Ohio Reaps Benefits From a Climate Law JD Vance Repeatedly Attacks (original) (raw)
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Former President Donald J. Trump has called for clawing back unspent funds included in the Inflation Reduction Act, President Biden’s landmark climate bill. That could have adverse impacts in Ohio.
Senator JD Vance, Republican of Ohio, has criticized the Inflation Reduction Act, but the bill is helping his home state.Credit...Paul Vernon/Associated Press
Oct. 1, 2024Updated 2:00 p.m. ET
President Biden’s key climate law has long drawn the ire of former President Donald J. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio.
Mr. Trump has called for rescinding unspent funds included in the law, which contains tax credits and subsidies to incentivize companies to deploy more clean energy projects. Mr. Vance has also blasted the law as a “Green New Scam” and highlighted Vice President Kamala Harris’s ties to the legislation, noting at a campaign event in August that she had “cast the deciding vote for the so-called Inflation Reduction Act that sent a lot of our resources to China.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Vance is set to debate Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, who has praised the Inflation Reduction Act for its “critical investments to reduce costs for families and combat climate change.”
Despite Mr. Vance’s critiques, residents in his state — including in the senator’s hometown, Middletown, Ohio — have been big beneficiaries of Mr. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Many local leaders and residents say they do not want to see the new investments, which are already starting to revitalize the local economy, disappear.
Since the bill’s passage in mid-2022, companies have announced more than $7 billion in clean energy investments in Ohio, according to an analysis from E2, an environmental nonprofit organization. Only six other states have surpassed that amount, according to the analysis.
Among the companies benefiting is the steel manufacturer Cleveland-Cliffs, whose facility in Middletown was awarded a grant of up to $500 million from the Energy Department. The grant is intended to help the company upgrade its steel mill so that it can use cleaner fuels like hydrogen or natural gas instead of coke derived from coal. The project is expected to create about 170 permanent jobs and up to 1,200 temporary union construction jobs.
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