Oh Well!! Worries Grow On Future Of EV/Battery Plants In States Voting For Someone Who Has Vowed To Destroy IRA, EVs

[hatrack]

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As the battery belt has grown, some House Republicans have expressed conditional support for the IRA. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) himself has said he wants to use a “scalpel, not a sledgehammer” when approaching the IRA. In a meeting of the Ways and Means Committee held just after Trump’s 2025 inauguration, Republicans from Georgia to Michigan backed the bill. “I ask that you proceed with caution when addressing provisions” that have created “thousands of jobs both throughout my district and across the country,” Rep. Erin Houchin (R-Ind.) said. “Upending these incentives could have severe economic consequences if not approached thoughtfully.”

The same day as the Ways and Means meeting, Rep. Houchin released a statement praising Trump for “making good on his promises to restore this country,” adding that the “executive orders issued on Day One” — which included the order aggressively attacking electric vehicles — “are common sense and have seen widespread support.”

How much of the IRA will Republicans actually scrap — at Trump’s urging and, in many districts, against their constituents’ own interests? Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) voted against the IRA but is now fighting to protect its provisions that boosted wind energy and the biofuel industry in his Nebraska district and throughout the state. (He says his opposition to the IRA was primarily rooted in its expansion of the IRS.) “I know a lot of Republican businessmen that have invested millions of dollars” in clean energy, he says. “You can’t withdraw these tax credits once people are already invested. These tax incentives are creating jobs. That’s a good thing.”

When we speak in early February, Rep. Bacon had just gotten out of a series of hours-long meetings with Congressional Republicans and Trump in part about the IRA. “Some guys are hard of hearing. They keep saying let’s gut the IRA. I said, ‘Dudes — no. Let’s come to reality. You’re not getting the support.’”

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https://www.levernews.com/the-red-state-workers-caught-in-trumps-ev-battle/