Fossil Fueled Campaign Uses Similar Tactics Against Clean Energy, Battery Manufacturing

As Donald Trump reinforces fossil fueled messaging in Detroit, in rural Michigan, social media organized anti clean energy groups, which I have documented here, take aim not only at clean energy, but also the Battery and EV manufacturing sites needed to support a clean transition.
The tactics, the messaging vectors, and even some of the key players, are the same in many instances.

Above, local news report from some months back shows what rural township meetings look like during this process. In this case, a Gotion Inc. EV Battery project has finally been approved and is now hiring, but not without an elaborately coordinated “anti” movement pushing back on, among other things, “Chinese Spies” in the EV industry.

CNN:

The auto industry has announced more than $100 billion in electric car investments, creating more than 100,000 American jobs. A second Donald Trump presidency could derail the push.

Despite Former President Donald Trump’s claims at a Detroit rally Wednesday that EVs are “too expensive” and “don’t go far enough,” consumers are increasingly demanding EVs because of falling costs, a wider variety of vehicle availability, and a flood of government and manufacturing investments.

But EV adoption has been slow – just 7.2% of the market last quarter, up from 5.7% the same time a year prior, according to Cox Automotive. Organic demand alone probably isn’t enough to justify automakers’ massive investments in EV technology.

That’s why automakers are counting on Biden administration incentives to give consumer demand an artificial boost. Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency is pushing for EVs to account for up to two-thirds of new cars sold in the US by 2032 through a combination of tax incentive carrots and miles-per-gallon-floor sticks.

Without these carrots and sticks, which Trump wants to reverse, US automakers’ plans will likely blow up.

“The possibility of a sudden shift [of policy] would be pretty shocking for the industry to absorb,” said Barry Rabe, a professor of public policy and environmental policy at the University of Michigan. “I can’t imagine the industry is going to want to be jerked back and forth every four or eight years.” 

And while Trump may denounce EVs, many lawmakers in his party are capitalizing on these investments and welcoming the transition. More than half of new clean energy projects announced since passage of the IRA have been located in GOP-led districts.

Georgia has seen the most EV jobs announced and is home to major factories from established manufacturers like Hyundai and Kia to EV upstarts like Rivian. The state’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has pledged to make Georgia the “electric mobility capital” of the country.

Automakers have announced more than $120 billion in EV investments and 143,000 new US jobs in the last eight years, with more than 40% of those investments happening since the passage of the IRA, according to the Environmental Defense Fund. 

Battery plants from US and foreign automakers like Nissan and Mercedes-Benz are being built in states like Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama.

Electric vehicles have outpaced growth of traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) cars in recent years. More than 50% of shoppers were interested in buying an EV, according to a Cox survey this summer. Fifty-three perecent of consumers said that EVs will eventually replace ICE-powered vehicles.

One flash point in the EV debate has been around proposed Battery manufacturing facilities, in places like Mecosta County, Michigan. The opposition comes from the same radical right wing that opposes clean energy across the state, and uses the same tactics of threats, harrassment, and Facebook-organized Flashmobs to influence local communities.
The movement leverages racism to inflame a fear campaign centered around Chinese investment in Gotion Inc, which is building the project.

Michigan Advance:
That rhetoric largely originated with former GOP gubernatorial nominee and right-wing commentator Tudor Dixon during her 2022 campaign and centers around the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) using the Gotion plant as a way to gain political and financial control in Michigan.

“We are truly bringing in a company that has its corporate ties in China,” Dixon saidduring an Oct. 1 Breitbart Radio program – which preceded Whitmer officially announcing plans for the Gotion plant on Oct. 5.  “This is where they come from. They’re a Chinese company. They incorporated a leg of their business into California. And they’re like, oh, this is now an American company. This is not an American company. This is a Chinese company. And you and I both know how China works.”

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However, political experts said the idea that the CCP would use the Gotion plant as a way to infiltrate Michigan and hold political and financial influence here, as politicians like Dixon and Michigan Republican Party Chair Kristina Karamo have said, is simply not true.
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Cheryl Vitito, a Big Rapids resident, told the Senate Appropriations Committee in April that “this CCP-controlled company represents Communism and is a threat to our way of life and our God-given and constitutional freedoms. We don’t want the CCP here by way of the Gotion plant as they have no regard for the value and dignity of human life. … We are setting up a base for spies in our own backyard.”

Other local elected officials said the sentiment around China is largely being pushed by people outside of their community, and the pro-Gotion faction is, according to Mecosta County Board of Commissioners Chair Jerrilynn Strong, a “silent majority.”

“You have heard from a small but vocal group of opponents, along with a group of people I call professional picketers – all of them think they speak for our community; they do not,” Strong, a Republican, told members of the Senate Appropriations Committee in April.

Strong said the majority of her constituents who support the Gotion plant have been “reluctant to show strong public support for the battery component plant because some of those who have spoken up have received threats against themselves, their families and their businesses.

“This is a great opportunity for the people in Mecosta County and the surrounding area,” Strong continued. “The direct economic boost will stretch from Grand Rapids to Cadillac and Scottville to Mount Pleasant. … Our community needs this growth.”

Green Charter Township Supervisor Jim Chapman, a Republican, echoed similar sentiments. He said many of those who have spoken out against the Gotion plant have included many individuals from out of town.

“We’ve been able to determine that roughly 25% of the people coming to our [Green Charter Township government] meetings are township residents, about 25% are from Mecosta County, and most of the rest of them have to use Google Maps to even be able to find us.”