Walz touts electric vehicle jobs while sparring with Vance on clean energy during VP debate

Washington – At the start of Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, J.D. Vance and Tim Walz sparred on clean energy and manufacturing jobs, laying out different approaches to growing industrial sectors and competing with China in the global economy.

The exchange was in response to a question from CBS News moderators Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan about how to combat climate change following the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene.

“If we really want cleaner air and cleaner water, it would be best to redouble our efforts and invest in American workers and the nation. And unfortunately, Kamala Harris did exactly the opposite,” said Vance, the Republican Party candidate and current U.S. senator for Ohio.

Walz, the Democratic candidate and current governor of Minnesota, responded: “We were close to a deal because of all this going on.”

“(Under) the Biden-Harris administration… we saw massive investments, the largest in the history of the world, that we saw under the Inflation Reduction Act that created jobs across the country,” he said.

The moment reflected the rift between the campaigns of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate former President Donald Trump. The Democratic candidate boasts a record of energy investment and production growth, but Vance suggested their record is insufficient and that Republicans would do much better if voters sent them to the White House in the Nov. 5 election.

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In mentioning the Inflation Reduction Act, Walz referred to the landmark, multi-billion-dollar Climate Action and Manufacturing Act that took effect in 2022. It is widely considered one of the most important climate change investments in the country’s history, full of new or expanded relief. taxes on clean energy production and key technologies like electric vehicles – that could shape the future of Michigan’s auto industry.

The Democratic vice presidential candidate claimed that the IRA alone created 240,000 U.S. jobs, although the nonpartisan environmental think tank E2 estimates that number at around 105,000 in May 2024. Other major spending bills, such as the bipartisan infrastructure bill, also spurred growth in the clean energy and manufacturing sectors through funding for electric vehicle chargers and advanced battery manufacturing plants.

Walz specifically mentioned the number of electric vehicle jobs growing under the current administration, touting that more than 2,000 people are expected to come to Jeffersonville, Ohio. A battery factory is under construction there and will be operated jointly by LG Energy Solution and Honda Motor Co. This facility could use some of the IRA loans, but according to Inside Climate News, it was already in the planning stages before the IRA became law. .

Vance did not confirm the economic impact of the regulations other than to note that China is still the world’s leading producer of solar panels. Instead, he promised to “bring back as much American manufacturing as possible, and you want to produce as much energy as possible in the United States of America because we are the cleanest economy in the entire world.”

His running mate, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, has often promised to bring back manufacturing jobs, including auto jobs, to Michigan. However, the former president largely failed to keep these promises during his first term.

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Vance also suggested that “Kamala Harris’s policies have actually led to more energy production in China, more production abroad, and more business doing in some of the dirtiest parts of the world – and when I say that, I mean the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that produce does per unit of economic output.”

According to Our World in Data, China actually has worse emissions per unit of economic output than the United States. However, China’s emissions-to-GDP ratio has improved as the country has become wealthier and emerged as a world leader in some clean energy technologies.

Many of the Biden administration’s clean energy and manufacturing policies – especially in the automotive sector – are aimed at strengthening U.S. supply chains for key energy technologies and catapulting China to a leadership position as the world’s leading producer of electric vehicles and important electric vehicle components.

During the brief exchange, Vance provided few details on how he and Trump would support American manufacturing or clean energy jobs, although Trump promised to make gains by eliminating so-called “electric vehicle mandates” that affect automotive industry and increasing overall tariffs on all US imports – with even higher rates on goods from China.

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Economists largely agree that such policies could wreak havoc on international trade and raise prices for American consumers, but Trump stood by that argument.

Vance also suggested Tuesday that the United States could improve clean energy – and energy prices – by building more nuclear power generation facilities and promoting greater investment in natural gas. Under Biden, the United States has pursued both paths.

In March 2024, the Biden administration committed $1.5 billion to a first-of-its-kind effort to reopen the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in southwest Michigan. Two other new nuclear facilities have also come online since July 2023, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

EIA data also shows that U.S. natural gas production under Biden, as it also did under Trump, continues to be at an all-time high.

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@GrantSchwab