I took an electric vehicle road trip recently through Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas to check out the new notches in the Southeast battery belt. As the former governor of Michigan, birthplace of the U.S. auto industry and its electric vehicle renaissance, I’m encouraged to see the next generation of American-made autos growing so rapidly, bringing manufacturing jobs to all parts of the country.
I assumed there might be some skepticism of clean energy in the South. If there is, I didn’t see it —
Americans of all stripes want to land the industries, jobs and opportunities of the future in their communities. That’s what President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is delivering, and this is only the beginning.
The cornerstone of that agenda is a suite of generous federal tax credits making the U.S. an irresistible destination for companies to manufacture electric vehicles, batteries, semiconductors, solar panels, and other clean energy technologies — American products made on American soil with American workers. And they’re turning industrial hubs across the Southeast into supermagnets for new investment.
Credit: contributed
Credit: contributed
Georgia is Exhibit A of this manufacturing resurgence. Since the President took office, companies have planned $32 billion in electric vehicle, battery and clean energy supply chain investments in the Peach State. In Dalton, QCells is building America’s first-ever fully integrated solar supply chain — creating 2,500 jobs. In Bryan County, Hyundai broke ground on its very first U.S. electric vehicle and battery plant — creating more than 8,000 jobs. And things are just getting started.
Those new jobs build on the clean energy job growth we are already seeing across the nation. The latest U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER), released this month, shows that clean energy jobs grew in every single state last year — outpacing the overall rise in U.S. employment.
Georgia boasted the third-fastest growth rate in clean energy power-generation jobs and the fourth-fastest in energy-efficiency jobs. And employers are overwhelmingly confident those numbers will keep rising.
The President’s agenda is packed with incentives to make these good-paying, family-sustaining jobs, with the free and fair choice to join a union. That benefits American workers, and it turns out, it benefits employers, too. The USEER finds union energy employers reported much less difficulty recruiting and hiring skilled workers — something I heard from IBEW leaders in Atlanta, who organize apprenticeship programs that let people earn while they learn.
Union energy employers also share the imperative to create these opportunities for Americans historically underrepresented in the energy sector. We’re seeing promising gains for women, who made up more than half of net new energy jobs last year. At Georgia Tech, I met with organizations devoted to getting those numbers up — like EV Noire, which promotes electric vehicle jobs in diverse communities, and Women Do Everything, which trains women for electrification careers.
At the same time, these new industries are helping Georgians save hard-earned money — like Bennie Tillman, a retired Air Force veteran I visited in Athens. By upgrading his home’s lighting, air sealing, insulation and HVAC system, Bennie is slashing his family’s electricity and water bills by more than half and saving more than $3,000 a year. And thanks to new tax credits and rebates from the President’s agenda, the Tillmans and millions of other families will get whopping discounts on these and other home improvements like heat pumps, heat pump water heaters and more.
These stories of new growth, new jobs and new savings are being written across the Southeast and the country.
Nationwide, companies have announced nearly half a trillion dollars in manufacturing investments, spanning just about every state. At the Department of Energy, we’re pushing out billions more for transmission upgrades, clean energy hubs and other projects that will carry that growth further and faster. Together they’re creating tens of thousands of quality jobs and revitalizing thousands of local economies — while making products that will deliver safer air, cleaner water and healthier futures for families everywhere.
This is what Investing in America is all about. It’s all part of the grander Bidenomics strategy: growing the economy from the middle-out and bottom-up, and helping states like Georgia position their people to succeed.
Up until now, states were left on their own to compete against our global rivals. As a governor, I saw firsthand how America’s trickle-down policies allowed other countries to claim our manufacturing and technological edge. We all saw millions of jobs leave this country, outsourced to those that heavily subsidized their industries.
But with the Investing in America agenda, governors are no longer going it alone. No matter their politics or geography, every state and every community now has a partner in President Biden, creating new jobs and opportunities for Georgians, Michiganders and Americans everywhere in between.
That’s the future we’re manufacturing together.
Jennifer M. Granholm is U.S. Secretary of Energy.
About the Author
