Majority of top states for jobs from new clean energy projects are GOP, battleground

Politically conservative and battleground states are leading the way in jobs created by new clean energy projects announced since President Biden’s signature climate law passed two years ago, according to a new report.

Since the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was passed in August 2022, at least 334 clean energy projects have been announced, said E2, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization focused on the environment and economy. A subset of 278 of those projects included job information in their announcements, totaling 109,278 new jobs if all reached fruition.

More than two-thirds of the 15 states projected to see the most jobs are either Republican or toss-up states, according to The Cook Political Report, which assesses the current political climate of each state. Georgia, South Carolina, Michigan, North Carolina and Texas top the list.

Notably, no Republicans voted for the IRA and the law could be weakened or repealed depending on the outcome of the November congressional and presidential elections.

Last month, 18 Republican members of the House of Representatives wrote a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson defending the investments and jobs created by the IRA and begging him to tread carefully when considering whether and how to repeal or reform the law.

“There shouldn’t be anything partisan about creating jobs, driving economic growth, making America more competitive in the fastest growing economic sector in the world right now, and folks that try to make it political are just wrong,” Bob Keefe, the executive director of E2, told Cipher.

“It gets a lot harder to say, ‘We don’t like electric vehicles,’ and ‘We don’t think solar panels work,’ when you’re the one actually making them,” he said.