Spurred by the Biden-Harris Administration’s record investments in climate, clean energy, and manufacturing, clean energy employment increased by 142,000 jobs in 2023, accounting for more than half of new energy sector jobs and growing at a rate more than twice as large as that for the rest of the energy sector and the U.S. economy overall.

Today the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released the 2024 U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER), a study designed to track and understand employment trends across the energy sector. As the private sector continues to announce major investments in American-made energy spurred by the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda, the 2024 USEER shows that the energy workforce overall added over 250,000 jobs in 2023; 56% of those were in clean energy.

For the first time, unionization rates in clean energy, at 12.4%, surpassed the average rate in the energy sector of 11%, driven by rapid growth in unionized construction and utility industries. The sectors experiencing significant growth include zero-emission vehicle and renewable energy, as well as transmission, distribution, and storage—sectors crucial to achieving the Administration’s goal to reach 100% clean electricity by 2035 and delivering cheaper, more resilient energy to every community.

In 2023, clean energy was the driving factor for growth in the energy sector; jobs in clean energy grew by 4.2%, more than twice as much as the already-robust job growth rate of 2.0% in the overall economy.

Motor vehicle jobs are growing, and the most rapid growth is in zero-emission vehicles. Nationwide, jobs in motor vehicles grew, with clean vehicle employment increasing 11.4%, adding 24,826 jobs.

 

Auto manufacturing and assembly conversion

One of the most significant job-supporting steps related to vehicle electrification was announced in July. As part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the DOE announced $1.7 billion to support the conversion of 11 shuttered or at-risk auto manufacturing and assembly facilities across eight states—Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, and Virginia—to manufacture electric vehicles and their supply chain.

“There is nothing harder to a manufacturing community than to lose jobs to foreign competition and a changing industry,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “Even as our competitors invest heavily in electric vehicles, these grants ensure that our automotive industry stays competitive.”

These investments will create and retain thousands of good-paying union jobs and support the American auto communities that have driven the U.S. economy for generations.

“This ground-breaking program is central to catalyzing expansion of the industrial capacity to help us meet the President’s climate goals and allow tens of thousands of skilled American workers to participate in the great comeback story of American manufacturing,” said Assistant to the President and National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi.

The selectees of the Domestic Manufacturing Auto Conversion Grants program will negotiate for awards to enable them to manufacture products covering a broad range of the automotive supply chain, including parts for electric motorcycles and school buses, hybrid powertrains, heavy-duty commercial truck batteries, and electric SUVs.

Among the company and facility projects selected for potential funding were:

  • American Autoparts, Inc (Mobis North America, LLC) for an MNA-OH PHEV conversion and MUSe battery system assembly plant construction in Toledo, OH
  • Blue Bird Body Company for a bus electric vehicle manufacturing conversion project in Fort Valley, GA
  • Cummins Electrified Power NA, Inc. for charting a path for workforce transition and community improvement toward a zero-emissions economy in Columbus, IN
  • Stellantis for Fiat-Chrysler conversion of Belvidere Assembly Plant to a vehicle assembly complex for electrification in Belvidere, IL, and conversion of a transmission plant for electric drive modules in Kokomo, IN
  • General Motors LLC for EV conversion in Lansing, MI
  • Harley Davidson, Inc. for EV conversion in York, PA
  • Volvo Technology of America, LLC for a manufacturing conversion of commercial trucks from fossil fuel to zero emissions for Volvo Group’s Mack and Volvo Brands in Macungie, PA; Dublin, VA; and Hagerstown, MD
  • ZF North America, Inc., for e-mobility conversion in Marysville, MI

If awarded, the selected projects would collectively create over 2900 new high-quality jobs and help retain over 15,000 highly skilled union workers across all eleven facilities.

The July announcement complements the $177 billion private sector investment in EV and battery manufacturing spurred by the President’s Investing in America agenda.

 

Supporting other electrification initiatives

Other aspects of the EV ecosystem got potential boosts just this month.

On August 27, the Biden-Harris Administration announced $521 million in grants to continue building out EV charging and alternative-fueling infrastructure across 29 states, two Federally recognized tribes, and the District of Columbia, including the deployment of more than 9200 EV charging ports. The new EV infrastructure is expected to increase access and reliability to communities across the U.S. and provide EV charging to light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles along designated highways, interstates, and major roadways.

Since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration, the number of publicly available EV chargers has doubled. Now, there are over 192,000 publicly available charging ports with approximately 1000 new public chargers being added each week.

“The Biden-Harris Administration has been clear about America leading the EV revolution, and thanks to the historic infrastructure package, we’re building a nationwide EV charger network to make sure all drivers have an accessible, reliable, and convenient way to charge their vehicles,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.

On August 15, the DOE, through the Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC), announced $50 million for six states with significant automotive workforces to help small- and medium-sized suppliers adapt manufacturing facilities for the EV supply chain. Made possible again by the Department’s $2 billion Domestic Automotive Manufacturing Conversion Grant program and funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, this announcement supports small- and medium-sized auto suppliers, with the eligible states Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Illinois having until October 15th to apply.

On August 8, the DOE announced $10.2 million for four projects that will advance cost-effective and environmentally responsible processes to produce and refine critical minerals and materials in the U.S. The funding, provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, for manufacturing clean energy technologies such as solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and hydrogen fuel cells will help reach the Biden-Harris Administration’s ambitious climate goals.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey of the U.S. Department of the Interior, more than 95% of the U.S. demand for rare earth elements comes from foreign sources, more than 50% of most critical minerals come from foreign sources, and at least 12 critical minerals come exclusively from foreign sources.

The Critical Material Innovation, Efficiency, and Alternatives funding opportunity will provide up to $150 million over several rounds of project selections to help build a secure, sustainable domestic supply of critical minerals from sources across the U.S. including recycled materials, mine waste, industrial waste, and ore deposits.

The first four projects selected for negotiation fall under the “Alternative Materials” area of interest and focused on developing critical mineral and material alternatives and substitutes:

  • Idaho National Laboratory, Battelle Energy Alliance LLC (Idaho Falls, ID) plans to develop a novel and fully domestic decarbonized pathway to manufacture high-purity synthetic graphite and other durable carbon-based materials from carbon dioxide-based feedstocks.
  • Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Ames, IO) plans to integrate the conversion of copper waste generated through the recycling of permanent magnets with highly energy-efficient chemical processes for producing hydrogen.
  • The Pennsylvania State University (University Park, PA) plans to research the materials science and engineering of boron nitride and its potential application in the manufacture of semiconductor devices as an alternative to gallium, almost none of which is produced in the United States.
  • Aspen Aerogels, Inc. (Northborough, MA) plans to scale up their lithium iron phosphate-based battery technology from bench to pilot scale for use in EVs—as an alternative to lithium‐ion batteries that require key critical materials, such as nickel and cobalt, that are largely sourced from outside the U.S.

In addition to this announcement, DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management has committed an estimated $161 million since January 2021 for projects that support critical minerals and materials exploration, resource identification, production, and processing in traditional mining and fossil fuel-producing communities across the country.