Georgia governor attacks Biden’s electric vehicle policy at federally-backed battery plant

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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp escalated his attack on President Joe Biden’s electric car policy, speaking Tuesday about breaking ground on a company that received more than $100 million to refine graphite for electric batteries from an infrastructure bill signed by Biden.

“The electric mobility boom is happening in Georgia because our state is second to none for companies looking to invest, relocate, expand, and innovate — not because the federal government continues to put its thumb on scale, favoring some companies over the industry like these,” Kemp said, according to advance remarks of his speech at Anovion Technologies. .

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These statements are extraordinarily partisan for a factory establishment. Anovion’s $800 million investment promises 400 new jobs in rural Bainbridge, in the state’s far southwest corner.

Georgia has been a major beneficiary of the nationwide electric vehicle investment boom, with more than 40 EV-related projects since 2020 that have pledged $22.7 billion in investment and 28,400 jobs in the state.

“When President Biden and others wrongly try to take credit for Georgia’s success, don’t forget that next year is an election year,” Kemp said.

The Republican governor planned this attack knowing that Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff would likely share his position in the launch. Ossoff has been a leading Georgia supporter of Biden’s electric car policies. The two could be contenders for the Senate seat in 2026.

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Ossoff argued that the investment boom in Georgia would not happen without the Democrats’ policies.

“It’s strange to attend a groundbreaking event and launch a political attack on the very politics that made this possible,” Ossoff told the Associated Press ahead of the event, where he was invited but not scheduled to act as a speaker. “The governor raises a panicked political tantrum over the success of his state’s federal manufacturing policies.”

Kemp has long opposed the Deflation Act, which is pouring billions into subsidizing electric cars. He particularly disagreed with his Domestic Content Standards, which aim to increase America’s clean energy manufacturing capacity. They offer tax incentives on electric cars only when the car, the battery, and the main raw materials in the battery are made in the United States.

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Hyundai Motor Group, which is building a $5.5 billion plant to assemble electric cars and batteries in Ellabell, Georgia, near Savannah, said the tax breaks are unfair because its electric cars are not currently eligible. Kemp referred to the South Korean bloc’s criticism in his speech on Tuesday, saying, “This approach simply does not work.”

While Ossoff’s fellow Democratic Senator, Raphael Warnock, has suggested making the tax breaks more flexible, Ossoff emphasized that the benefits will be available to Hyundai once the Ellabell plant begins production.

It’s a mistake to credit Biden for the boom, Kemp said, noting that Rivian Automotive announced a $5 billion plant east of Atlanta in December 2021, while Hyundai announced in May 2022, before Biden signed the inflation-lowering act.

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For his part, Kemp said again Tuesday that he wants to make Georgia the “e-mobility capital of the nation” as his legacy in his second term.

But Ossoff has claimed credit for Biden and the Democrats, including for solar panel plant expansions in northwest Georgia.

Things got even more tense when Hyundai and LG Energy Solution announced a $4.3 billion electric battery plant in May at Hyundai’s new campus. Ossoff firmly criticized the news while Kemp was in Israel, a move that angered some Kemp administration officials.

Kemp attributed Anovion’s selection of the site to state and local officials, saying “They don’t take a stand or show off, and they don’t try to steal credit.”

The governor himself is in an awkward position politically, as many Republicans oppose electric cars. Weeks after the Hyundai battery announcement, former President Donald Trump told the Georgia Republican convention he would rescind Biden’s electric vehicle policies, saying “on my first day in office, I’m going to end all of that” to cheers from the crowd in Columbus.

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Kemp, who did not attend this convention due to his dissatisfaction with the party-led country, has tried to persuade Republicans to break off their romantic relationship with Trump, while at the same time opposing a Democratic president whose administration has showered electric car makers with billions of dollars. incentives.

“Unlike top-down systems like China, and those some are advocating at the federal level, we don’t dictate how that growth happens,” Kemp said Tuesday. “We don’t pick winners and losers. We let the market drive this innovation and expansion.”

But it’s hard to argue that Anovion is just a cut-off from the market. The Chicago-based company’s Georgia plant will manufacture synthetic graphite—a key component of lithium batteries—taking advantage of content standards that boost domestic demand for graphite. It has secured $117 million in federal funding to build and improve the plants. It may be able to claim federal tax credits of 10% on graphite production costs as well as 30% on plant investment, both part of the Inflation Reduction Act.

“Industrialization is returning to America and will come to Georgia, as we wanted when we passed the infrastructure and industrialization policies,” Ossoff said.

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