Yellen says Biden tax credits boost clean energy investment in coal country

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Wednesday clean energy investments in parts of the country with an historical reliance on coal have more than doubled to $4.5 billion per month due to Biden administration tax credits that target such communities. In excerpts of remarks to be delivered in Kentucky, Yellen highlighted new Treasury Department research that also shows clean energy investment in other communities has risen to $3.5 billion per month - a $1 billion increase - due to the incentives in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Wednesday clean energy investments in parts of the country with an historical reliance on coal have more than doubled to $4.5 billion per month due to Biden administration tax credits that target such communities.

In excerpts of remarks to be delivered in Kentucky, Yellen highlighted new Treasury Department research that also shows clean energy investment in other communities has risen to $3.5 billion per month - a $1 billion increase - due to the incentives in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Yellen is visiting Kentucky, a heavily Republican state that Democratic President Joe Biden is not expected to win in the Nov. 5 U.S. election, to promote a growing supply chain for electric vehicle (EV) battery production that he touted in his State of the Union address to Congress last week.

"We've seen investments grow significantly. Companies have announced almost $650 billion in investments in clean energy and manufacturing across the country since the start of the Administration," Yellen said in the excerpts. Yellen is visiting Advanced Nano Products, a South Korean-owned battery materials manufacturer that has invested $49 million in a new factory in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

The facility will supply carbon nanomaterials to the $5.8 billion BlueOval SK battery manufacturing complex under construction a few miles to the south by Ford Motor Co and South Korea's SK Group that will eventually employ more than 5,000 workers. Japan's AESC is also building a $2 billion battery factory in Bowling Green, Kentucky that will employ 2,000 people. All of these facilities are taking advantage of IRA clean energy manufacturing tax credits that provide up to 30% of the investment costs, with a 10% bonus if located in a community historically dependent on fossil fuel energy or one that is economically disadvantaged. They also will benefit from consumer EV tax credits of up to $7,500 on the purchase of vehicles that meet U.S. production and battery content requirements.

Kentucky accounted for just under 5% of U.S. coal production in 2022, ranking it fifth among the states producing the fossil fuel, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Yellen's visit is aimed at highlighting the growing EV investments in the state. So far this year, she has promoted Biden's economic agenda in Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin.

She told Elizabethtown-area business leaders that the clean energy economy "is at the heart of our economic agenda" and the administration's incentives would fuel private investments that will build 21st century industries including EVs, green energy and semiconductors."

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)