WASHINGTON (February 27, 2024) – Utah State University and Atlas Public Policy (Atlas) today launched the Clean Economy Tracker (CET), a new tool to track investments in the clean economy in the United States. By highlighting announced investments and job creation across the country in clean energy manufacturing, the CET supports policymakers and other stakeholders in speeding the clean transition.
“It is hard to keep track of the breadth of investments in clean energy manufacturing in the United States, so we built a tool to help decisionmakers,” said Tom Taylor, Senior Policy Analyst at Atlas Public Policy. “When you see it all together, you can grasp the significance of the economic shift that is happening right now across the country.”
The CET tracks investments and jobs in clean energy and technology manufacturing including batteries, critical mineral extraction and processing, electric vehicles, heat pumps, hydrogen electrolyzers, transmission and grid materials, and zero-emission electricity generation technologies. The CET is a one-stop shop for information on this growing industry and how the clean economy is creating jobs across the country. The data surfaced includes the investment in rural, coal, oil and gas communities, and low-income communities. The tool allows users to drill down to a local level to understand where the clean energy economy is growing.
“The clean energy economy is growing fast and bringing big opportunities for job growth in local communities around the country. But the scale of these changes isn’t readily visible,” said Peter Howe, Professor at Utah State University. “The Clean Economy Tracker gives decision-makers from the local to the national level a view of where these clean energy investments are happening and their impacts.”
The CET is tracking $231 billion in committed private investments for clean energy manufacturing. Nearly three quarters of all publicly announced private manufacturing investments tracked by the CET have been announced since the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on November 15, 2021. Over 80 percent of announced manufacturing investments have been in electric vehicles and batteries, including stationary batteries.
Further, about three quarters of all announced private manufacturing investments will flow to districts represented by Republican members of Congress, and 44 percent of total announced private manufacturing investment will go to the eight states that decided the last presidential election by less than five percentage points. Finally, 2023 was a breakout year for solar, with more than 70 percent of total announced solar manufacturing investments since 2009 coming in 2023.
In addition to announced private investment and jobs, the tracker surfaces data about demonstration projects. These projects are public-private demonstration facilities and research projects for emerging technologies supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. To date, more than 150 projects funded by eleven public-private demonstration programs are surfaced on the CET. The Department of Energy has awarded more than $12 billion with a further $14 billion for these programs yet to be awarded.
The CET team will refresh and update data on a weekly basis.
Contact Tom Taylor (tom.taylor@atlaspolicy.com) or others in the Project Team (info@cleaneconomytracker.org) for more information regarding this data tool.
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