"The nation's largest source of energy jobs — the energy efficiency sector — is experiencing mass layoffs from the coronavirus as utility and state programs shut down across the country, according to contractors and industry representatives.
Utilities and state energy agencies have halted programs that help homeowners and business owners pay for new installations and building retrofits. The Department of Energy has encouraged local nonprofit grantees, some of which contract out to small third-party companies, to suspend or "severely limit" low-income weatherization activities, with the vast majority of grantees electing to do so, according to a recent DOE notice.
State governors have also in some cases shut down in-person construction work, which accounts for about half of the industry's workforce. Nearly all residential projects are on pause nationwide, according to several industry associations."
