ROUNDUP: Four Factory Closures or Furloughs Last Week, Thanks to Trump
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Washington, DC – Donald Trump has taken a sledgehammer to clean energy projects across the country, leaving American families to pay the price. Since Trump took office, over 158,000 jobs across the country have been lost or stalled in the clean energy sector. These projects would have created jobs and brought more energy onto the grid at a time when demand is skyrocketing, causing utility bills to soar. Far from his promise to slash electricity prices in half, Americans have seen their utility bills increase by 11% under Trump’s watch.
Just in the last week, factories closed their doors, workers were furloughed, and projects were canceled in Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey, and Missouri, impacting more than 2,500 jobs.
Georgia
[11/9/25] Associated Press: South Korean solar firm cuts pay and hours for Georgia workers as US officials detain imports
A South Korean solar company says it will temporarily reduce pay and working hours for about 1,000 of its 3,000 employees in Georgia because U.S. customs officials have been detaining imported components needed to make solar panels.
Qcells, a unit of South Korea’s Hanwha Solutions, said Friday that it will also lay off 300 workers from staffing agencies at its plants in Dalton and Cartersville, both northwest of Atlanta.
North Carolina
[11/11/25] Charlotte Observer: NC solar plant closing and cutting 220 jobs amid Trump policies, bankruptcy
A leading solar energy development firm in North Carolina is closing its Asheville plant and laying off more than 78% of its workforce as it files for bankruptcy due to renewable energy policy changes under the Trump administration.
Pine Gate Renewables in Asheville filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification report with the state on Friday, saying that 223 people in Buncombe County will be impacted by the closure of its Asheville facility. The site will shutter starting on Jan. 5, according to the WARN database…
According to the filing, the bankruptcy and layoffs are both ripple effects from several policies enacted by President Donald Trump, who has heavily criticized renewable energy projects…
High tariffs were placed on almost all materials needed to build large-scale solar projects, which increased overall costs, Pine Gate said.
The elimination of tax credits for wind and solar energy with the passing of the Big Beautiful Bill also increased project costs, Pine Gate said, and decreased interest in solar investment. These factors, along with high interest rates and inflation, have decreased the value of Pine Gate’s solar fleet and made it hard for the company to raise additional funds, the filing said…
New Jersey
[11/11/25] Heatmap: Scoop: Giant Wind Farm Off New Jersey Coast Is Getting Killed
Another offshore wind project on the East Coast is being quietly killed.
Legal counsel for the Leading Light Wind offshore project filed a letter on Nov. 7 to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities informing the regulator it no longer sees any way to complete construction and wants to pull the plug…
Leading Light was going to be built about 35 miles off the coast of New Jersey. It was awarded a renewable energy certificate from the state in January 2024 and was expected to provide roughly 2.4 gigawatts of electricity to the grid, which would have made it one of the largest renewable energy projects in the country and enough, the developers said, to power a million homes.
Missouri
[11/12/25] Spectrum News: Firm pulls plug on proposed $500M battery materials plant in North St. Louis
Plans for a proposed battery materials manufacturing plant in North St. Louis are dead, company officials told federal regulators Wednesday, weeks after the firm said the Trump administration pulled roughly $200 million in federal grant funding…
ICL said last month it was reviewing the North St. Louis project, with an estimated cost of at least $500 million, after the Department of Energy announced it was revoking the federal funding which came from Biden-era infrastructure legislation.
The plant was first envisioned for ICL’s campus in south St. Louis but was relocated to an industrial area near the north riverfront. It would have created 150 jobs, not including construction.
Trump’s reckless energy policies are leaving a trail of shuttered projects across the country:
- In just two months, six clean energy projects were closed in Michigan, including most recently, two electric vehicle battery plants that laid off 324 workers.
- Last month, General Motors laid 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.
- Earlier last month, 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.