A decades-long history of resource extraction and industrialization in the United States has left many communities struggling to replace employment from shuttered fossil fuel industries and revitalize idle, contaminated sites. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) specifically supports these communities by incentivizing clean energy development through the energy community tax credit bonus, an adder for clean energy projects located on contaminated sites—also called brownfields—and within communities with a history of fossil fuel employment or closed coal mines or power plants. However, the Republican-authored tax bill that President Donald Trump signed into law on July 4, 2025, enacts sweeping cuts to energy industries and infrastructure, including an early termination of clean energy tax credits and the energy community adder. Gutting these provisions harms historical energy-producing communities and will raise electricity prices for families.
Analysis by the Center for American Progress finds that 1,512 planned or recently operating energy projects are eligible for the energy community adder. Texas, California, and Illinois host the largest number of eligible announced projects and have the most to lose now that the adder and tax credits are axed. Furthermore, the lost potential for future similar projects is massive: More than half of the United States has a history of fossil fuel industry employment or coal closures. Nearly 100 percent of the area in Alaska, West Virginia, and Nevada is eligible. Clean energy projects in these areas would qualify—and those benefits are threatened by the tax bill.
Another overlooked victim of the congressional Republican budget reconciliation bill is energy projects on previously developed sites such as abandoned mines, shuttered power plants, and other contaminated sites. Efforts to revitalize these types of sites have received bipartisan support and, more recently, benefited from the adder. Unfortunately, the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act significantly shrinks the opportunity for solar and wind energy projects to receive the clean energy production and investment tax credits underlying the adder. The bill terminates credits for projects that are placed into service after 2027 or that don’t start construction in the next 12 months—severely shortening their window to qualify. Losing these tax credits may mean projects that are planned but have yet to start construction could be canceled—and that communities would miss out on the economic benefits these projects generate.
Major opportunities for clean energy development are across the country
The legacy of industrial development and mining can be seen in the hundreds of thousands of abandoned mines, landfills, and post-industrial sites across the country. The opportunity to turn these sites into something new and productive is massive. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) RE-Powering Mapper has identified 190,000 of these contaminated sites across the United States with clean energy potential. Of these, more than 17,000 sites could feasibly host utility-scale solar or wind facilities with a capacity of at least 5 megawatts.
In addition to the 30 percent investment tax credit or production tax credit applicable to all clean electricity generators, the IRA energy community adder provides a 10 percent bonus to any project constructed on a contaminated “brownfield” site or in communities that have historically been economically dependent on fossil fuels. To be eligible for the energy community adder, a project must meet any one of the following requirements (simplified here):
- Be sited in a brownfield site where a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant complicates redevelopment or reuse
- Be sited in either a census tract, or a tract directly adjoining one, where there has been a coal mine closure since 1999 or coal power plant closure since 2009
- Be sited in an area that meets a threshold of coal, oil, or natural gas industry employment AND has an unemployment rate equal to or greater than the national average
CAP analysis of EPA RE-Powering data finds that every congressional district contains potentially eligible brownfield sites that could host clean energy. Furthermore, nearly three-quarters of U.S. congressional districts have areas whose history of fossil fuel industry makes all clean energy projects—brownfield or not—currently eligible for the adder. These areas add up to significant swaths of the United States: 94 percent of Nevada, 95 percent of West Virginia, and nearly 100 percent of Alaska’s area are all eligible. In addition, 76 congressional districts have 100 percent of their area eligible for the adder, including the districts of Reps. Young Kim (R-CA), Jay Obernolte (R-CA), Judy Chu (D-CA), and Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-MI).
Although it’s difficult to determine exactly how many projects have either already claimed the adder or are going to, CAP estimates that 1,512 clean power projects are eligible, 1,078 of which were announced after the IRA’s passage. Texas, California, and Illinois have the highest numbers of eligible projects. In particular, California’s 20th, Texas’ 23rd, and California’s 23rd congressional districts—represented by Rep. Vince Fong (R), Rep. Tony Gonzales (R), and Rep. Jay Obernolte (R), respectively—host the most eligible projects.
Transforming contaminated sites into sources of clean energy and community benefits
Renewable energy generators such as solar and wind have a large land footprint, which can make them difficult to site and can cause conflicts with local communities or wildlife. One potential solution is repurposing previously developed lands—including abandoned mines; former industrial areas; contaminated sites; landfills; and other spaces—for clean energy generation. The federal government defines brownfields as properties where “the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.” There are a surprising number of these sites in the United States: The EPA estimates that there are enough mine lands and brownfields to supply 1.3 million megawatts of solar energy, roughly enough to power more than 200 million homes annually.
Generating clean energy on previously developed sites is often a win for communities, businesses, and nature. Unlike agricultural or undisturbed “greenfield” lands, developed sites are not seen as pristine and local communities often welcome energy development as a new source of economic benefits—providing tax revenue, lower energy costs, and jobs—on otherwise unused and hazardous sites. This makes previously developed sites attractive to developers, as community opposition is an increasingly costly barrier to clean energy development on undeveloped land. Owing to their previous uses, many previously developed sites are already connected to the transmission system and come equipped with roads, level land, and other infrastructure necessary for energy generation. Lastly, increasing energy capacity on previously disturbed lands can take development pressure off of greenfield areas, allowing them to be left intact for conservation, recreation, or other uses.
Energy, revenue, and jobs: A successful case study of brownfields redevelopment
Brownfields projects have major benefits for host communities, turning idle, contaminated areas that can lower property values into productive sources of energy and revenue. In 2010, Exelon Corp. built Exelon City Solar, a large solar energy facility in the West Pullman neighborhood in Chicago, transforming a former industrial site and creating 200 temporary jobs. Previously a dumping ground with toxic waste and underground oil storage tanks, this site had significant challenges for redevelopment and had sat vacant for more than 30 years. The facility was the largest urban solar installation in the United States when it was built, generating enough power for 1,500 homes and $100,000 a year in lease revenue for Chicago.
The Inflation Reduction Act addressed the challenges of developing on disturbed lands
Despite the benefits of building energy on these sites, such projects often face additional upfront costs for cleaning up contaminated soil or water, preparing the site to be usable, and getting required permits. Together, these requirements make building solar on brownfields about $1.2 million more expensive than on greenfields. The IRA makes it easier to redevelop previously disturbed sites primarily by addressing this cost gap. Altogether, IRA incentives cut the cost differential of brownfields development by close to two thirds, making these projects more feasible, especially when paired with state and local policies.
Conclusion
Repurposing abandoned mines, post-industrial facilities, and other previously developed sites brings many benefits for clean energy and for the communities in which the projects are hosted. Although the IRA energy community adder makes these projects cheaper and easier to build, the budget reconciliation bill congressional Republicans have enacted eliminates these opportunities across the country.
The authors would like to thank Jenny Rowland-Shea, Kendra Hughes, Nicole Gentile, Kalina Gibson, Cathleen Kelly, Bill Rapp, Trevor Higgins, Lucero Marquez, and Cindy Murphy-Tofig for their contributions.
Methodology
All analysis was performed using ArcGIS and Microsoft Excel, and all estimates should be considered approximate. To estimate the amount of area eligible for the energy community adder per state, congressional district, and across the United States, congressional district shapefiles were intersected with IRA energy community shapefiles maintained by the Department of Energy, and relevant areas were calculated based on the year-specific eligibility requirements at the time the project started construction. For projects beginning construction after the IRS released new guidance on June 23, 2025, preexisting shapefiles were not available. Instead, shapefiles were constructed from U.S. Census Bureau data for census tracts and statistical areas matching Federal Information Processing Standards codes on the IRS’ most recent lists of eligible communities. To estimate the number of projects potentially eligible for the energy community adder, the facility coordinates of all eligible clean electricity generating projects (source: Clean Investment Monitor, Rhodium Group and MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research. Additional project-specific data are on file with the authors) were intersected with the energy community shapefiles. Results were then filtered on eligibility criteria: 1) Project status is not “cancelled before production” or “retired”; 2) Potential direct credit is 45, 45Y, 48, 48E, or any combination; 3) Production date is 2023 or later. To isolate the number of projects announced after the IRA was passed, this dataset was further filtered for announcement dates starting in September 2022. This data analysis does not consider whether a project is eligible by virtue of its being on a brownfield site, and therefore underestimates the total number of eligible projects. Project locations are approximate and dependent on the accuracy of data collected by the Clean Investment Monitor, which sources all data on announced and actual new clean electricity generation facilities from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), which collects the information monthly on Form EIA-860 and compiles it in a database. The database provides the location, technology, owner, and capacity of every electricity-generating asset in the United States and statewide distributed generation capacity totals. Multiple distinct projects may share identical names and/or facility coordinates in the EIA dataset. Congressional district and census tract data in the dataset were validated and corrected where possible. Incorrect location data for 20 projects were corrected manually using Google Maps and online information provided by developers where possible. Six projects were omitted as their location data could not be confidently corrected.