BREAKING: 1,600 Workers in Kentucky Laid Off Thanks to Trump’s War on Clean Energy 

Ford CEO has blamed the repeal of tax incentives in Trump and the GOP’s budget bill for the company’s decision to pull back on EV production 

Washington, DC – An electric vehicle battery plant in Kentucky is closing its doors and laying off 1,600 workers. Earlier this year, Ford CEO Jim Farley said that Trump’s decision to end federal tax credits for EVs has forced them to scale back EV production. The announcement comes after Climate Power released its latest Energy Crisis report last week, which shows that Trump’s war on clean energy has canceled or stalled 165,531 clean energy jobs – sending jobs overseas and hiking up utility costs 13%. It also comes as a new jobs report finds unemployment going up, and manufacturing jobs going down for the seventh straight month.

On the campaign trail, Trump promised to bring back American manufacturing, but instead, he’s taken a sledgehammer to clean energy manufacturing projects around the country and made it more expensive to buy EVs. Meanwhile, China’s EV market is “booming”. 

Climate Power Senior Advisor Jesse Lee issued the following statement: 

“Donald Trump is now saddling America with a manufacturing crisis on top of his affordability crisis. Thanks to Trump and Republicans, these workers are heading into the holiday season wondering how they’re going to pay their bills that were already stretching them to the limit. Trump isn’t just handing workers pink slips – he’s also raised costs on everything from groceries to energy bills. Next November, every Republican who put their allegiance to Donald Trump over their constituents is going to have to explain why they voted to cut clean energy projects that would have created jobs and lowered costs for their own voters.” 

Trump’s reckless energy policies are leaving a trail of shuttered projects across the country:

• A battery plant canceled a project in Missouri, citing “regulatory changes”, killing 1,000 jobs. 
• Leading Light Wind pulled the plug on construction of an offshore wind project in New Jersey that would have generated enough electricity to power a million homes. 
• A solar firm in North Carolina laid off 78% of its workforce after filing for bankruptcy due to renewable energy policy changes under the Trump administration.  
• QCells, a solar manufacturing plant in Georgia, announced that it would be furloughing 1,000 workers and permanently laying off an additional 300.
• In just two months, seven clean energy projects were closed in Michigan, including General Motors laying off 1,200 workers at its electric vehicle plant in Detroit, along with hundreds of additional permanent and temporary layoffs at battery plants in Ohio and Tennessee.  
• In October, Topsoe cited the repeal of clean energy tax credits as a reason for canceling 150 jobs and a $400 million investment in their Richmond, Virginia facility. 
• In October, Fox 2 Detroit reported that over 100 employees at Dana Incorporated, an electric vehicle battery component manufacturer in Auburn Hills, Michigan, had been laid off.
• General Motors canceled a $55 million factory that would have created 300 jobs, citing “decisions of the DOE”. 
• Fortescue blamed U.S. “policy settings” and the elimination of “critical tax credits” in Trump and Republicans’ budget bill for the cancellation of their $210 million Detroit EV battery factory. 
• Trump used the government shutdown as an opportunity to sow even more chaos and uncertainty for American workers by cancelling $8 billion in investments in states that did not vote for him. The Trump administration has put $24 billion for energy projects on the chopping block since May. 
• 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.