Shaheen Applauds DOE Report That Finds Clean Energy Jobs Grew in Every State In 2022
(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) applauded the clean energy jobs growth reported in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s 2023 U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER), a comprehensive study designed to track and understand employment trends across the energy sector. The 2023 USEER, which Shaheen helped establish, shows that the energy workforce added almost 300,000 jobs (+3.8% growth) in 2022. The exciting data for 2022 is a preview of what to expect in 2023, which will include more of the impact from historic pieces of legislation like the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act (IIJA) that Shaheen helped negotiate, as well as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
According to the new report, New Hampshire had 30,156 energy workers statewide in 2022. Of these energy jobs, 5,842 were in electric power generation; 1,367 in fuels; 3,448 in transmission, distribution, and storage; 11,299 in energy efficiency; and 8,199 in motor vehicles. From 2021 to 2022, energy jobs in the state increased 648 jobs, or 2.2%. The energy sector in New Hampshire represented 4.5% of total state employment.
“The clean energy sector plays a critical role in combating the ongoing climate crisis as well as promoting job creation and economic development in New Hampshire and across the nation,” said Senator Shaheen, whose long-standing efforts to recommit the administration to collecting data and publishing this annual report help guide policy on energy and workforce development. “This new data from the 2023 U.S. Energy and Employment Report shows strong growth in energy jobs, and as investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act really start to gear up, I expect we’ll see this growth accelerate over the next few years.”
USEER is a summary of national and state-level employment, workforce, industry, occupation, unionization, demographic and hiring information in key energy technology groups: Electricity Production and Generation; Transmission, Distribution, and Storage; Fuels; Energy Efficiency; and Motor Vehicles and Component Parts. The USEER began in 2016 to better track and understand employment within key energy sectors that have been difficult to impossible to follow using other publicly available data sources. The study combines surveys of businesses with public labor data to produce estimates of employment and workforce characteristics. When the prior Administration declined to administer the USEER, Shaheen worked with bipartisan colleagues to introduce the Promoting American Energy Jobs Act to restore the Department of Energy’s role in collecting data and releasing this annual report to better inform lawmakers working on policy to grow the clean energy sector.
Clean energy jobs increased in every state reflecting increased investments due to President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. Clean energy jobs grew 3.9% adding 114,000 jobs nationally, increasing to over 40% of total energy jobs. Clean energy technologies, such as solar and wind, accounted for more than 84% of net new electric power generation jobs, adding over 21,000 jobs (+3.6% growth), and jobs related to zero emissions vehicles saw nearly 21% growth, adding over 38,000 jobs.
Senator Shaheen was a lead negotiator of the bipartisan infrastructure law, which provides a $550 billion investment in our nation’s core infrastructure priorities – including roads and bridges, rail, transit, ports, airports, the electric grid, water systems and broadband. Shaheen has long worked to secure federal investments in clean energy and energy efficiency initiatives. In the bipartisan infrastructure law, Shaheen successfully included key provisions of her energy efficiency bill – the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act (ESIC) – with Senator Rob Portman (R-OH). She also included provisions from the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Act, the Promoting American Energy Jobs Act, which ensured the Department of Energy would conduct the USEER annually, and the Heat Efficiency through Applied Technology (HEAT) Act. Shaheen was also a key supporter of the Inflation Reduction Act, which included provisions for clean energy and climate investments in New Hampshire.
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