a day ago
In Georgia, Republicans Vote to Kill Green Jobs but Face Little Fallout
Outside the husk of a shuttered yarn factory, thousands of old solar panels lie stacked on the gravel. Local leaders say they can see the future here: 1,200 people recycling millions of those panels each year and making the glass to build new ones.
This is no field of dreams. A company, Solarcycle, has already spent about $50 million of $500 million it plans to invest to turn the empty space into a recycling operation and build an adjacent glass manufacturing plant. Land has been purchased, permits have been secured, and hiring for jobs starting at $40,000 annually could be just months away.
It's the kind of project that scientists say could ultimately reduce carbon emissions and that economists call a major step in bringing manufacturing back to the United States from China. And it spells opportunity in Cedartown, Ga., a city of about 10,000, where Pirkle's Deli on Main Street does a brisk lunch business but other establishments see little foot traffic. Once operational, Solarcycle would be the area's largest employer.
And yet President Trump's 'big, beautiful' bill has stopped the Solarcycle factory in its tracks. The legislation, which passed the House and is now being debated in the Senate, would essentially eliminate the tax breaks that companies have been counting on to build new wind and solar projects, electric vehicle battery factories and more.
Republicans in the House voted to get rid of the clean energy subsidies in order to pay for Mr. Trump's income tax breaks, even if it meant hurting investment in their districts. The Cedartown plant is on hold until the Senate decides the fate of the credits.
It was not supposed to be this way. Democrats built the clean energy tax credits into the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which they passed without any Republican votes. Since then, nearly 80 percent of the $843 billion in new electric vehicle factories, battery plants and solar and wind projects has flowed to Republican-led districts, something Democrats believed would insulate the tax credits from politics.
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