clean energy, nearly 307,000 jobs were lost in wind, solar, energy efficiency and other clean energy sectors.
About 3 million Americans worked in clean energy at the end of 2020, down from 3.36 million the year before, according to the analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data and the findings of a national survey of more than 30,000 businesses across the U.S. economy.
Despite the overall decline, clean energy remains the biggest job creator across America’s energy sector, employing nearly three times as many workers as work in fossil fuel extraction and generation. More Americans still work in clean energy than work as middle and elementary school teachers, bankers, farmers or real estate agents. Median hourly wages for clean energy jobs also are about 25 percent higher than the national median wage, and also pay better than most fossil fuel extraction jobs (See Clean Energy Wages And Making Good Jobs Even Better sidebar on page 5).
California, Texas, New York and Florida remain the nation’s leaders for clean energy jobs, but smaller states such as Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan and Ohio all employed more than 100,000 clean energy workers each at the end of last year.
| Total Clean Energy | 3,048,603 |
| Renewable Energy | 492,891 |
| Grid & Storage | 137,872 |
| Energy Efficiency | 2,107,174 |
| Clean Fuels | 37,036 |
| Clean Vehicles | 273,630 |
This is the sixth annual Clean Jobs America 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.
If you are looking for additional insight into E2’s Clean Jobs America 2021 or our other clean energy employment reports, visit e2.org/reports. An FAQ is also available here to answer any questions.
Clean Jobs America 2021 is the 6th national clean energy jobs report from E2. Previous reports can be accessed in the below links.
Before the coronavirus pandemic began, there were 3.4 million Americans employed in the clean energy sector, according to a 2020 report from Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), a non-partisan group of business leaders. Many of the new jobs in the pipeline will be to install EV chargers, retrofit buildings and upgrade transmission capacity.
A study commissioned by E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs), the American Council on Renewable Energy and the Clean Energy Leadership Institute found that in 2019, more than 3.3 million Americans worked in clean energy jobs – renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean vehicles and fuels – nearly three times the number in fossil fuels. Last year’s pandemic-triggered economic […]
An electrician who spent 20 years working on transmission lines for coal-fired power plants will be in high demand when building infrastructure for renewable energy projects, and those tend to be union jobs, said Bob Keefe, executive director of E2, a nonpartisan group that advocates for policies that serve the economy and the environment. Clean-energy […]