ATLANTA — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is escalating his attack on President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle policy, speaking Tuesday at the groundbreaking for a company that received more than $100 million to refine graphite for electric batteries from the infrastructure law Biden signed.
“Georgia’s electric mobility boom is taking place because our state is second to none for companies looking to invest, relocate, expand, and innovate – not because the federal government continues to put their thumb on the scale, favoring a few companies over the industry as a whole,” Kemp said, according to advance remarks of his speech at Anovion Technologies.
The remarks are unusually partisan for a factory groundbreaking. Anovion’s $800 million investment promises 400 new jobs in rural Bainbridge, in the state’s far southwest corner.
Georgia has been a top beneficiary of a nationwide electric vehicle investment boom, with more than 40 electric vehicle-related projects since 2020 pledging $22.7 billion of investment and 28,400 jobs in the state.
“When President Biden and others falsely try to take credit for Georgia’s success, don’t forget that next year is an election year,” Kemp said.
The Republican governor planned this attack knowing Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff would likely share his stage at the groundbreaking. Ossoff has been Georgia’s most high-profile supporter of Biden’s electric vehicle policies. The two could be rivals for the Senate seat in 2026.
Ossoff has argued that Georgia’s investment boom wouldn’t happen without Democratic policies.
“It is bizarre to attend a groundbreaking and launch a political attack on the very policy that made the groundbreaking possible,” Ossoff told The Associated Press before the event, where he was invited but not scheduled for a speaking role. “The governor is throwing a panicked political tantrum over the success of federal manufacturing policies in his own state.”
Kemp has always opposed the Inflation Reduction…
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