A new report A ReImagine Appalachia study released today shows that 67% of the region’s 92,282 projected clean energy jobs (more than 61,000 jobs) are now at risk due to dramatic policy changes under the Trump administration. “Tracking the Appalachian Impacts: What’s on the Line as Federal Funding Flatlines” documents how clean energy investments in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky have leveled off after historic growth.
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The analysis tracks quarterly data from 2018 through the third quarter of 2025, examining both federal and private investments in three categories: energy and industrial deployment, clean energy production, and retail purchases of greenhouse gas-reducing technologies. According to the report, clean energy investments, which had tripled between 2021 and 2024 and peaked at $4.7 billion in the third quarter of 2024, have now stagnated, with energy and industrial spending falling from $1.27 billion in the third quarter of 2024 to $445 million in the third quarter of 2025.
The report also addresses how changes in funding by the Trump administration have affected local projects.
“The Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act brought unprecedented investment and job creation to communities across our region,” said Diana Polson, co-author of the report. “We’ve documented $9.85 billion in energy and industrial investments, $18.8 billion in clean energy production and $22.3 billion in retail purchases of clean technologies since 2022. These have transformed our communities and created good-paying jobs that don’t require a college degree. Now we’re watching those opportunities slip away as federal funding stagnates.”
The analysis predicts that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) will increase residential energy prices, sabotage job creation, and cede U.S. leadership in clean energy and manufacturing to foreign competitors, with Appalachians bearing the brunt of these consequences.
“The data tells a clear story. Clean energy production grew from almost nothing in 2018 to substantial investments in 2023, with 72% going to battery production and 19% to zero-emission vehicles,” said Rike Rothenstein, co-author of the report. “But the momentum has stalled. Federal investments in clean energy declined dramatically as President Trump took office for his second term, and the proposed One Big Beautiful Bill Act threatens to completely dismantle the remaining programs. From a canceled furnace upgrade at the Cleveland-Cliffs steel mill in Middletown, Ohio, to a stalled solar project on former mining land in Nicholas County, West Virginia, our case studies show how these cuts are impacting our communities.”
The full report includes state-by-state breakdowns and quarterly investment tracking.
“What is particularly devastating is that the majority of the jobs at risk are in construction and manufacturing, exactly the kind of blue-collar work our communities need,” said Dana Kuhnline, co-author of the report. “These investments targeted places like Appalachia that have been left behind. The chaotic efforts to dismantle them will have particularly devastating consequences here, raising residential energy prices, sabotaging job creation and ceding U.S. leadership in clean energy to foreign competitors.”
News item from ReImagine Appalachia
