Report shows how republican attacks on EVs will kill 2 million US jobs

The republican budget bill which cuts domestic manufacturing credits and adds trillions of dollars to the national debt in order to channel money to US elites will put 2 million jobs at risk, according to a new report by BlueGreen Alliance.

Over the last few years, the US has been undergoing somewhat of a manufacturing renaissance.

Thanks to President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, both of which included many provisions for green and domestic manufacturing jobs, there has been tremendous investment in US manufacturing, at a much higher pace than prior to those laws being passed.

Overall, Biden’s push for EVs attracted $210 billion in investment and 230,000 direct EV jobs, to say nothing of the additional jobs that would be created to support those jobs and due to increased economic activity.

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This was particularly lucrative for certain states in particular, such as Nevada which would experience a 22.87% increase in the state’s manufacturing workforce, New Mexico with a 12.52% increase, or Georgia with a 10.17% boost. Arizona, Kentucky, Michigan, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia would all see a boost of more than 5% in their manufacturing workforces.

But the new budget bill, passed by republicans in the House, would kill all those jobs and more.

We’ve already seen some of these effects, as several projects have been canceled due to job-killing republican policy.

But now, a new analysis by BlueGreen Alliance calculates just how much the republican bill would devastate US manufacturing. It estimates that the elimination of manufacturing credits would threaten nearly 300,000 direct manufacturing jobs.

“The job-creating track record of the clean manufacturing tax credits is undeniable and the changes to them included in the House bill threatens all of that progress. Every bit of data shows clearly that repealing these credits will hurt working Americans. We hope the Senate will see reason and reverse these damaging provisions.” 

–Ted Fertik, Vice President of Manufacturing and Industrial Policy, BlueGreen Alliance.

But famously, manufacturing jobs are desirable because of their positive effect on a local economy, creating additional ancillary jobs in addition to the direct manufacturing jobs.

So, BlueGreen’s analysis looked at these as well, and found that a million “indirect jobs” would be threatened. Indirect jobs include things like supply chain jobs, providing parts for auto or clean energy manufacturing.

In addition, 643,000 “induced jobs” created by economic stimulus of the areas in question would be destroyed. These are jobs like restaurant workers, store clerks, and the other types of jobs you’d see when an area increases in population or has more money to spend.

“These numbers make it even more clear, if this bill becomes law, workers are the ones who will pay the price. As this administration blusters about its support for American manufacturing, this bill tells an extremely different story, openly selling out workers to pay for a billionaire tax break.” 

–Jason Walsh, Executive Director, BlueGreen Alliance

Seven states would lose over 100,000 jobs, with California leading the pack at 329k, but three Southern states in the burgeoning US “battery belt” will be harmed exceptionally – Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina at 258k, 140k and 135k jobs lost respectively.

Notably, two of those states have two republican Senators – Tennessee and South Carolina. As the House bill has now been passed on to the Senate, it’s up to them whether they want to harm the economies of their state in order to satisfy their oil donors and give a multi-trillion-dollar giveaway to the richest Americans.

If you, perhaps, think that this bad idea is indeed a bad idea, you could get in contact with them to explain politely that you oppose sending US manufacturing jobs to China.

Or, if you live in another state, you can find your Senator here.

Among the proposed cuts is the rooftop solar credit. That means you could have only until the end of this year to install rooftop solar on your home, before republicans raise the cost of doing so by an average of ~$10,000. So if you want to go solar, get started now, because these things take time and the system needs to be active before you file for the credit.

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