In our last piece, we introduced a recent E&E News article that analyzed the impact of August 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on private investment and associated job creation in clean energy and technology manufacturing. We analyzed the same datasets: a Manufacturing Investment Announcements site from a policy analyst at Energy Innovation named Jack Conness, E2’s Clean Economy Works, and Atlas Public Policy’s and Utah State University’s Clean Economy Tracker.
We concluded that the Rust Belt in the Midwest and the Sun Belt in the southern third of the country have most benefitted from the transition to a clean economy thus far, receiving the bulk of those investment dollars and employment positions. In this piece, we will narrow the scope of our analysis to look closer at individual states and projects.
It is again important to point out that each of these datasets covers different categories of energy and technologies, has been updated at different times, and therefore includes different numbers of projects. Thus, these projects span across slightly different arrays of states. For example, Conness’s dataset covers 28 states and one category for projects with locations yet to be determined. The others include more: E2’s dataset covers 34 states and Puerto Rico, while Atlas’s dataset covers 45 states.
Photo Courtesy Scout Motors
Despite these differences, all three datasets rank Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina as the top states for manufacturing investments since the passage of the IRA.
Conness and Atlas rank Georgia in the lead, bringing in more than $16 billion (nearly 14% of the national total) and more than $20 billion (over 13%), respectively.
North Carolina attracted more than $15 to nearly $17 billion, followed by South Carolina with over $13 billion to nearly $15 billion. Meanwhile, E2 counts North Carolina in the lead, bringing in more than $21 billion (over 17% of the total), followed by Georgia and South Carolina with more than $15 billion each.
Notably, all of these states are in the Sun Belt. However, they are not the only states from that stretch of the country that perform well. Also ranking in the top 10 states in each dataset was Nevada, which brought in between nearly $5 billion and almost $8 billion in private manufacturing investments, and Arizona, with around $6 billion to over $7 billion.
All three datasets also rank Tennessee relatively high, with Conness and E2 estimating more than $5 billion, although Atlas ranks it slightly lower at about $4 billion.
Texas also performed well, with estimates between over $2 billion and over $4 billion.
The weakest Sun Belt performers for investment in all three datasets, notably, were Kansas, Florida, and Utah, although the latter only appeared in E2 and Atlas’s datasets. However, Florida still attracted between $20 million and over $200 million, and Kansas still received more than $100 million to over $500 million.
Photo Courtesy Honda South Carolina Manufacturing
The Rust Belt saw several states perform well, too. Michigan was the leader in each dataset, attracting more than $11 billion in Conness’s and E2’s counts and more than $14 billion in Atlas’s. The state accounted for over 9% of the national total in each. However, it did not see as many clean energy manufacturing announcements as the three leading Sun Belt states.
In each dataset, Michigan was trailed by other states in the region — Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio — although always in a different order.
All three attracted more than $6 billion in Conness’s dataset. In E2’s, Indiana led at nearly $8 billion, followed by Ohio at more than $6 billion and Illinois at over $2 billion. In Atlas’s, Indiana again led with nearly $12 billion, trailed by Illinois and Indiana at more than $8 billion each.
Comparatively, fellow Rust Belt states Wisconsin and Pennsylvania ranked in the lower half of the total list, although the latter did not appear in Conness’s dataset at all. However, Wisconsin still attracted around $40 million, and Pennsylvania received more than $100 million to over $700 million. Additionally, E&E points out that they have received large amounts of federal funding from the IRA and 2021’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Overall, Sun Belt and Rust Belt states are leading the pack of recipients for investment dollars spurred by the IRA. In both E2’s and Atlas’s data sets, the states that have received the 14 highest amounts are all located in one or the other of these two regions.
Photo Courtesy Ford
The story changes a bit when we look at the number of jobs. Although E2’s dataset still lists the top recipients of IRA-related manufacturing jobs as Georgia (more than 16,000 jobs, or over 15% of the national total), South Carolina (more than 14,000 jobs, or over 13%), and North Carolina (more than 11,000 jobs, or nearly 11%), Conness and Atlas see slightly different patterns.
Conness, for example, estimates that although Georgia and South Carolina are still the top two states with around 14,000 jobs (around 15%) each, Rust Belt state Michigan edged out North Carolina with almost 12,000 jobs (over 12%) compared to nearly 7,000 (over 7%).
Meanwhile, Atlas found that Texas claimed the top spot with more than 22,000 jobs or nearly 14% of the national total.
It was trailed by Georgia and South Carolina with more than 15,000 jobs (almost 10%) each, and then Michigan with more than 12,000 (nearly 8%). Conness and E2’s numbers also indicate that Texas attracted a lot of jobs, though: almost 6,000 in the former and nearly 8,000 in the latter.
Other good performers in the top 10 of all three datasets include the Sun Belt state Tennessee, with more than 4,000 to over 6,000 jobs, and Rust Belt state Indiana, with more than 3,000 to over 8,000 jobs. With a job-oriented view, another Rust Belt state, Ohio, now stands out for its performance, with between almost 5,000 and almost 7,000 jobs.
Out of the Sun Belt states, some created comparatively fewer positions: around 400 for Florida, between 180 and over 1,000 for Kansas, and between 826 and over almost 2,000 for Louisiana. E2 also ranks California on the lower end with only 160 jobs, while Atlas estimates 305 jobs for Arkansas.
The same Rust Belt states again ranked below the others in their region, with Pennsylvania bringing in around 150 to more than 1,000 jobs and Wisconsin attracting around 250 jobs, according to E2 and Atlas’s estimates. However, Conness says Wisconsin only created 12 jobs.
However, the states that have generated the fewest, non-zero announced jobs are from neither of these regions, with Conness’s Wisconsin estimate as the only exception. E2 claims Connecticut, Iowa, and West Virginia received 100 jobs each. Atlas places Maine and New Jersey at 200 jobs each, Massachusetts and North Dakota at 150 jobs each, and Rhode Island, Wyoming, and South Dakota at less than 100 each. Conness says Massachusetts is only bringing in 166 jobs and Maryland only 120. New England and Midwest states are, in fact, the most frequent appearances at the bottom of this list.
Photo Courtesy Toyota USA
All the datasets agree that the biggest single investment is Toyota’s electric battery manufacturing plant in Liberty, North Carolina, with at least $8 billion in funding and creating at least 3,000 jobs. “North Carolina’s transition to a clean energy economy is bringing better paying jobs that will support our families and communities for decades to come,” Gov. Roy Cooper reflected in the press release.
Several other battery manufacturing facilities rank highly in all the datasets. For example, LG Energy Solution’s factory in Queen Creek, Arizona, has raked in $4.1 billion to $5.5 billion, with the number of jobs still to be determined. It was the largest single investment ever for a stand-alone battery manufacturing facility on the continent.
Hyundai & SK On’s plant in Cartersville, Georgia, saw $4 to $5 billion in investment and 3,500 jobs created. Tesla’s first Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada, received $3.5 to $3.6 billion and 3,000 jobs. Honda and LG Energy Solution’s Jeffersonville, Ohio, factory got $3.5 to $4.4 billion and 2,200 to 2,500 jobs.
Redwood Materials’ Battery Materials Campus in Ridgeville, South Carolina, received $3.5 billion and 1,500 jobs. Stellantis and Samsung SDI’s second StarPlus Energy Gigafactory, in Kokomo, Indiana, attracted $3.2 billion and 1,400 jobs.
LG Chem’s battery manufacturing facility in Clarksville, Tennessee, brought in $3.2 billion and 860 jobs. It was also the biggest announced foreign direct investment in the history of the state.
LG Energy Solution’s battery manufacturing factory in Holland, Michigan, has gotten $3 billion in investments, with the number of jobs unspecified.
When switching our analysis to look at the projects that have created the most jobs, the results look slightly different. Atlas points out that Tesla’s Gigafactory 5 in Austin, Texas, has brought 12,000 to 15,000 jobs to the state and that its Fremont, California, factory has added 10,000 jobs. All three datasets also highlight Scout Motors’s Blythewood, South Carolina, electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing facility with 4,000 jobs.
The most important thing to note is that whether analyzed by investment or job numbers, all of the facilities benefitting most from post-IRA private manufacturing investment are located in either the Sun Belt or the Rust Belt.
Photo Courtesy Redwood Materials
The most recent release from E2 indicates that this September, in particular, saw seven announcements across five states: Arizona, Florida, and Georgia in the Sun Belt, and Indiana and Michigan in the Rust Belt. Together, they represent more than $1 billion in private manufacturing investments and more than 900 associated jobs.
Six of these announcements were for the EV industry, and Stellantis accounted for half of them, all of which are located in Michigan. It allocated:
- $235.5 million for the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, which will be its first American facility to build a fully electric car, the 2025 Ram 1500 REV light-duty truck,
- $97.6 million for the Warren Truck Assembly Plant to build an electric Jeep Wagoneer, and
- $73 million for the Dundee Engine Plant to produce battery trays.
With these announcements, Rust Belt state Michigan counts 33 total projects, maintaining its position as the state with the most since the passage of the IRA.
Meanwhile, Shinsung Petrochemical announced an $11.2 million auto sealant manufacturing plant in Toombs County, Georgia, that will act as Hyundai’s 18th supplier near its Metaplant. As a result, Georgia became the second state to announce 30 major projects. Plus, IRH Manufacturing LLC announced a $500 million investment to turn an abandoned location in Tipton County, Arizona, into a solar cell fabrication plant. With this addition, E2’s data showed Indiana passing Texas to have the fifth highest amount of private investment.
As we did in the first piece, it is important to note that the numbers from each source were updated at different intervals. At the time of this analysis, Conness’s numbers were from September (this site was then updated in November), while E2 was revised to capture the end of October and Atlas’s extended into November. Although the numbers from each are different, they largely tell the same story.
