FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 21, 2026
CONTACT:
John Neurohr, [email protected]
U.S. Manufacturing Investment Boom of 2022–24 Has Turned Into a Bust
HARRISBURG, PA — New analysis from the Keystone Research Center (KRC) and ReImagine Appalachia finds that the surge in U.S. manufacturing investment from 2022 to 2024 has reversed sharply, dragging down manufacturing employment nationally and pulling clean energy and manufacturing investment in coal-country Appalachia well below its recent peak.
U.S. Census Bureau data show that private construction spending in U.S. manufacturing has fallen dramatically since late 2024 — almost as stunningly as it rose. Spending tripled from an annual rate of $80 billion in early 2022 to $249 billion by November 2024, partly in response to federal policies that stimulated private clean manufacturing and innovation. By June 2026, it had fallen back to an annual rate of $170 billion.
That investment dip has been accompanied by a decline in manufacturing jobs. U.S. manufacturing employment is now 277,000 below its January 2024 level.
“The manufacturing investment boom that federal clean-energy and innovation policies sparked in 2022 has turned into a bust. Private construction spending in manufacturing has been in free fall for 20 months, and the nation has lost 277,000 manufacturing jobs since January 2024.”
said Stephen Herzenberg, Economist and Executive Director Emeritus, Keystone Research Center
National figures on private construction spending do not break out state-level data for the four states of that ReImagine Appalachia covers — Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky. But the Rhodium/MIT Clean Investment Monitor, which tracks clean manufacturing and energy investments boosted by the 2021 and 2022 federal laws, provides both national and state data. Those data show that in the second quarter of 2026, the latest available, clean energy and manufacturing investments in both the U.S. and the four-state region remained well below the peaks reached during 2024.
There was good news in the data: consumer spending on clean energy and clean transportation increased in the second quarter of 2026 in both the U.S. and the four-state coal-country region. The increasing affordability of distributed renewable energy and storage was a strong enough market force to overcome the effects of the federal policy U-turn. As Bill McKibben has recently highlighted, plunging prices for renewables and batteries are very good news for accelerating the longer-term transition to a sustainable economy.
Still, manufacturing investment in clean energy and clean tech in the United States remained 24% below its second-quarter 2025 peak. The same pattern held across the four-state ReImagine Appalachia region: deployment of clean energy and industry technologies remained 17% below its Q3 2024 peak, and manufacturing investment in clean energy and other clean tech remained 26% below its Q4 2023 peak — despite a small uptick from the first to the second quarter of 2026.
“There is real hope in this data. Consumer spending on clean energy and clean transportation kept rising in 2026 because renewables and batteries keep getting cheaper. But to rebuild manufacturing in coal-country Appalachia, we need a reversal in federal policy — federal investment was a game changer, and it can be again,” said Diana Polson, Pittsburgh Policy and Research Director at the Keystone Research Center
“Getting private construction spending in manufacturing growing rapidly again is vital to manufacturing communities in coal-country Appalachia and across the United States — and to the regional and national economy, to limiting climate-related disasters, and to public health,” said Herzenberg.
Key Findings
- U.S. private construction spending in manufacturing tripled from an $80 billion annual rate in early 2022 to $249 billion by November 2024, then fell to $170 billion by June 2026.
- U.S. manufacturing employment is now 277,000 jobs below its January 2024 level.
- Clean energy and manufacturing investment in Q2 2026 remained well below 2024 peaks in both the U.S. and the four-state ReImagine Appalachia region (PA, OH, WV, KY).
- U.S. clean energy and clean-tech manufacturing investment stayed 24% below its Q2 2025 peak; regional deployment investment was 17% below its Q3 2024 peak and regional manufacturing investment was 26% below its Q4 2023 peak.
- Bright spot: consumer spending on clean energy and clean transportation rose in Q2 2026, driven by the falling cost of renewables and battery storage.
###