400,000 American jobs at risk if clean energy credits are cut

A new study found that hundreds of thousands of jobs could be on the chopping block.

Written by:
Edited by: Alix Langone
Updated May 21, 2025
5 min read
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The GOP’s “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” is threatening the livelihood of 400,000 working Americans, according to a new report from Climate Power.

While the current version parades itself as a pro-family, pro-small-business bill, its marketing thinly veils its true nature: Legislation designed to support big corporations and the wealthiest Americans.

Who will the bill will hurt the most? Workers who live in Republican-held districts, according to Climate Power. 

In less than three years, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has made significant progress in the clean energy sector by strengthening American manufacturing and accelerating renewable energy development. Perhaps most impressively, the IRA offered a solution to the boom-bust cycle long associated with the on-again, off-again nature of clean energy tax credits. By establishing over a decade of predictable policy, the IRA spurred $422 billion in private-sector clean energy investments and helped create more than 400,000 new jobs.

But mounting uncertainty—fueled by the Trump administration’s tariffs and earlier attacks on IRA funding—has already resulted in 62,554 lost, delayed, or at-risk clean energy jobs since Trump’s election, the report says.

Unfortunately, the House GOP’s proposal will likely result in many more jobs lost: hundreds of thousands of jobs in clean energy could disappear. The budget bill currently moving through Congress threatens to dismantle the IRA years ahead of schedule, including valuable clean energy tax credits.

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House Republicans' proposal to gut the IRA in favor of corporate tax cuts would disproportionately affect their own constituencies, as highlighted in Climate Power’s latest Clean Energy Jobs Report. Since the passage of the IRA in August 2022, red districts have seen substantial economic growth from new clean energy projects:

  • 54% of new clean energy projects

  • 210,710 new jobs

  • Nearly $200 billion in investment

Without clean energy tax credits, these investments and jobs are at stake. “Most of these clean energy industries are small, local businesses made up of working families relying on electricians, plumbers, ironworkers, and laborers to pay the bills,” Mike Williams, domestic climate senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP), told EnergySage. “Repeal would rip the rug from under those businesses and those working people.”

Climate Power map
Climate Power

While amendments are anticipated before the final bill reaches the President’s desk, the job-creating, cost-saving clean energy tax credits are at serious risk of termination with little to no phase-down period. Such a move would devastate clean energy industries, U.S. manufacturing, and the hundreds of thousands of jobs these policies support. 

“The viability of this industry, as with most others, requires a level of business certainty,” Williams said. “Repealing these credits throws the industry into serious uncertainty, especially in red states without good clean energy policies. This will lead to disinvestment, loss of jobs, and a loss of opportunity for working families to lower their energy costs.”

Despite the proposed bill’s blatant attack on economically productive clean energy programs, clean energy tax policy has a long bipartisan history, and some Republican Senators are fighting to protect the IRA tax credits. Still, many GOP lawmakers support tax cuts for the very wealthy at the expense of their constituents’ livelihoods.

“The IRA mobilizes private capital into economically productive, job-creating, cost-saving activities,” Kristina Costa, former White House advisor, told EnergySage. “The big reason its provisions are on the chopping block is because House Republicans and Donald Trump have committed to passing massive cuts in personal taxes for the very wealthiest people in this country.”

Georgia and Texas have the most clean energy jobs to lose 

The IRA sparked a domestic manufacturing boom across clean energy sectors—especially in Georgia and Texas, according to the Climate Power Clean Energy Jobs Report. However, industry uncertainty instilled by the Trump administration has already led to job losses: 1,528 in Georgia and 1,673 in Texas since his election.

If Congressional Republicans succeed in eliminating clean energy tax credits, an estimated 41,738 jobs could be lost in Georgia alone. As for Texas, 29,451 jobs are at risk.

While traditionally pro-clean energy states like New York would also feel the impact of a federal rollback, robust state-level incentives would help cushion the blow. Red states, however,  won’t handle the potential loss as successfully because they tend to lack additional state incentives that help make investing in clean energy affordable. 

“Many blue states have their own clean energy policies, which will keep some of the investment afloat in those states,” said Williams. “In most red states, all they have are the federal tax credits. Remove those, and the reasons for investment and the jobs that came with it fall apart.”

Climate Power chart
Climate Power

Job losses aren’t the only consequence of repealing clean energy tax credits. Without widespread adoption of clean energy technologies and industries, the U.S. must rely more heavily on volatile foreign energy markets, driving up electricity prices nationwide.

“With a full repeal, families can expect electricity prices to increase by $100 or more in some states starting as soon as next year,” Costa said. “Clean energy projects won’t get built, and even projects that do will be forced to put more financial pressure on the rate base, which comes squarely out of consumers' pockets.” 

In short, eliminating clean energy incentives doesn’t just stall progress—it raises costs for everyday Americans while eliminating thousands of jobs in the process.

So far, the bill has already cleared the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Budget Committee, and is expected to pass the House Rules Committee later this week. From there, it will head to the full House for debate and a vote before moving on to the Senate for further consideration.

If you’re concerned about these potential changes to clean energy tax credits, you can make your voice heard by calling or emailing your representatives, writing a letter to the editor, or posting on your social media accounts to share the impact the elimination of clean energy tax credits would have on you and your community. 

“It’s most comfortable to do unpopular things if you think you won’t be held accountable,” Costa said, referring to the less-than-transparent nature of some of the bill negotiations. “You have to create the consequences for them.”

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