Trump’s War on Clean Energy Cancels Tennessee Battery Project That Would Have Created 190 Jobs 

Brownsville, TN – The Commercial Appeal reported that EV battery supplier Enchem cancelled its plans for a $152.5 million facility in Brownsville, Tennessee, that was expected to create 190 jobs. The closure comes after Tennessee Republicans in Congress, including Senator Marsha Blackburn and Representative David Kustoff, who represents Brownsville, voted to take a “sledgehammer” to investments in American clean energy manufacturing. Now, Trump is using American families as political pawns in shutdown negotiations by cancelling $8 billion in investment across the country, including more than $3 billion in districts represented by Republicans.

According to Climate Power’s Energy Crisis Snapshot report and tracker, more than 80,500 clean energy jobs have already been lost or delayed under Trump, 47% of them in Congressional Districts represented by Republicans. 

“The factory closures that Republicans in Congress vote for mean lost jobs, higher utility bills, and less energy on the grid at a time of skyrocketing demand. Costs are already too high – and Trump has made it blatantly clear that he is willing to make it even worse if it means he can score political points with his billionaire Big Oil donors,” said Climate Power Senior Advisory Jesse Lee. “While Trump and Republicans play political games in Washington and give tax cuts to their billionaire donors, American workers are suffering, jobs are being sent overseas, and energy costs are skyrocketing.”  

Trump’s reckless energy policies are killing clean energy projects across the country:

• Trump’s federal energy policies contributed to battery startup, Natron Energy, shutting down and canceling its planned $1.4 billion factory in Eastern North Carolina, which would have created 1,000 jobs. 

• Blue Ridge Power blamed insurmountable “market headwinds” impacting the renewable energy industry for their decision to lay off 517 workers in North Carolina 

• Trump planned to revoke federal permitting for a Maryland wind farm, which would have powered 718,000 homes and supported more than 1,300 jobs. 

• Fortescue canceled its planned $210 million EV battery factory in Detroit, which would have created 600 jobs. The company blamed the factory cancellation on U.S. “policy settings” and the elimination of “critical tax credits” in Trump and Republicans’ budget bill.