MEMO: President Biden Is Creating Manufacturing and Construction Jobs
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Today, President Biden visited Racine County, Wisconsin, to announce a new $3.3 billion investment by Microsoft to build a new artificial intelligence data center, an investment projected to lead to 2,300 union construction jobs and 2,000 permanent jobs.
Wisconsinites may remember that Trump visited this same location when he was president as part of an announcement for a $10 billion Foxconn facility — a project that drastically failed.
A critical swing state in the election and the host of the 2024 Republican presidential convention, Wisconsin will help decide whether America continues down the path of a clean energy boom and reduced emissions, or turns our back on jobs and lower costs for families for the sake of tax breaks for Big Oil.
We fact-checked a few of Trump’s claims from his visit to Waukesha last week:
- “If Joe Biden wins the election, the middle class loses,” Trump said. “We are a failing nation, a nation in decline. We are a nation that has lost its way.”
- FACT: Trump’s policies amount to a war on the clean energy economy that cost jobs, stunted growth, and impeded the nation’s ability to tackle climate change. Trump imposed tariffs on solar, tried to eliminate the electric vehicle tax credit, and slow-walked the leasing and planning processes for renewable energy projects. His actions cost Americans 1.1. million clean energy jobs.
- “The choice for Wisconsin is simple: If you want lower prices, then you have no choice than to vote for one person, Donald J. Trump,” Trump said. “When I’m in the White House, the Biden economic bust will be replaced by the Trump economic boom.”
- FACT: The Inflation Reduction Act is helping families cut down on their utility bills. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the law will save the average taxpayer $1,000 a year in energy costs. Families who install an efficient electric heat pump for heating and cooling can receive a tax credit of up to $2,000 and save an average of over $500 per year on energy bills. Families who make other energy efficiency improvements can receive tax credits worth up to $500 for doors, $600 for windows, $150 for a home energy audit, and up to 30% off the cost of new insulation — a total of up to $1,200 per year in tax credits.
- “Biden has just declared that if he gets four more years, he will drench the middle class in the largest tax increases in the history of our country,” Trump said, “vowing repeatedly that he will ensure that the Trump tax cuts—the biggest tax cuts in history….the people that benefited the most are lower-income people—and he wants them to expire.”
- FACT: Trump’s tax breaks gave a $25 billion handout to the oil and gas industry. It allowed Chevron to pay zero in federal income taxes after the law passed, and in the following two years, the company paid their CEO $33 million and laid off thousands of workers. Ever since, they’ve been raking in record profits off consumers’ pain at the pump.
Here are Joe Biden’s top clean energy and climate accomplishments in Wisconsin:
- Since the Inflation Reduction Act passed, new clean energy projects have created over 271,000 jobs nationwide and $352 billion in investments. In Wisconsin, the law has spurred $920 million in new investments and helped create or advance over 1,100 clean energy jobs.
- The Inflation Reduction Act alone is projected to bring over $4 billion of new investment in large-scale clean power generation and energy storage to Wisconsin by 2030, supporting the state’s 70,000 clean energy workers.
- As part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, 106 Wisconsin municipalities will receive $402 million to build water infrastructure projects, replace lead service lines, and address emerging contaminants such as PFAS.
- Over 50 farms and small businesses in Wisconsin were awarded Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) grants, which received a $7.2 million boost through President Biden’s clean energy plan.
Despite the economic benefits and savings for all Americans, Trump has vowed to gut Biden’s Clean Energy Plan “on day one.” Republicans have already tried more than 31 times to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act. If President Biden’s clean energy plan gets repealed, Wisconsin communities across the country stand to lose jobs and businesses stand to lose funding.
Wisconsin’s Republican districts may be the most impacted. Nine of the state’s 11 new clean energy projects are in Republican-held districts, representing 81.81% of all projects in the state, 91% of jobs (1,012), and 51.1% of investments ($470 million).
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