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22 minutes ago
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Ghost Factories Are a Warning Sign for Green Manufacturing's Future
(Bloomberg) -- The vast tract of land off Route 85 was meant to be a symbol of Made-in-America manufacturing. A billion-dollar battery factory was going to rise, bringing thousands of new jobs. The business announced, 'Get Ready Arizona,' the governor said the state was thrilled and even the US president gave the project a shoutout. Foreign Buyers Swoop on Cape Town Homes, Pricing Out Locals Massachusetts to Follow NYC in Making Landlords Pay Broker Fees NYC Commutes Resume After Midtown Bus Terminal Crash Chaos Struggling Downtowns Are Looking to Lure New Crowds What Gothenburg Got Out of Congestion Pricing But here, in the boomtown of Buckeye, less than an hour away from Phoenix, the 214-acre lot sits empty. Work on the site had started, said Shelby Lizarraga, who manages the gas station next door, 'but then it went all quiet.' Four years after the fanfare, battery maker Kore Power Inc. abandoned its plans for a plant in Buckeye. The company's chief executive officer stepped down and a promised $850 million federal loan was cancelled. Kore isn't alone in its dashed ambitions. In Massachusetts, a wind turbine cable factory set to be built on the site of a former coal power plant was scrapped. In Georgia, the construction of a facility that would have made parts for electric vehicle batteries was suspended more than halfway through. And in Colorado, a lithium-ion battery maker said it wouldn't go forward with its factory there, at least for now. They're among the dozens of planned green factories that have been cancelled, with more delayed or downsized, all hit by soaring costs, high interest rates and slow-growing EV demand. About 9% of the $261 billion in green factory investment announced since 2021 has been shelved — most of it since President Donald Trump returned to office in January — according to research firm Atlas Public Policy. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said his agency doesn't plan to move forward with some of the big-dollar loans that had been made to green manufacturing plants during President Joe Biden's term. Now there's another, major threat to the sector: Trump's massive tax-and-spending package, which rolls back Biden's generous green subsidies. Signed into law by Trump on Friday, it phases out credits for producing solar and wind energy years before they were designed to expire. It also ends federal tax credits for electric vehicles this September instead of in 2032. Under Biden, a Democratic Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act a year later, setting aside hundreds of billions of dollars in incentives for clean-energy projects. New factories were announced from South Carolina to Michigan to Arizona, set to churn out EVs, batteries and clean-energy parts. Biden and Democrats sought to bring manufacturing back to the US and make the country independent of, and competitive with, fast-electrifying China. Many of the projects would be in red and purple states, shielding the policy against GOP attacks — or so the thinking went. That idea has now collapsed. (Among the members of Congress who voted for Trump's bill was Paul Gosar, a Republican who represents Buckeye.) Trump said at the signing that the country 'is going to be a rocketship economically.' But fallout is likely to include more clean energy projects and the jobs they provide, or could have. Tesla Inc. Chief Elon Musk had lambasted the package on X as 'severely damaging' to 'industries of the future.' The US pulling back now means it will lag other countries that have invested in green technologies, and that will hurt economic growth and boost reliance on overseas manufacturers long term, said Hannah Hess of Rhodium Group, a research firm. 'There's also the risk of stranded investments, a sizable amount,' she said. Lithium-ion battery manufacturers like Kore face strict rules on using foreign components, plus knock-on effects from the solar and EV credit phaseouts. Because of the former, fewer grid batteries will be installed over the next decade, according to the research group Energy Innovation. The demise of the EV credit will likely dent consumer appetite for electric vehicles — and by extension, demand for the batteries they run on. Buckeye — a former farming town named by settlers from Ohio — is a hotbed of building activity. Close to the Kore site is the suburban sprawl that's come to characterize the Phoenix area's rapid growth. Concrete is being poured in foundations and piles of rebar are stacked on construction sites, where tracts of desert are being transformed into new neighborhoods. Executives at Kore had scoured 300 sites across the country before settling on Buckeye. Land was cheap, it was close to major West Coast ports and Arizona's dry climate wouldn't impair the chemistry of lithium-ion batteries. The company announced its factory in 2021, planning to start construction that year and roll out batteries in 2023. It would be Buckeye's biggest employer, creating 3,000 jobs. But as executives drew up construction plans, inflation hiked costs, while rising interest rates made financing more expensive. And the project got mired in the same slow permitting that stalls projects nationwide. Costs swelled to $1.25 billion from $1 billion, so the company made adjustments to control expenses — even downsizing the factory — and worked aggressively to keep the project alive, Kore's current CEO Jay Bellows said in a telephone interview. 'We were trying to move as fast as we could,' Bellows said. 'But ultimately, the costs were just really high.' The battery maker later got a loan commitment from the Energy Department. Kore ended up getting approvals to move forward with construction in 2024, almost a year after it had wanted to start producing batteries. And then uncertainty loomed over the fate of federal green incentives if Trump were to win the election. In Buckeye's city hall, about 10 minutes away from Kore's site, Mayor Eric Orsborn sensed that things were amiss. The project's timeline kept getting longer and delays dragged out. 'Things slipped a little bit more, a little bit more,' he said in an interview in his office. Kore then said it was ending its plans to build in Buckeye, 10 days after Trump was sworn in. It's one of 53 out of 715 green factories announced since 2021 that have been cancelled, according to Atlas Public Policy. The outlook for green enterprises has darkened as policy shifts unsettle manufacturers, with EV makers feeling it the most, said Matt Shanahan of Marathon Capital, an investment bank focused on the energy transition. 'The rules have changed,' he said. The pace of cancellations and delays depends on how the market reacts to the law, he added, but early-stage projects are especially at risk. 'To break ground on a new facility — I think it's very challenging right now.' Energy storage may remain more resilient thanks to surging data center demand, he said. Kore is now on the hunt for an existing building to move into, with power and infrastructure in place so it can save money and get to market faster, Bellows said. Looking back, he said he learned the need to move more quickly and efficiently. The company tried, he said, but 'it's a long, arduous process' to go from dirt to a fully operating factory. Even so, other green facilities in the region are forging ahead. In Queen Creek, another fast-growing community that's about 80 miles to the west of Buckeye, construction is underway on a $3 billion EV battery facility by LG Energy Solution. Cranes tower over the sprawling site, while bulldozers kick up plumes of desert dust as forklifts scuttle by. The project has faced its own challenges — construction was paused for some time last year as the company scrapped plans for a bigger plant. But now the factory is set to open next year, and LG plans to employ 1,500 workers there by 2027. The company said in an April press release that it aims to contribute to a 'local battery ecosystem' and that it will hire locally. 'It's a manufacturing powerhouse,' Queen Creek Mayor Julia Wheatley said in an interview, adding that the town is seeing strong interest from companies looking to move near the plant. On a Monday in late June, the empty Kore plot scorched in 100F-plus heat. Nearby, desert gave way to parcels of farmland, discount stores and palm-tree-lined neighborhoods. Dairy cows took shade from the heat, while trucks stacked with hay bales hurtled by. Across the road, Joe Skoog, who runs a trucking company, said he would have liked to have pitched his business to Kore had the factory gone ahead. But he didn't see the cancellation as much of a setback for the growing region. 'Come back in five, 10 years' time, and there will be more manufacturers and warehouses, and fewer farms,' he said. Orsborn, Buckeye's mayor, said he was disappointed, but not disheartened. He enthused about Buckeye's population boom, fueled by Californian transplants, the big-box retailers and movie theaters opening up and how Kore's shovel-ready site — with power, water and infrastructure now installed — is now even more attractive for other businesses that want to move in. 'Maybe another green energy one will,' he said. 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23 minutes ago
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Calling Medicaid a ‘lifeline' for Mainers, health advocates urge Collins to oppose GOP budget bill
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) arrives for a Republican luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on February 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by) With the U.S. Senate poised to vote on a budget reconciliation bill that, among other impacts, will slash health care for thousands of Mainers, advocates are putting pressure on Republican Sen. Susan Collins to buck her caucus and vote against the plan. GOP leaders have set a deadline of July 4 for passage and the Senate is expected to vote on the bill over the weekend. For the past two weeks, health care advocates in Maine and beyond have been calling on Collins to reject the bill, which proposes significant cuts to Medicaid, food assistance and other programs in order to continue tax cuts passed during President Donald Trump's first term. Almost 400,000 Maine residents — a third of the state's population — currently rely on MaineCare, the state's Medicaid program. The nonpartisan budget office estimates as many as 50,000 Mainers could lose health coverage by 2034, either under Medicaid or the Affordable Care Act, while the restrictions in funding will further increase the strain on rural hospitals. 'As the chair of the Appropriations Committee and the seventh most senior U.S. senator, Sen. Susan Collins holds immense power. But she's not using it to publicly stand against the reconciliation bill,' said Nora Flaherty-Stanford, communications director for the Maine People's Alliance, which held protests earlier this month outside Collins' offices in Bangor, Lewiston and Portland. 'If this bill moves forward in its current form, it will badly hurt Mainers and people around the country.' On Thursday, Gov. Janet Mills sent a letter to Maine's congressional delegation, urging them to vote against the bill. Citing an independent estimate that found Maine could lose $4.5 billion in federal Medicaid dollars over the next decade, Mills warned that Maine can't bear the financial burden the health care and other cuts would impose on the state. Both Democratic Reps. Jared Golden and Chellie Pingree voted against the reconciliation bill when the U.S. House of Representatives passed its version last month. If the Senate passes its version, the bill will go back to the House to vote on those changes. On Monday, independent Sen. Angus King led a group of former governors in sending a letter to Republican leadership highlighting their concerns with how the proposal will impact state budgets. In a press conference Wednesday, King called the bill 'the worst, most regressive and most harmful piece of legislation I have ever seen.' Collins has not publicly said how she plans to vote on the reconciliation bill and her office did not respond to requests for comment. During Senate negotiations, Collins described some of the proposed cuts to Medicaid as 'problematic,' but has said she supports adding work requirements to the health program. The work requirement provision represents the largest cut to Medicaid in the House bill. Flaherty-Stanford and other advocates say the paperwork mandates will cause eligible people to lose care. 'Most of the people who will lose their coverage won't lose it because they aren't eligible,' Flaherty-Stanford said. 'They'll lose it by getting buried under mountains of red tape and relentless bureaucratic requirements.' Senate Republicans can only lose three of their members and still pass the bill. With such a small margin for success, Trump has been pressuring those who have been critical of the proposal to get on board. 'We don't want to have grandstanders,' Trump said Thursday. 'Not good people. They know who I'm talking about.' During a press conference Friday, State Rep. Anne Graham (D-North Yarmouth) and Protect Our Care Maine Director Toby McGrath acknowledged that pressure coming from the White House but called on Collins to do what is best for Maine. 'I just want Susan Collins to listen to her constituents and stand up for her constituents and not be bullied by the Republican majority or the administration,' said Graham, a retired pediatric nurse practitioner. 'One of the things that she's always been proud of is representing the northern part of Maine, the rural parts of Maine. Those are the people who are going to suffer the most, I believe, if these cuts happen.' In Maine, 24.1% of people in rural areas or small towns rely on Medicaid, compared with 20% of people in metro areas, according to a study by Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families. The state also has the 11th highest rate of Medicaid coverage for adults aged 19 to 64 in rural areas in the country, including people with disabilities, and the 9th highest rate of coverage for seniors. Dr. Christine Mahoney, a physician from Brunswick, joined more than 4,000 doctors nationwide in signing a letter organized by the Committee to Protect Health Care urging senators to vote against the bill. 'I see firsthand how access to health care improves health and saves lives, and for many, many Mainers, Medicaid is that lifeline,' Mahoney said during a separate press event earlier this week. Without Medicaid, prevention and management of chronic conditions and maternal care would be severely threatened, she said. She noted that without coverage, patients often delay medical treatment, leading to late-stage preventable diseases and potentially forcing difficult choices between health care and financial survival. Mahoney also highlighted broader community impacts, including potential hospital closures and economic disruption, particularly in rural areas. If Maine's members of Congress vote in favor of the bill, 'the message it sends to me and a lot of Mainers would be that our senators don't care. That they don't care about them, they don't care about their futures, they don't care about their health and livelihood,' Mahoney added. Maine's family planning providers, Planned Parenthood and Maine Family Planning, echoed the calls for senators to vote against the bill during a press event on Tuesday. One provision of the bill still being weighed by the Senate parliamentarian, which determines whether the bill adheres to the complex rules of the reconciliation process, would bar Medicaid reimbursements to organizations that provide abortions and receive more than $1 million in federal funds. Nicole Clegg, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, described the budget reconciliation bill as 'a backdoor abortion ban.' 'Every single day we are having to navigate a new policy or push from the federal government, something that's being taken away, all in an attempt to put us out of business, to stop us from providing abortion,' she said. In May, Planned Parenthood released a memo pointing to Collins' long history of supporting the organization. 'Throughout her career, Sen. Collins has made it clear that she understands how critical Medicaid is to her constituents and all Americans' ability to access essential health care,' it read. 'She knows that cuts to the program will harm Mainers.' Lisa Margulies, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, told the Maine Morning Star that it's clear the bill will hurt Maine, and 'we are counting on our congressional delegation to do everything they can to stop it from getting to President Trump's desk.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
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Budget bill threatens Mainers' access to food, health care and other necessities, experts warn
Goranson Farm stand at the Portland, Maine farmers market accepts WIC credits. Aug. 10, 2024. (AnnMarie Hilton/Maine Morning Star) Kelli Austin is already juggling being in school, taking care of her children, and running a business. Now, the Waterville resident is worried she will have to choose between food and medicine. Or skip medical appointments so her kids can go to the doctor. 'It's not just me and my kids that are affected by this. There are so many kids right now with parents that are struggling, working two jobs already and juggling multiple hats just to just to barely get by,' she said. Austin, like thousands of Mainers, relies on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, and Medicaid, which she is scared she will lose because of work requirements in Republicans' budget reconciliation bill that passed the U.S. Senate on Tuesday. 'If this goes through, it's not just numbers on a page,' she said. 'It's gonna be missed appointments, closed clinics and deferred dreams.' Advocates are warning of the disastrous consequences if the budget reconciliation bill becomes law, including jeopardizing access to food and health care for thousands of low income people. Interviews with representatives from half a dozen different groups underscored the concern that the effects of the bill will also be felt by middle class families, small businesses and rural hospitals for years to come. The bill, which Maine's entire congressional delegation voted against, is slated for a final vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, though stalled due to some Republican resistance. The Senate version, which Republican Sen. Susan Collins voted against after initially casting a vote to advance the bill, added provisions that made the bill worse, many experts said. 'It is one of the largest transfers of wealth and greatest cuts to health care and food assistance in this country's history,' said Alex Carter, a policy advocate for Maine Equal Justice, a civil legal aid and economic justice organization. 'I don't think it's dramatic or hyperbolic to say that people are going to go hungry. People are going to not be able to meet their basic needs, and people are going to die if this bill passes.' The bill restricts access to Medicaid, institutes work requirements for food and health care assistance, makes certain reproductive health providers ineligible for federal funding and requires states to cover some SNAP costs, the federal government currently funds. It will also increase premiums for marketplace health insurance. All those cuts are meant to pay for extending tax cuts passed during President Donald Trump's first term that mostly benefit the wealthy, as well as fund a significant increase in immigration enforcement. Many of the advocates who spoke with Maine Morning Star emphasized these provisions will be particularly challenging for a rural, aging state like Maine, where food insecurity, child hunger and health care infrastructure are already stressed and the state does not have extra funding to make up for federal cuts. I don't think it's dramatic or hyperbolic to say that people are going to go hungry. People are going to not be able to meet their basic needs, and people are going to die if this bill passes. – Alex Carter, Maine Equal Justice 'When you look at this bill and what it means for Maine and for Maine people, it effectively means that we're going to lose services,' said Garrett Martin, president and CEO of the Maine Center for Economic Policy. While much of the bill's opposition has focused on the threats to Medicaid — which an estimated 30,000 Mainers could lose as a result — there are other compounding impacts that target the same groups of people whose health care is at risk, Martin and others explained. The impacts may not be felt immediately because different provisions in the bill take effect on different timelines (including some as late as 2028), but 'it's going to take two to three years before people really start to understand how significant this legislation is going to impact them and their communities,' Martin said. The bill will, for the first time, make states like Maine bear some of the cost of SNAP. According to the bill, states with a higher rate of errors, meaning benefits incorrectly issued, will have to bear up to 15% of the costs of the program, which could cost the state up to $60 million in benefits — an unsustainable burden that could effectively dismantle the entire program, according to Anna Korsen, policy and program director at Full Plates, Full Potential, which advocates for state and federal support for child nutrition. The bill also introduces stringent work reporting requirements that would make nutrition benefits harder to obtain and maintain, particularly for families with children and older adults. Although the vast majority of the 176,000 Mainers who use SNAP meet the work requirements, Korsen said the administrative challenge of filling out SNAP benefit forms is already daunting for families. Adding the additional work requirement will push people out of the program, she said. 'The problem isn't that people aren't working. The challenge that they're creating is that people are going to get caught up in all of this red tape and paperwork,' she said. 'So what they're trying to do is just make SNAP harder to get and harder to keep.' When she was finishing school, Austin was part of Maine's Parents as Scholars financial aid program, which made her eligible for federal assistance. But under the budget bill, she will have to meet work requirements to be eligible for SNAP and Medicaid, which she said is a challenge as a single mom. 'I struggle just to get by as it is, let alone taking me out of the house for that many hours and making me juggle that much more,' she said. 'It's not that we're unwilling to work, it's that we're underserved.' 'I'm not asking for a handout by any right, but I'm asking for a fair shot for myself and my kids,' Austin added. Calling Medicaid a 'lifeline' for Mainers, health advocates urge Collins to oppose GOP budget bill The changes would not only impact food security but also harm local economies, with SNAP benefits generating nearly $548 million in annual economic activity in Maine. Small grocery stores could lose up to 20% of their revenue, and local farms could also suffer significant setbacks by losing the revenue that comes from SNAP. Korsen argued that the bill's provisions create an all-or-nothing scenario for states, forcing them to either pay massive new costs or opt out of the SNAP program entirely. Indirectly, the legislation also threatens other forms of food assistance, such as free school meals, summer nutrition programs, and WIC benefits, because if a family qualifies for Medicaid or SNAP benefits, they are automatically eligible for free meals. This direct certification allows school districts to be accurately reimbursed by the federal government for providing those meals. 'Schools are scared, families are scared,' Korsen said. 'It's just unbelievable that our government would think that this is okay.' The proposal also ends the work requirement exemption for homeless people and veterans on SNAP, which means thousands of vulnerable people could go hungry, according to Terence Miller, advocacy director at the Portland-based homeless services organization Preble Street. That would put even more strain on privately run food banks, which already faced setbacks when the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut programs that allow them to buy from local farms. 'I mean, a veteran who fought for our country and finds themselves unhoused and needing food is no longer eligible to receive SNAP benefits,' he said. 'It's just unfathomable to me to think that those people will not be able to buy their own food.' In addition to sweeping Medicaid cuts, thousands of Maine residents who rely on marketplace health insurance could see their premiums dramatically increase. According to an analysis by the Maine Center for Economic Policy, approximately 63,000 Mainers with marketplace coverage will be significantly impacted by the expiration of premium tax credits, Martin said. For example, a family of four earning around $78,000 annually could see its monthly premiums double from $263 to $476. Even more stark are the potential increases for older residents: a 62-year-old couple earning $85,000 might face a premium jump from $608 to $2,346 per month. Those premium tax credits have been crucial in making health insurance affordable, Martin explained. About 85% of marketplace participants currently receive these subsidies, which help cap health insurance costs for individuals and families. The potential elimination of these credits represents more than just a financial burden, Martin added, it could force many Maine residents to choose between maintaining health coverage or cutting other essential expenses. 'At the same time that health coverage is being taken away from low income households and individuals and people with disabilities, we're also seeing a scenario in which arguably middle class families are likely to see a significant increase in costs for themselves as a consequence of this,' Martin said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
