Pennsylvania has roughly 270,000 energy workers – nearly half are employed by companies in the advanced energy industry, including those generating solar power, manufacturing energy storage batteries, and helping Pennsylvanians save money by reducing energy waste. While Pennsylvania’s history is rooted in fossil fuels, its present and future is as an advanced energy leader.
The Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law have unleashed the largest clean energy investment in U.S. history with many of the benefits coming directly to Pennsylvania. This includes thousands of good-paying energy jobs and nearly 160,000 Pennsylvanians claiming more than $260 million in tax credits to lower their energy bills and install energy efficiency upgrades in their homes.
These investments are delivering much-needed results for Pennsylvania communities. Last year, Vitro Architectural Glass Business leveraged the Inflation Reduction Act’s manufacturing tax credits to invest nearly $100 million to upgrade its Meadville Plant in Cochranton, PA. Not only will this plant manufacture glass for American-made solar panels, but it's created roughly 130 new high-quality jobs in a town where roughly half the city is unemployed. Federal dollars are helping to revitalize these communities and we are only just getting started.
Advanced energy companies have been driving this transformation by leveraging federal programs to create an economy built on the energy resources of the 21st century. These companies are building wind and solar plants to generate more electricity, strengthening Pennsylvania’s transmission system and energy efficiency programs to make the power grid more resilient, and expanding electric vehicle charging infrastructure to make it easier to switch to electric-powered vehicles.
Making these changes takes hard work, and these companies are privileged to have employed over 140,000 Pennsylvanians. It’s all the more reason to stay the course. Modeling shows that keeping the momentum on these policies can boost the U.S. economy by $450 billion annually by 2030, create 2.2 million jobs, and save households $7.7 billion on energy costs.
Of course, there’s another path. One in which we stop investing in advanced energy solutions and dampen Pennsylvania’s economy. That’s the plan proposed by Project 2025. It calls for a whole-of-government unwinding of the U.S. industrial policy that is helping to generate the record growth and investment we’re seeing. This includes explicitly repealing the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, as well as dismantling the federal agencies sending money to companies across the commonwealth.
If successful, Project 2025 would sink U.S. GDP by $320 billion and cost 1.7 million jobs within the next 5 years. As business leaders and job creators, our industry understands the importance of predictability and certainty. For us, that means ensuring that federal incentives and funding to build out the advanced energy economy do not abruptly end in the middle of project development. It means our supply chains do not suddenly have the rug pulled out from under them with new unilateral tariffs on every good coming into the country.
American businesses cannot thrive under chaos and dysfunction. Policy stability and investment certainty are critical for us to continue expanding the horizon of economic opportunity for workers and communities.
Pennsylvania is known as the Keystone State for a reason. By choosing a policy path that empowers advanced energy companies to thrive, Pennsylvanians can position all of America to seize this moment to create lasting economic opportunity and a cleaner, more sustainable energy system.