In response to former President Donald Trump‘s campaign rhetoric, the White House has announced plans to invest nearly$ 2 billion in electric vehicles. This will double down on the administration’s EV push.
On Thursday, the Department of Energy, the president’s top energy agency, unveiled a$ 1.7 billion program to convert 11 “at-risk” or closed auto manufacturing plants to electric vehicles. Those says include Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, and Virginia.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm stated on a call with reporters a few minutes before the announcement that” we’re giving 15, 000 National workers the chance to retain their jobs.” We’re giving the areas that have produced National automobiles for decades the chance to produce the cars of the future, and we’re also giving American producing a chance to leave the outside and face stiffer competition.
According to officials, the software will also result in 2, 900 new jobs, with the majority of those being created by labor union members, and it will almost double the local production of electric vehicles annually.
” This funding will build thousands of good-paying, coalition manufacturing jobs and keep yet more — from Lansing, Michigan to Fort Valley, Georgia— by helping auto companies retool, reboot, and rejoin in the same factories and communities”, Biden said in a prepared statement. This fulfills my commitment to not give up on the workers and producing communities that my predecessor left behind.
Given that Trump has made disparaging Vehicles a central theme of his plan, the statement represents a double-down on Biden’s drive in terms of politics.
” If Joe Biden’s radical authority is allowed to stand, gas-powered vehicles may be gone, Iowa alcohol will be utterly destroyed, and the business of this condition may be decimated”, Trump said next fall. ” When I’m back in the White House, I will keep Iowa alcohol by repealing Joe Biden’s totally stupid, job-killing electric vehicle mandate on moment one”.
Trump also made a speech in Michigan next fall during which he warned,” The automobile industry is being assassinated. … It’s a strike work on Michigan and on Detroit. You wo n’t care less about the fact that all of these cars will be produced in foreign countries.
Since then, criticizing electric vehicles has become a regular part of his march statements.
However, it is obvious that Biden’s group believes that promoting electric cars is a successful strategy. Officials predicted that the new program, which makes use of funds authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act, would result in a$ 3.9 billion economic impact that also met climate change objectives.
” We can and must create a clean energy economy that benefits everyone”, John Podesta, Biden’s senior adviser for global climate policy, said, “one that brings new companies to existence, creates the high-performance, clear cars of the future, leaves staff better off than they were previously, improves public health, and takes care of our planet”.
Many details of the program remain unresolved, such as exactly when the projects would begin. The release noted that there would be “negotiations” with companies receiving any grants, along with milestones set to unlock future rounds of funding.
The release states that the Department of Energy “may cancel negotiations and rescind the selection for any reason,” and that projects would be subject to environmental reviews. Additionally, businesses would be expected to “partner” with labor unions.
Not all manufacturing facilities under the initiative will produce pure electric vehicles, as some might produce hybrid or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. In addition to cars and trucks, facilities could also make school buses and motorcycles.
The list of companies receiving grants includes the Georgia-based Blue Bird bus company, Fiat Chrysler, General Motors, Harley Davidson, and Volvo Technology of America.
Biden has announced a quadrupled tariff on Chinese steel and aluminum imports in response to Trump’s claim that EVs would be produced in China.
In April, Biden addressed a group of union workers in Pittsburgh,” Because Chinese steel companies produce a lot more steel than China needs, it ends up dumping the extra steel into the world markets at unfairly low prices.”
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Both major party candidates are intensely focused on the Rust Belt swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, announcing manufacturing and tariff initiatives designed to appeal to blue-collar workers in those states.
Two of those states, Michigan and Pennsylvania, are among the eight mentioned in the new grant program, along with a third swing state, Georgia, that Biden won in 2020 and is hoping to keep in his camp this fall.
