The United States is manufacturing less of the materials and equipment we need to make our homes and businesses more energy-efficient than we were a decade ago. The all-too-familiar pattern of globalization, outsourcing, and disinvestment is pushing the manufacturing of appliances, HVAC components, and other needed technologies to other nations.

The same companies that became dominant with largely unionized domestic workforces have sought to increase profits and reduce costs by closing plants and moving production abroad. This pattern of deindustrialization has hurt families and communities and cut off pathways to the middle class. 

Congress and the Biden administration have recently sought to promote energy efficiency retrofits through both legislation and executive action. These investments have the potential to reverse the decline in domestic production of retrofit products and create high-paying, community-supporting manufacturing jobs. However, strong industrial policy will be required to realize this potential.

This report recommends a set of policies to pair energy efficiency investment with requirements and incentives for domestically produced products, to further increase investment in energy efficiency, and to provide direct support to the manufacturers in the U.S.

View and download the report