US Factory Boom Disproportionately Favors Poorer Counties

[essentialsaltes]

The biggest winners of Biden’s green climate policies? Republicans.​

More than three quarters of announced clean energy investments are in Republican districts​

LINK

The face of a new era in American manufacturing is here, just off Interstate 75, tucked into this northwest corner of Georgia.

That’s where you’ll find the Qcells plant that pumps out 32,000 solar panels a day and has a total panel production capacity of 5.1 gigawatts. For context, officials note, the peak capacity of the Hoover Dam is roughly 2 gigawatts.

“When I came here, there was dirt. There was no building,” said Lisa Nash, the plant manager here

In Nash’s view, the dramatic growth isn’t just a success story for the company or industry, it’s also major win for the community here in Dalton.

It’s a cutting-edge operation that was made possible by the sweeping climate investment law enacted by the Biden administration in 2022.

The Qcells plant offers a window into the convergence of local, state and federal government aligning to accelerate a manufacturing transition that has turbocharged a local economy. That the effort has crossed party lines is rare enough in these polarized times.

But that it happened in a community that backs a presidential candidate who has attacked the very law that is central to its rapid expansion underscores the complex – and in this case, contradictory - overlap of politics and a local economy.

Located in the congressional district represented by GOP firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene, Dalton is Trump country.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

Red states are big winners of Biden’s landmark laws​

Last month, battery recycling company Redwood Materials broke ground on a $3.5 billion battery plant in South Carolina that is expected to create 1,500 new jobs.

In October, Micron started construction in Boise [Idaho] on America’s first new memory manufacturing fabrication plant in 20 years. The facility is expected to create 2,000 jobs and build leading-edge memory chips to be used in cars, data centers and artificial intelligence.

Micron said the $15 billion investment, announced in September 2022, was made possible in part by the tax credits and grants in the CHIPS Act.

Private companies have been especially eager to invest in fast-growing Texas, which does not have a corporate income tax.

A staggering 20% of all investments linked to the IRA and CHIPS Act is flowing to the Lonestar State, according to Fitch.

‘The president of all Americans’​

Is that surprising that they'd opt to open new manufacturing plants & factories in red states where certain types of regulations are "looser"? (both in terms of wages and ecologically speaking)

It would seem like the success of Biden's plan is based on the types of "light-touch" regulatory environments touted by red states and condemned by blue states.


I think touting these sorts of things is a bit "dual-tongued" in the same way as when Biden touted his "business-friendly" record by bragging about Delaware. (which, despite being a blue state, is basically "America's Tax Shelter" with the unique way their business tax code is laid out.

If it were an "All Americans" sort of thing, then no specific-colored states should be "the big winners", the investments would be somewhat evenly distributed I would think.


If a republican created a "Healthcare access improvement act" and the majority of new investments ended up landing in hospital systems in blue states, nobody would see it as "see, this is a leader for all Americans, they're even willing to help the other side", it would be seen as "see, you proved our point for us, blue state policies are better for healthcare".

 

[essentialsaltes]

The biggest winners of Biden’s green climate policies? Republicans.​

[R]ed districts have emerged as the climate law’s biggest winners. According to The Post’s analysis, congressional districts that favored Trump in the 2020 election received three times as much clean energy and manufacturing investments as those that leaned toward Biden.

Developers are drawn to red districts because land is plentiful and cheap, experts say.

“Most of this can just be explained by population density,” said Trevor Houser, a partner at Rhodium Group. In rural areas, which are much more likely to vote Republican, ample land — at lower prices — can support giant battery manufacturing plants or large-scale wind farms.

The South, for example, hosts around 38 percent of America’s population, but has received almost half of clean energy investments so far. In the Southeast, battery manufacturing companies have built factories alongside EV assembly lines, creating a so-called “Battery Belt” for electric vehicles that stretches from Alabama and Georgia to North Carolina and Tennessee.

 

[rjs330]

The question remains if these climate policies.and spending remain at current levels. Remember this is all about climate change policies. Biden investided in things that may not last in the long term.

While it's good to see the creation of manufacturing, are we really investing in profitable self sustaining businesses? Or is the government now tied to these places to keep proping them up year to year with tax dollars. Have we just created another tax dollar sink?

I don't know. I guess we probably won't know for another 10 years of so.

Now the chips manufacturing is a really good idea. Manufacturing things in the US rhat we NEED to survive is critical. If we are getting materials from other countries that would cause us serious problems if they stopped providing them, then we should be manufacturing those things here. THATS what we should be investing in.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Now the chips manufacturing is a really good idea. Manufacturing things in the US rhat we NEED to survive is critical. If we are getting materials from other countries that would cause us serious problems if they stopped providing them, then we should be manufacturing those things here. THATS what we should be investing in.

Trump doesn't like the chips act:

https://www.npr.org/2024/10/28/nx-s1-5167750/kamala-harris-donald-trump-semiconductor-chips-michigan

 

[rturner76]

It makes more economical sense to build a factory or factory farm in the poorest communities. First, they will get the best-priced real estate. Second, people in depressed rural areas are looking for work so there is a labor force waiting who will likely accept less pay than the center of an urban center. Third, local city counsels will be more likely cooperate and give incentives to bring a whole bunch of jobs to their community. It's a win/win.......Until the local economy begins to depend on those jobs to bolster the local economy and the factory shuts down and moves somewhere cheaper. But I'm sure some businesses stay for a long time.

 

[rjs330]

Trump doesn't like the chips act:

https://www.npr.org/2024/10/28/nx-s1-5167750/kamala-harris-donald-trump-semiconductor-chips-michigan

That's fine he's entitled to think his plan us better.

 

[essentialsaltes]

The biggest winners of Biden’s green climate policies? Republicans.​

More than three quarters of announced clean energy investments are in Republican districts​

The biggest losers of Trump's rollback of Biden's green climate policies? Republicans.

Trump’s executive order threatens more than half a billion dollars for Arkansas energy and infrastructure projects​

By the end of Biden’s term on Jan. 20, the EPA had awarded funds to 31 projects in Arkansas to the tune of $478 million.

 

[Vambram]

The biggest losers of Trump's rollback of Biden's green climate policies? Republicans.

Trump’s executive order threatens more than half a billion dollars for Arkansas energy and infrastructure projects​

By the end of Biden’s term on Jan. 20, the EPA had awarded funds to 31 projects in Arkansas to the tune of $478 million.

I have no doubts at all that the vast majority of the people in Arkansas are going to be just fine and will also have a better economy for themselves and their state during the Trump administration. The EPA funds are taxpayers dollars. But, it is better to have projects and large contracts be funded by businesses that use private money instead of taxpayers dollars.

 

[essentialsaltes]

The EPA funds are taxpayers dollars.

Into whose piggy bank will they go?

 

[Vambram]

Into whose piggy bank will they go?

I want it to be spent wisely and used efficiently.

 

[Lukaris]

https://nam.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Manufacturers-Regulatory-Letter-to-President-Elect-Trump_12.5.24.pdf

 

[Pommer]

But, it is better to have projects and large contracts be funded by businesses that use private money instead of taxpayers dollars.

If we privatized all of government then our political problems would simply vanish!

 

[Laodicean60]

Into whose piggy bank will they go?

We both know the answer to that and it's been going on with both parties in power for decades. The government is dependent on the rich for their money for government out-of-control spending and political money.
I've learned on these forums not to like the campaign finances and agree with Bernies take on this issue.

 

[essentialsaltes]

We both know the answer to that

I don't. All I'm certain of is that it won't go back into taxpayer wallets.

What's your answer?

 

[Laodicean60]

I don't. All I'm certain of is that it won't go back into taxpayer wallets.

What's your answer?

I assumed you knew that corporations, the 1%, and Wall Street are soaking up our tax dollars (and of course govt.).

 

[essentialsaltes]

The biggest winners of Biden’s green climate policies? Republicans.​

The Inflation Reduction Act, which contained the largest climate investment in US history, would “throw money at woke climate and social programs that won’t work — including over $350 billion for ‘Green New Deal’ initiatives,” Hudson said in a statement after IRA’s passage.

LINK
The face of a new era in American manufacturing is here, just off Interstate 75, tucked into this northwest corner of Georgia.
That’s where you’ll find the Qcells plant that pumps out 32,000 solar panels a day and has a total panel production capacity of 5.1 gigawatts. For context, officials note, the peak capacity of the Hoover Dam is roughly 2 gigawatts.

​

The biggest losers of Trump’s trade policies? Republicans.​

A South Korean solar company [Qcells] says it will temporarily reduce pay and working hours for about 1,000 of its 3,000 employees in Georgia because U.S. customs officials have been detaining imported components needed to make solar panels.