IRA is bringing green jobs to red states

Although many red states are not embracing renewable energy, their economies are benefitting from it. According to a recent article in Bloomberg Green, subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act are bringing green jobs to Georgia and other red states.

One Georgia town that has benefited from the IRA is Dalton, a community of 34,000 at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Dalton, whose congressional representative is Marjorie Taylor Greene, is now home to the largest solar panel manufacturing facility in the Western Hemisphere, with another facility in the works. The solar panel facility has not only created jobs, it has helped to diversify Dalton’s economy, which was based around carpet manufacturing.

The green jobs in Georgia don’t stop there. Hyundai Motor Corporation just started building an electric car manufacturing plant near Savannah. Last but not least, there is a battery plant northeast of Atlanta that is half a mile long.

Republicans in other Southern and Midwestern states are now competing to get these jobs to their constituents.

These jobs don’t just bring economic benefits. These jobs could also foster bipartisanship on renewable energy, and bring reluctant republicans on board.

“With domestic manufacturing likely in traditional republican districts, the partisan split on renewables may soften”, says Timothy Fox, an analyst at Clear View Energy Partners.

It remains to be seen how favorably republicans will embrace renewable energy, but it’s hard to argue with the economic benefits that green jobs are bringing.