Reconciliation package’s clean electricity program would create over 7M jobs: Analysis

A renewable energy program like the one included in the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package before Congress would create nearly 8 million jobs in the U.S. over the next decade, according to an analysis commissioned by two environmental groups.

The report was published Thursday by independent firm Analysis Group and commissioned by Evergreen Action and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

It found that a national Clean Electricity Payment Program (CEPP), under which electric utilities receive financial incentives for increased use of clean energy, would create 7.7 million jobs between now and 2031. The analysis further determined it would add more than $907 billion to the economy and that federal, state and local governments would see more than $154 billion in additional tax revenues.

The analysis is based on the specific CEPP included in congressional Democrats’ infrastructure bill that is currently being negotiated in Congress. The program includes incentives for renewables, nuclear energy, synthetic gas and carbon capture technology, as well as a 10-year clean energy tax credit.  

The benefits, the analysis states, “are driven by a major buildout of clean energy resources in all regions of the country, dispersing direct, indirect and induced economic benefits across the country.”

Implementing a CEPP would also prompt further buildout of qualifying energy resources and drive demand for innovations to other renewable technologies such as offshore wind power, which has been a major agenda item for the Biden administration.

The investments in the scenario the report analyzed would also contribute to another major Biden administration goal: reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

“Congress has an historic opportunity to usher in a booming clean energy economy while confronting the climate crisis, and CEPP is the cornerstone of that opportunity,” Arjun Krishnaswami, climate policy lead for innovation at NRDC’s Climate & Clean Energy Program, said in a statement. “Today’s analysis confirms that CEPP is critical to expanding the energy workforce and fostering economic opportunity in every region of the country.”