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JANUARY 24, 2023

Meyerson on TAP

The Democrats' Green Investments Are Going to Republican States

The wind, solar, and battery facilities spurred by last year's
Democratic legislation are already springing up-in red America.

Earlier today, the

**Prospect**posted Bob Kuttner's terrific article
<[link removed]>
from our forthcoming February print issue, on America's return to
industrial policy by virtue of the landmark clean-energy, semiconductor,
and infrastructure legislation enacted by Democrats in last year's
congressional session. Bob looks at the history of such policy (going
back to Alexander Hamilton), the battles for and against it, and all the
complexities involved in implementing its current incarnation.

Coincidentally, a piece
<[link removed]>
in today's

**Wall Street Journal** looks at its political geography, noting that
the major solar, wind, and battery projects spurred by the Inflation
Reduction Act's clean-energy tax credits have gone overwhelmingly to
Republican states and congressional districts, despite the fact that the
IRA passed without a single Republican vote. The story reports that "the
Journal

****monitored large manufacturing investments in batteries, solar and
wind components announced after the law was passed. Of nearly 30 such
announcements where locations were given, all but three had chosen to
set up facilities in Republican-leaning states." The story also lists
the ten congressional districts that have received the largest such
investments, nine of which are represented by Republicans (one of
whom-representing the district ranking number five in investment
size-is Kevin McCarthy).

The tilt to red states isn't entirely mysterious. If you're going
solar, it makes sense to build facilities in the predominantly red Sun
Belt states. If you're building a factory or a wind farm, you're not
going to build it within crowded metropolitan areas, where Democrats
dominate. And both domestic and foreign manufacturers have made clear
that they prefer the lower-wage, pathologically anti-union South as the
proper place to put their factories, particularly since the Democrats
were unable to secure enough votes to place a premium for purchasers of
union-made clean products into their bills, as our Lee Harris has
reported
<[link removed]>.

National industrial policy or, more broadly, development policy often
has a regional focus. Much of the New Deal was devoted to spurring the
development of the underdeveloped South and West, through such programs
as rural electrification and the hydropower of the TVA and Western-state
dams, not to mention the Reconstruction Finance Corporation's
investments when it was run by Texas banker Jesse Jones. (Jordan
Schwartz's book

**The New Dealers** is a brilliant chronicle of FDR's presidency seen
through this lens.) Ronald Reagan rewarded his Sun Belt supporters by
locating the hugely expanded arms manufacturing he'd authorized in
Southern and Western states.

Both of those regional investment initiatives also paid off politically,
with FDR enhancing his sway over Southern voters (at that time, nearly
all white), and Reagan giving those voters' children one more reason,
in addition to the GOP's white racism, to vote Republican. Whether
today's Democrats will be able to win over some red-state voters
who'll see their local economies boosted by mega-investments in that
abhorrent, woke clean energy remains to be seen. Ohio's Sherrod Brown,
the Democrats' long-standing champion of industrial policy who's
been uniquely able to win elections in his ever-redder state, should
provide his fellow Dems with some tutorials.

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter <[link removed]>

[link removed]

Senators Berate the Ticketmaster Monopoly
<[link removed]>
Members of both parties call for the ticket giant to be broken up. BY
DAVID DAYEN & LUKE GOLDSTEIN

Reclaiming U.S. Industry
<[link removed]>
Biden's industrial policies represent a stunning ideological reversal.
The harder part will be making them work. BY ROBERT KUTTNER

Moderna's COVID Vaccine Price Hike Reveals Government's Failure
<[link removed]>
The U.S. co-invented the mRNA vaccine. So why doesn't it act like it?
BY LILY H. MEYERSOHN

The White House Debt Limit Strategy: Dismiss but Don't Reject
<[link removed]>
Janet Yellen is stating that there's no alternative but for Congress
to increase the borrowing threshold, while giving herself room to take
action if they don't. BY DAVID DAYEN

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