Clean energy investments fall dramatically in Appalachia

Clean energy spending in Appalachia has dropped sharply after a boom driven by federal incentives like the Inflation Reduction Act. Two research groups, the Keystone Research Center and ReImagine Appalachia, report that in Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, clean energy deployment is down 17% from its 2024 peak, and clean energy manufacturing investment is down 26% from its late-2023 high. Nationally, private construction spending on manufacturing has fallen from a peak of $249 billion to $170 billion, and the country has lost 277,000 manufacturing jobs since January 2024. Researchers tie the slowdown to a pullback in federal clean-energy policy support.

The region has a lot riding on this. Appalachia includes many "energy communities" — areas historically dependent on coal and other fossil fuels — that had been targeted for extra tax credits under the IRA to attract new solar and other clean energy projects. A separate report from December found that two-thirds of the region's roughly 93,000 clean energy jobs were at risk under current federal policy.

There is one bright spot for homeowners: even as large-scale investment slows, individual consumer spending on clean energy and electric vehicles kept rising in 2026, according to the researchers, because solar panels and batteries keep getting cheaper. This is a regional and national policy story rather than a specific program change, so it does not affect any particular rebate or incentive you might already be using. But it's a sign that the broader climate for federal clean-energy support in coal-country states remains unsettled.