Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, traveling to the election battleground state of Ohio, will say that the Biden administration’s policies to spur electric vehicle manufacturing have begun to create a “battery belt” across the US Midwest.
(Bloomberg) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, traveling to the election battleground state of Ohio, will say that the Biden administration’s policies to spur electric vehicle manufacturing have begun to create a “battery belt” across the US Midwest.
“Since January of last year, companies have announced over $100 billion in EV, battery, and charging investments here in America,” Yellen is set to say, according to the text of a speech she’s scheduled to deliver on Thursday in Cleveland. “The wave of new battery investments in the Midwest has been so significant that some commentators are dubbing the region as the new “battery belt.”
The private-sector commitments follow passage of the two pieces of legislation in August that channel about $52 billion into semiconductor manufacturing and tens of billions more into green energy technology, including electric vehicles.
For Yellen, a technocrat known more for her grasp of economics than her prowess on the campaign trail, it’s the latest in a series of engagements that cast her in an increasingly political role just before the congressional midterm elections on Nov. 8. Those elections will control of both houses of Congress, and the stakes are high for both President Joe Biden and Yellen.
The outcome will go a long way to determining whether Biden can advance unfinished business in the remainder of his four-year term. A positive outcome for Democrats could also cast away lingering doubts over whether Yellen will keep her post into the new year. She has made clear in recent weeks she plans to stay.
Ohio hosts a closely-watched race for an open US Senate seat. Democrat Tim Ryan has waged an unexpectedly competitive race against venture capitalist and author JD Vance, who is backed by former President Donald Trump in the Republican-leaning state.
Yellen has also visited Michigan and North Carolina in recent weeks, telling audiences that the Biden administration has protected Americans from the coronavirus pandemic and put hundreds of billions behind long-term efforts to bolster the economy through investments in infrastructure, research and development, clean energy and job development.
“For too long, regions like the Midwest have suffered through decades of underinvestment,” she is to say in Cleveland. “Over the past two years, our administration has made significant investments in our country’s industrial strength,” ensuring that economic opportunity is shared “beyond our country’s coasts.”
In her prepared remarks, she contrasts that with “traditional” supply-side economics — a policy approach championed by conservatives — that, she said, stressed “deregulation and tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Americans and large corporations.”
Yellen is scheduled to speak alongside Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, at the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network, a business incubator in Cleveland.
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