President Joe Biden’s economic plans are building an economy that works for all Americans. This new CAP Action newsletter will be focused on elevating trend stories on how the president’s economic policies are growing the economy by investing in people and places all over the country.
While there’s been significant attention paid to how the clean energy plan signed into law last year provides tax credits for consumers to purchase electric vehicles (EVs), the law’s incentives for automakers and parts producers are yielding a surge in manufacturing that is getting too little attention—even as it is set to transform communities coast to coast and MAGA extremists have introduced legislation that could put this progress in jeopardy. These investments will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, many of which would otherwise be overseas; boost job training; shore up American energy independence; and cut pollution. This week, we are taking a look at a few communities already benefiting:
Michigan
- On Monday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) announced Ford is making a $3.5 billion investment to produce EV batteries in mid-Michigan. According to Reuters, “The plant is expected to be located in the Marshall, Michigan area, and eventually employ at least 2,500 workers.” The move follows President Biden’s sweeping clean energy law providing “incentive [to] battery manufacturers … [that] slices their production costs by a third.” It also follows Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) decision—which left “Republicans and Democrats … caught off guard”—to reject the project, and the thousands of jobs that go with it, for ideological reasons.
- Gov. Whitmer’s announcement comes days after Ford announced it is bringing more than 3,200 jobs relating to the automaker’s EV production operation back to the United States from Europe.
- Last week, according to the Lansing State Journal, “The Shyft Group, a specialty truck manufacturing company, … announced it will invest $16 million to expand its operations [in Charlotte, Michigan], creating 680 manufacturing jobs in the process. The facility expansion, improvements and new equipment will enable the company to produce up to 3,000 Blue Arc™ EV Solutions brand electric vehicles per year.”
Nevada
- Major automobile and EV battery companies are dramatically scaling up operations across the Silver State, critically helping diversify the state’s tourism-based economy. Last Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm was in Nevada to announce a $2 billion grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to Redwood Materials, an EV battery recycling company. At the announcement event, according to The Associated Press, Granholm said, “This region is leading the way to a broader story of what is happening in the country.” The Associated Press further reported that “Redwood Materials is expected to create about 3,400 construction jobs and employ about 1,600 full-time workers.”
- General Motors is planning to invest $650 million to extract crucial material needed to increase EV manufacturing. This investment to extract lithium from Nevada’s Thacker Pass mine will “provide enough for GM to make as many as 1 million electric vehicles per year.” Plus, this new investment will create and support 1,500 jobs.
- Tesla is also investing in Nevada, committing to building a $3.6 billion manufacturing operation, creating two manufacturing facilities and more than 3,000 new jobs to expand production of batteries and electric semitruck manufacturing.
Georgia
- According to The Associated Press, “A Hyundai Motor Group supplier [Seoyon E-HWA] announced [this month] that it will invest $76 million in a new plant near Savannah to manufacture parts for the automaker’s upcoming … plant in nearby Ellabell, hiring more than 500 workers. … Seoyon E-HWA is the fourth Hyundai supplier to announce plans for a southeast Georgia plant since Hyundai … said it would build a $5.5 billion plant to assemble electric vehicles and batteries. That plant, which could grow to 8,100 employees, is supposed to begin turning out vehicles in 2025.”
Tennessee
- Last week, according to Reuters, “Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen touted clean energy investments on Wednesday at a Tennessee electric vehicle battery plant [Ultium Cells LLC] benefiting from [Biden’s clean energy] tax incentives. … The … Ultium Cells plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, is set to begin production later this year, and is the second of three planned Ultium JV plants. It is expected to eventually employ 1,700 people and will produce cells for the Cadillac Lyriq sport-utility vehicle, which is assembled at a nearby GM plant. … The tax incentives are designed to shift the U.S. battery supply chain away from China. China currently produces 70% of batteries for electric vehicles.”
In the news
- CNBC: “Since President Joe Biden signed the historic Inflation Reduction Act into law last August, companies have announced more than 100,000 clean energy jobs across the country, according to a report by the nonprofit Climate Power. As of the end of January, companies have announced more than 90 new clean energy projects in small towns and larger cities in the U.S., totaling $89.5 billion in new investments, the report found.”
- NBC News: “More than a dozen states have begun pulling together incentive packages with tax credits, zoning changes and cuts to regulatory red tape to lure the limited number of companies looking to expand their chip production in the U.S. are scrambling. … ‘We haven’t had this kind of economic potential since corn,’ said Nebraska state Sen. Mike McDonnell.”
- Newsweek: “U.S. Automakers Aim to Make Detroit the Next Silicon Valley”
- Fortune: “Biden’s State of the Union–and the stories people from across the country are telling us–make the case for economic optimism”
- The Washington Post: “According to data from Princeton University, roughly 30 percent of the emissions reductions from the bill expected over the next decade will come from consumers switching to electric vehicles and a transformation in home heating and appliances.”
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