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How Federal Clean Energy and Manufacturing Funds Spurred Private Spending, Doubling Appalachia’s Climate Infrastructure Investment in Coal Country
Executive Summary
North Central Appalachia, a region hard hit by the boom and bust of extractive industries and the loss of manufacturing jobs over decades, has benefited from recent federal investments in the clean energy economy. In this report, we explore data on clean energy investments to see how Appalachian states in the Ohio River Valley region—Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia—are faring as a result of federal clean energy investment. We find that federal investments have spurred significant private investment in the clean energy economy as new facilities have been built and are being built across our region. These investments have fueled a growing sense of hope that our Appalachian communities can have a thriving future as we build up our clean energy economy and manufacturing capabilities. In this report, we analyze data on public and private investments in the manufacture and deployment of technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S. from the Rhodium Group and MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research’s (CEEPR) Clean Investment Monitor (CIM). We find:
- Federal investments in clean energy, via the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) (also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law or BIL), grew 17-fold between 2022 and 2024, with a total of $11.5 billion in federal investments coming to our four states—Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia—within that 3-year time period.
- Federal investments led to a doubling in clean energy investment in projects in our region between 2022 and 2023—from $7.7 billion to nearly $15.9 billion—with continued increases in 2024.1
- The $11.5 billion in federal investment in our four states from 2022 to 2024 represents a relatively small share of total investment of just over $40 billion tracked in the Clean Investment Monitor over the same period—with private investment in clean energy technologies somewhere between 3 and 4 times larger than that of public investment. The majority of capital invested in clean energy is coming from private sources, with those funds attracted in by federal tax credits, grants, loans and loan guarantees
- Communities across the region have benefited from these clean energy investments, with most Congressional districts in our four-state region seeing between $1 million and $5.7 billion in clean energy investments between the beginning of 2022 and the end of 2024.
- The 27 Republican districts in our four-state region have seen an estimated $18 billion in investments between 2022 and 2024, while 13 Democratic districts saw an estimated $5.2 billion.
- Republican districts, which represent 68% of our region’s Congressional districts, saw 77% of the actual clean energy investments in our four-state region between 2022 (Q1) and 2024 (Q4).
- Republican districts, which represent 68% of our region’s Congressional districts, saw 77% of the actual clean energy investments in our four-state region between 2022 (Q1) and 2024 (Q4).
- Our four-state Appalachian region has seen an estimated $23.2 billion investment between 2022 and 2024 in the manufacturing and deployment of greenhouse gas-reducing technologies. Even more investment is outstanding—another $23.7 billion is still in the pipeline to be spent.
As we show, the IRA and IIJA have sparked a clean energy economic surge in Appalachia, bringing hope to a region previously devastated by fleeing manufacturing and loss of fossil fuel jobs. New investments have disproportionately created construction and now manufacturing jobs, while strong labor standards in the federal bills ensured that many new, clean jobs are unionized, higher paid, with good benefits.
Under President Trump’s second administration, however, continued growth of clean energy investments, including those subsidized by IRA tax credits, is uncertain. Choking off federal support will hurt businesses, workers, and communities, and threatens to nip in the bud the region’s best chance at economic renewal in more than half a century. Bipartisan Congressional support for maintaining the clean economy investments unleashed by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act is vital to ensuring that our regional momentum won’t be lost, and that we can continue to build a brighter future for Appalachia.