By Thomas Stuart, University of Victoria
(The Conversation) – United States President Donald Trump’s early executive actions have set American manufacturing on a collision course with his administration’s fossil-fuel-driven agenda. It’s clear that climate change policies run counter to his vision of American primacy.
Trump wasted no time reversing the green initiatives of his predecessor, former president Joe Biden. He withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement for a second time, rolled back environmental regulations and froze green energy funding.
However, these reversals have exposed complications in Trump’s economic platform. For all his promises to revive American industry and reduce reliance on foreign production, Trump’s opposition to clean energy threatens green technology investments and other incentives that drive U.S. manufacturing development.
Trump’s Strategic National Manufacturing Initiative promised to “stop outsourcing” and turn the U.S. into a “manufacturing superpower.” Yet his plans to cancel the electric vehicle mandate and reduce regulations promoting clean energy undermine the manufacturing sector’s shift toward green technology.
In the long run, Trump’s own actions may undermine his vision of an American manufacturing renaissance by cutting crucial investments, putting the U.S. at odds with a global economy increasingly focused on clean technologies.
The green manufacturing boom
Republican congressman John James recently applauded Trump’s reversal of green policies during a congressional hearing. Yet, in the same breath, James called for the administration to continue “onshoring the future of automotive jobs and manufacturing,” a policy he linked to Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
Other Republican representatives from Michigan, Georgia and North Carolina increasingly find themselves walking along the same rhetorical tight-rope.
While Biden’s IRA has been widely criticized by the Trump administration, the act has brought Republican districts significant green investments and manufacturing jobs.
“While the bulk of the IRA is damaging policy, we must not neglect the sector-wide energy tax provisions that manufacturers and job creators rely on in my district and around the country.”
The green manufacturing boom is not an abstract concept, but a tangible economic engine, particularly in districts with established fossil fuel industries like Chatham County, N.C. Here, manufacturer Wolfspeed’s new US$5 billion dollar semiconductor plant sits in the heart of traditional coal country.
Since 2022, the private sector has invested US$133 billion in clean energy and electric vehicle (EV) technology. Manufacturing investments alone have jumped by three times over the previous two years, totalling US$89 billion.
The impact of the IRA on ‘red states’
Biden-era policy has largely driven the America’s green energy economic development. The IRA provided a staggering US$312 billion in planned investments in EV and battery manufacturing.
Eighty-five per cent of this funding flows into Republican-voting districts — areas that have historically voted against climate-focused legislation like the IRA. Yet the rewards of these green tech policies have been a boon for local economies.
Georgia, for instance, has become a model for the American green energy transformation. In the first two years of the IRA, about US$15 billion dollars flowed into the state. Since then, Georgia has added a projected 43,000 new green jobs.
Photo by Angelica Reyn: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-wind-farm-at-sunset-8420517/
Meanwhile, North Carolina’s Randolph County has seen the largest investment in green technology in U.S. history. Under the previous administration, it received about US$14 billion in funding, allowing Toyota to build a manufacturing megasite.
By 2030, the site is expected to create 5,000 jobs in the area, with wages averaging 80 per cent more than the county median salary. Once fully operational, the site will manufacture enough batteries annually to power and maintain up to 500,000 EVs.
What comes next?
As Trump continues to roll back environmental protections and withdraw from climate agreements, whether he can still deliver the manufacturing revival he promised remains to be seen.
In one respect, his policies may lead to a consolidation in the green technology sector. Despite his administration’s retreat from broader green energy policies, Trump says he will continue securing the U.S. supply of critical minerals for EV batteries.
This could reflect the influence of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is serving under Trump as a “special government employee.” Tesla, which relies on these critical minerals for its EV production, would benefit from a stable supply.
Musk resents regulatory interventions, particularly those that encourage competition. On a call with investors, Musk said Tesla might feel a slight impact from lost subsidies. However, he suggested the real damage would be to competitors who are scrambling to catch up in an industry where raw materials are king. Musk predicted that “long term, it probably actually helps Tesla.”
In another respect, Trump’s policy reversal could also weaken Republican unity. Republican politicians like Georgia’s Buddy Carter, Tennessee’s Chuck Fleischmann and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp have highlighted the short-sighted nature of Trump’s economic plan.
Trump’s decision to turn his back on climate change policy is more than a blow to environmentalists; it’s a direct challenge to his own economic agenda. He risks not just the environment, but also the green investments essential to American industry’s competitive revival.
Thomas Stuart, Lecturer in Communications, Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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