Rekubit Exchange:Wyoming Lags in Clean Energy Jobs, According to New Report

In the first full year since President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act,Rekubit Exchange clean energy jobs in the U.S. grew at a faster clip than jobs across the rest of the economy, according to a new report by a business nonprofit. But there are few signs of that expansion in Wyoming, long the nation’s largest purveyor of coal and a hotbed of fossil fuel development, where clean energy job growth has been halting. 

E2, a business policy organization and the report’s author, compiled its Clean Jobs America report using data it helped collect for the U.S. Department of Energy’s most recent U.S. Energy and Employment Report, which detailed economic trends for the calendar year 2023. The group found that clean energy jobs grew by 4.5 percent and accounted for one in every 16 new jobs added, bringing the total number of clean energy workers in the U.S. to almost 3.5 million. The rest of the economy grew jobs by 1.5 percent. 

“Thanks to the game-changing policies and incentives created by the IRA, clean energy companies are leading an American economic revolution the likes of which we haven’t seen in generations,” said Bob Keefe, executive director of E2, in a statement accompanying the report’s release.

One of the largest onshore wind farms in the country is being developed in south central Wyoming. But none of the “330 major clean energy projects” announced after the IRA was signed in August 2022 are scheduled to be completed in the state. According to E2’s report, Wyoming has the second-fewest clean energy jobs, behind only Alaska.

Measured per capita, the state’s clean energy job growth rate actually ranked second from the top. But this was more a function of its low population skewing the data. With a paltry number of clean energy workers in Wyoming to start with, adding just a few hundred new jobs registers as substantial growth.  

With so much federal money available and some high-quality renewable energy resources, Wyoming’s low participation in the clean energy economy is conspicuous.

“Wyoming is missing out and could really be capitalizing on clean energy as a growth sector,” said Kate Groetzinger, the communications manager for the Center for Western Priorities. She added that growing its clean energy sector did not necessarily have to come at the expense of fossil fuels, though the Center for Western Priorities would still like to see the state ramp down its production and use of coal, oil and natural gas.

The Wyoming Energy Authority, the state entity responsible for implementing and overseeing energy policy, did not respond with a comment for this story. 

Wind has long been Wyoming’s most developed renewable sector, accounting for the vast majority of its clean energy projects—there are 35 wind projects and more than 1,000 turbines in the state—even as state legislators routinely threaten legislation that would create a less friendly business environment for the industry. 

“Wyoming is one of the eight remaining states with more fossil fuel jobs than clean energy jobs.”

— Michael Timberlake, E2 spokesperson

Solar has followed a different trajectory in Wyoming. The state is home to only two utility-scale solar farms, one of which environmentalists say has been detrimental to wildlife since it came online in 2018. But there are signs the industry is poised to grow in the state: There are four new utility-scale solar projects in Wyoming’s permitting pipeline, and the Bureau of Land Management’s recently updated Western Solar Plan makes almost 4 million acres of public land in Wyoming available for development.

Though the Cowboy State had one of the highest rates of clean energy jobs per capita, placing third behind Vermont and Massachusetts in E2’s report, those jobs made up a smaller portion of its total energy and motor vehicle jobs than most other states.

“Wyoming is one of the eight remaining states with more fossil fuel jobs than clean energy jobs,” said Michael Timberlake, a spokesperson for E2. Wyoming’s clean energy jobs made up only 18 percent of all energy and motor vehicle jobs in the state, a much lower ratio than also-sparsely-populated Vermont, where clean energy jobs make up over 70 percent of all its energy and motor vehicle jobs.

For a state with such a staunch energy reputation, Wyoming’s rank toward the bottom of most clean energy job metrics caught Groetzinger by surprise. “This report is a good reality check” for Wyoming, she said, and it “shows that Governor Gordon should be paying at least as much attention to clean energy generation as he is to carbon capture.”

Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, has sought to make Wyoming a hotbed for carbon capture projects, mainly as a lifeline for the state’s fossil fuel industry. Under his administration, the state legislature has passed laws mandating that fossil fuel-fired power plants add carbon capture technology, even as the costly technology threatens to raise electricity rates in the state.

In a blow to the nascent industry, Project Bison, a large carbon capture plant planned in the state, announced earlier this month it had “paused” construction because it was unable to acquire enough access to clean energy. 

Gordon’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Despite Wyoming’s low clean energy job growth, the rest of the West added green jobs at the second-highest rate in the county. The region trailed only the South in both jobs added and total clean energy jobs, with a 4.2 percent growth rate.

Businesses in the U.S. are “just getting started,” taking advantage of the IRA, said Keefe. “The biggest threats to this unprecedented progress are misguided efforts to repeal or rollback parts of the IRA, despite the law’s clear benefits both to American workers and the communities where they live.”