Would you rather start and run a business in a state that will not make it a pain in the rear end to get up and running, won’t put massive amounts of regulations and roadblocks in the way, won’t micromanage you with tons of government, and won’t take a good chunk of your money, or, one that will? How about one that works to protect your business and employees from crime? Tries to keep the cost of living low?
Biden’s clean energy factory jobs may elude U.S. union workers
President Joe Biden has pledged that fighting climate change will deliver millions of middle-class jobs with good wages to Americans with union membership cards.
But in the six months since passage of Biden’s signature climate change law, a large majority of the $50 billion of announced investments in domestic manufacturing to support the clean energy transition has been in states with laws that make it harder for workers to unionize, according to a Reuters analysis of corporate and state announcements.
Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) includes tax credits for businesses that produce clean energy components in the United States, and provides higher credits for developers of renewable energy projects if they use products made domestically.
Of the more than 50 EV battery, solar panel and other factories announced since passage of the Act in August, 83% are located in so-called right to work states, which bar companies from requiring workers to pay union dues as a condition of employment, according to a Reuters review of company announcements.
This doesn’t mean there aren’t unions, just fewer, and fewer folks who are forced to join them, having their money forcibly taken to support unions they don’t agree with. And the cost of doing business, the cost of energy, cost of land, etc, tends to be lower in right to work states. So, that’s where companies will go. All for green energy protects to solve an imaginary problem.
