The Clean Energy Boom in Republican Districts

Randolph County, a rural square of green woods and farm fields in the middle of North Carolina, is the unlikely home of one of the biggest electric vehicle battery projects in the world.Over the past two years, Toyota has announced a series of expansions that could invest more than $12 billion in the area, where it owns a manufacturing plant.It’s part of the biggest announced investment — a total of $17.6 billion — that any congressional district has received since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, according to E2, a nonprofit group that collects data on clean energy projects tied to the bill.Over the last two years, Biden’s landmark climate bill has ushered in more than $120 billion in announced investment across the country, per E2, supercharging spending in a burgeoning clean energy industry — think batteries, electric vehicles and solar — largely through tax credits.In Randolph, most of that money has pooled into the tiny, 2,650-person town of Liberty, where the only chain restaurant is a Subway attached to a single grocery store.Once dominated by the textile industry, Liberty had seen “minimal industry” until Toyota came to town in 2021, said Scott Kidd, Liberty’s town manager.

Liberty is now sandwiched between the Toyota plant and a $5 billion semiconductor manufacturer in a neighboring county.President-elect Donald Trump has promised to repeal the I.R.A., and despite the more than 330,000 jobs that could result from the law, swing states that got billions from the plan like North Carolina still moved toward the G.O.P.in 2024.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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