AJC: ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ strikes fear in Georgia’s clean energy, EV sectors

Georgia’s clean energy sector is “sounding the alarm” about the Trump-backed spending bill that could “cost jobs”

As Donald Trump’s harmful agenda is pushed through Congress with the backing of GOP U.S. Senate candidates and potential candidates like Rep. Buddy Carter, Commissioner John King, and Rep. Mike Collins, new reporting from the AJC outlines how the bill could threaten the future of clean energy jobs and manufacturing, and raise energy prices across Georgia.

The AP also reported yesterday that the Trump-backed budget puts Georgians, many of them in red parts of the state, at risk of losing their jobs, stating: “By some measures, no state may have more to lose than Georgia from such cuts in Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill.’”

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Atlanta Journal-Constitution: ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ strikes fear in Georgia’s clean energy, EV sectors

KEY POINTS

• Over the last three years, few states have drawn more clean energy and electric vehicle manufacturing investment than Georgia.
  
• Now, Republicans in Congress appear set to tear down much of that scaffolding to pay for other corporate and individual tax breaks sought by President Donald Trump.
  
• And Georgia’s clean energy sector is sounding the alarm, warning the changes could cost jobs, worsen climate change and even increase the cost of electricity.
  
• “The bill coming out of the Senate is a direct attack on these projects and on the communities in Georgia that enthusiastically welcome the jobs they create,” said Suvi Sharma, the CEO of Solarcycle, which is developing a solar panel recycling facility set to employ 600 workers in Cedartown, 20 miles south of Rome.
  
• Solarcycle has paused plans to double its workforce with a “Phase 2” expansion in the area because of uncertainty about the federal incentives.
  
• The bill would fulfill Trump’s campaign promise to extend corporate and individual tax cuts created in his first term.
  
• To help pay for those, the legislation would eliminate most federal incentives for EVs and clean energy years earlier than expected.
  
• Still, the bill could add as much $3.9 trillion to the national debt, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
  
• And even some Trump allies don’t agree with clawing back support for clean energy, which many businesses in Georgia and beyond have staked their investments on.
  
• Brion Fitzpatrick, president of the Georgia Solar Energy Industries Association, warned that “Georgia will lose thousands of solar jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in clean energy investment,” if the bill isn’t altered.