Volkswagen ID.4 production in Chattanooga, TN (Source: VW)
The United States lost 36,949 clean energy jobs in 2025, ending four consecutive years of growth. That’s the direct impact of the Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress withdrawing federal support for clean energy and electric vehicles, leading companies to cancel or scale back projects.
This is according to new findings from E2, which analyzed employment data from the US Department of Energy. Clean energy employment fell to 3.52 million, the first annual drop since the pandemic. The jobs lost in 2025 erased almost 40% of the gains made in 2024.
The losses reached 35 states. California eliminated nearly 21,000 clean energy jobs, the most of any state, while Florida gained about 3,800. Energy efficiency, renewable energy and electric vehicles lost jobs. Battery storage and networking, along with biofuels, posted small gains.
E2 connects the crisis to the reversal of federal policy and the resulting increase in project cancellations. Its project tracker recorded 142 clean energy manufacturing, generation and storage projects canceled or scaled back in 2025. The employment figures show the extent of the decline, but do not establish how many of those jobs were lost due to a particular policy change.
Clean energy was not the only sector that lost workers. The overall U.S. energy industry is estimated to shed about 86,000 jobs in 2025, according to DOE data cited by E2. Clean energy accounted for about 43% of that decline, but remains the largest part of the energy workforce and employs more than 3.5 million people. Compare that to oil and gas companies, which employ 958,000 workers; the coal companies, with 125,000 employees; and nuclear companies, with 70,000 workers.
These are the initial findings of E2. it’s full Clean jobs in America 2026 A more detailed report on the state, county and industry is expected to be released in October.
Read more: EIA: 83 GW of renewables and storage to arrive in 12 months as fossil fuel capacity falls
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