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Surveillance tech advances by Biden could aid in Trump’s promised crackdown on immigration

President-elect Donald Trump will return to power next year with a raft of technological tools at his disposal that would help deliver his campaign promise of cracking down on immigration — among them, surveillance and artificial intelligence technology that the Biden administration already uses to help make crucial decisions in tracking, detaining and ultimately deporting immigrants lacking permanent legal status.

While immigration officials have used the tech for years, an October letter from the Department of Homeland Security obtained exclusively by The Associated Press details how those tools — some of them powered by AI — help make life-altering decisions for immigrants, including whether they should be detained or surveilled.

One algorithm, for example, ranks immigrants with a “Hurricane Score,” ranging from 1-5, to assess whether someone will “abscond” from the agency’s supervision.

The letter, sent by DHS Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer Eric Hysen to the immigrant rights group Just Futures Law, revealed that the score calculates the potential risk that an immigrant — with a pending case — will fail to check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. The algorithm relies on several factors, he said, including an immigrant’s number of violations and length of time in the program, and whether the person has a travel document. Hysen wrote that ICE officers consider the score, among other information, when making decisions about an immigrant’s case.

“The Hurricane Score does not make decisions on detention, deportation, or surveillance; instead, it is used to inform human decision-making,” Hysen wrote.

Also included in the government’s tool kit is a mobile app called SmartLINK that uses facial matching and can track an immigrant’s specific location.

Nearly 200,000 people without legal status who are in removal proceedings are enrolled in the Alternatives to Detention program, under which certain immigrants can live in the U.S. while their immigration cases are pending.

In exchange, SmartLINK and GPS trackers used by ICE rigorously surveil them and their movements. The phone application draws on facial matching technology and geolocation data, which has been used before to find and arrest those using the app.

Just Futures Law wrote to Hysen earlier this year, questioning the fairness of using an algorithm to assess whether someone is a flight risk and raising concerns over how much data SmartLINK collects. Such AI systems, which score or screen people, are used widely but remain largely unregulated even though some have been found to discriminate on race, gender or other protected traits.

DHS said in an email that it is committed to ensuring that its use of AI is transparent and safeguards privacy and civil rights while avoiding biases. The agency said it is working to implement the Biden administration’s requirements on using AI, but Hysen said in his letter that security officials may waive those requirements for certain uses. Trump has publicly vowed to repeal Biden’s AI policy when he returns to the White House in January.

“DHS uses AI to assist our personnel in their work, but DHS does not use the outputs of AI systems as the sole basis for any law enforcement action or denial of benefits,” a spokesperson for DHS told the AP.

Trump has not revealed how he plans to carry out his promised deportation of an estimated 11 million people living in the country illegally. Although he has proposed invoking wartime powers, as well as military involvement, the plan would face major logistical challenges — such as where to keep those who have been detained and how to find people spread across the country — that AI-powered surveillance tools could potentially address.

Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump, did not answer questions about how they plan to use DHS’ tech, but said in a statement that “President Trump will marshal every federal and state power necessary to institute the largest deportation operation” in American history.

Over 100 civil society groups sent a letter on Friday urging the Office of Management and Budget to require DHS to comply with the Biden administration’s guidelines. OMB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Just Futures Law’s executive director, Paromita Shah, said if immigrants are scored as flight risks, they are more likely to remain in detention, “limiting their ability to prepare a defense in their case in immigration court, which is already difficult enough as it is.”

SmartLINK, part of the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, is run by BI Inc., a subsidiary of the private prison company The GEO Group. The GEO Group also contracts with ICE to run detention centers.

ICE is tight-lipped about how it uses SmartLINK’s location feature to find and arrest immigrants. Still, public records show that during Trump’s first term in 2018, Manassas, Virginia-based employees of BI Inc. relayed immigrants’ GPS locations to federal authorities, who then arrested over 40 people.

In a report last year to address privacy issues and concerns, DHS said that the mobile app includes security features that “prohibit access to information on the participant’s mobile device, with the exception of location data points when the app is open.”

But the report notes that there remains a risk that data collected from people “may be misused for unauthorized persistent monitoring.”

Such information could also be stored in other ICE and DHS databases and used for other DHS mission purposes, the report said.

On investor calls earlier this month, private prison companies were clear-eyed about the opportunities ahead.

The GEO Group’s executive chairman George Christopher Zoley said that he expects the incoming Trump administration to “take a much more aggressive approach regarding border security as well as interior enforcement and to request additional funding from Congress to achieve these goals.”

“In GEO’s ISAP program, we can scale up from the present 182,500 participants to several hundreds of thousands, or even millions of participants,” Zoley said.

That same day, the head of another private prison company told investors he would be watching closely to see how the new administration may change immigrant monitoring programs.

“It’s an opportunity for multiple vendors to engage ICE about the program going forward and think about creative and innovative solutions to not only get better outcomes, but also scale up the program as necessary,” Damon Hininger, CEO of the private prison company CoreCivic Inc. said on an earnings call.

GEO did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement, CoreCivic said that it has played “a valued but limited role in America’s immigration system” for both Democrats and Republicans for over 40 years.

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November 26, 2024
Biden administration will loan $6.6 billion to Rivian to build Georgia factory that automaker paused

ATLANTA — President Joe Biden’s administration announced Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Energy will make a $6.6 billion loan to Rivian Automotive to build a factory in Georgia that had stalled as the startup automaker struggled to become profitable.

It’s unclear whether the administration can complete the loan before Donald Trump becomes president again in less than two months, or whether the Trump administration might try to claw the money back.

Trump previously vowed to end federal electric vehicle tax credits, which are worth up to $7,500 for new zero-emission vehicles and $4,000 for used ones. Trump later softened his stance as Tesla CEO Elon Musk became a supporter and adviser.

Rivian made a splash when it went public and began producing large electric R1 SUVs, pickup trucks and delivery vans at a former Mitsubishi factory in Normal, Illinois, in 2021. Months later, the California-based company announced it would build a second, larger, $5 billion plant about 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Atlanta, near the town of Social Circle.

The R1 vehicles cost $70,000 or more. The original plan was to produce R2 vehicles, a smaller SUV, in Georgia with lower price tags aimed at a mass market. The first phase of Rivian’s Georgia factory was projected to make 200,000 vehicles a year, with a second phase capable of another 200,000 a year. Eventually, the plant was projected to employ 7,500 workers.

But Rivian was unable to meet production and sales targets and rapidly burned through cash. In March, the company said it would pause construction of the Georgia plant. The company said it would begin assembling its R2 SUV in Illinois instead.

CEO RJ Scaringe said the move would allow Rivian to get the R2 to market more quickly, sometime in 2026, and save $2.25 billion in capital spending. Since then, German automaker Volkswagen AG said in June it would invest $5 billion in Rivian in a joint venture in which Rivian would share software and electrical technology with Volkswagen. The money eased Rivian’s cash crunch.

Tuesday’s announcement throws a lifeline to Rivian’s grander plans. The company says its plans to make the R2 and the smaller R3 in Georgia are back on.

The money would come from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, which has $17.7 billion to provide low-cost loans to make fuel-efficient vehicles and components. The program has focused mostly on loans to new battery factories for electric vehicles in recent years but also helped finance the initial production of the Tesla Model S and Nissan Leaf, two electric vehicle pioneers in the U.S.

The program, created in 2007, requires a “reasonable prospect of repayment” of the loan.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, who has been a vocal supporter of electric vehicle and solar manufacturing in Georgia, hailed Tuesday’s announcement as “yet another historic federal investment in Georgia electric vehicle manufacturing.” Ossoff had asked Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to support the loan in July.

“Our federal manufacturing incentives are driving economic development across the state of Georgia,” Ossoff said in a statement.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp says his goal is to make Georgia a center of the electric vehicle industry. But the Republican has had a strained relationship with the Biden administration over its industrial policy, even as some studies have found Georgia has netted more electric vehicle investment than any other state.

Kemp has long claimed that manufacturers were picking Georgia before Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, was passed. Garrison Douglas, a spokesperson for Kemp, said earlier this month that the governor wants Trump to prioritize “a market-based approach to economic growth.”

“As the e-mobility space was already growing in Georgia before the federal government’s intervention, the governor remains vocally opposed to the Biden administration’s decision to not only pick winners and losers but impose counterproductive mandates that disadvantage Georgia-based auto manufacturers and disincentivizes organic consumer adoption of electric vehicles,” Douglas said.

The loan to Rivian could rescue one of the Kemp administration’s signature economic development projects even as Biden leaves office. That could put Rivian and Kemp in the position of defending the loan if Trump tries to quash it.

State and local governments offered Rivian an incentive package worth an estimated $1.5 billion in 2022. The deadline for the company to complete its investment and hiring under that deal was extended to 2030. Neighbors opposed to development of the Georgia site mounted legal challenges.

State and local governments were projected to spend more than $125 million to buy the nearly 2,000-acre (810-hectare) site, clear trees and grade land. That work has been finished. The state also has completed most of $50 million in roadwork that it pledged.

The pause at Rivian contrasts with rapid construction at Hyundai Motor Group’s $7.6 billion electric vehicle and battery complex near Savannah. The plant in Ellabell, announced in 2022, could grow to 8,500 employees. The Korean automaker said in October that it has begun production there.

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November 26, 2024
Fitness app Strava gives away location of Biden, Trump and other leaders, French newspaper says

PARIS — An investigation by French newspaper Le Monde found that the highly confidential movements of U.S. President Joe Biden, presidential rivals Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, and other world leaders can be easily tracked online through a fitness app that their bodyguards use.

But the U.S. Secret Service told the newspaper that it doesn’t believe the protection it provides was in any way compromised.

Le Monde found that some U.S. Secret Service agents use the Strava fitness app, including in recent weeks after two assassination attempts on Trump, in a video investigation released in French and in English. Strava is a fitness tracking app primarily used by runners and cyclists to record their activities and share their workouts with a community.

Le Monde also found Strava users among the security staff for French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin. In one example, Le Monde traced the Strava movements of Macron’s bodyguards to determine that the French leader spent a weekend in the Normandy seaside resort of Honfleur in 2021. The trip was meant to be private and wasn’t listed on the president’s official agenda.

Le Monde said the whereabouts of Melania Trump and Jill Biden could also be pinpointed by tracking their bodyguards’ Strava profiles.

In a statement to Le Monde, the U.S. Secret Service said its staff aren’t allowed to use personal electronic devices while on duty during protective assignments but “we do not prohibit an employee’s personal use of social media off-duty.”

“Affected personnel has been notified,” it said. “We will review this information to determine if any additional training or guidance is required.”

“We do not assess that there were any impacts to protective operations or threats to any protectees,” it added. Locations “are regularly disclosed as part of public schedule releases.”

In another example, Le Monde reported that a U.S. Secret Service agent’s Strava profile revealed the location of a hotel where Biden subsequently stayed in San Francisco for high-stakes talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2023. A few hours before Biden’s arrival, the agent went jogging from the hotel, using Strava which traced his route, the newspaper found.

The newspaper’s journalists say they identified 26 U.S. agents, 12 members of the French GSPR, the Security Group of the Presidency of the Republic, and six members of the Russian FSO, or Federal Protection Service, all of them in charge of presidential security, who had public accounts on Strava and were therefore communicating their movements online, including during professional trips. Le Monde did not identify the bodyguards by name for security reasons.

It said movements trackable on Strava could lead to security breaches, especially when security agents travel in advance to places like hotels where leaders then stay and hold meetings.

Macron’s office said Monday that the consequences of the issues reported by Le Monde “are very slight and in no way affect the security of the President of the Republic.”

Local authorities are aware of Macron’s movements ahead of time and the places where Macron is staying are always fully secure, “so the risk is non-existent,” the statement said.

“A reminder was nevertheless issued to agents by the chief of staff asking them not to use this app,” Macron’s office added.

The Harris campaign deferred comment on the security issue to federal officials. In response to questions posed to the Trump campaign, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee repeated some of its criticisms of the Biden administration but did not address the vulnerability or how the campaign has responded.

The security risks associated with fitness apps show the need for better regulations on how tech companies can use consumer data, according to Ibrahim Baggili, a computer scientist and professor of cybersecurity at Louisiana State University.

Baggili’s research has exposed how bad actors could use fitness app data to track potential victims — creating risks for stalking, robbery and other crimes.

Consumers often grant app developers the right to use or sell their data when they agree to the terms of service, Baggili said.

“Companies love our data, and we love the product, so we give away the data for free,” he said. “The government really needs to start cracking down on how data can be used and how long it can be retained.”

Identifying the presidential bodyguards — some of them using their full name on Strava — could also help in finding other details about their personal addresses, their families, their movements, and photos they posted on various social media, all of which could possibly be used to put pressure on them for malicious purposes, the report stressed.

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AP reporter David Klepper contributed from Washington.

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October 29, 2024
Biden admin to provide $750 million to North Carolina-based Wolfspeed for advanced computer chips

WASHINGTON — The Biden-Harris administration announced plans Tuesday to provide up to $750 million in direct funding to Wolfspeed, with the money supporting its new silicon carbide factory in North Carolina that makes the wafers used in advanced computer chips and its factory in Marcy, New York.

Wolfspeed’s use of silicon carbide enables the computer chips used in electric vehicles and other advanced technologies to be more efficient. The North Carolina-based company’s two projects are estimated to create 2,000 manufacturing jobs as part of a more than $6 billion expansion plan.

“Artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, and clean energy are all technologies that will define the 21st century, and thanks to proposed investments in companies like Wolfspeed, the Biden-Harris administration is taking a meaningful step towards reigniting U.S. manufacturing of the chips that underpin these important technologies,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement.

The new Wolfspeed facility in Siler City could be a critical symbol in this year’s election, as it opened earlier this year in a swing state county that is undergoing rapid economic expansion in large part due to incentives provided by the Biden-Harris administration.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, is making the case to voters that the administration’s mix of incentives are increasing factory work, while former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, says the threat of broad tariffs will cause overseas factories to relocate in the United States.

In 2023, President Joe Biden spoke at Wolfspeed to promote his economic agenda, saying it would help the United States outcompete China. Trump narrowly won North Carolina during the 2020 presidential election and has talked about bringing back the state’s furniture manufacturing sector.

The Biden-Harris administration’s argument is that the government support encourages additional private investments, a case that appears to apply to Wolfspeed.

In addition to the government grant, a group of investment funds led by Apollo, The Baupost Group, Fidelity Management & Research Company and Capital Group plan to provide an additional $750 million to Wolfspeed, the company said. Wolfspeed also expects to receive $1 billion from an advanced manufacturing tax credit, meaning the company in total will have access of up to $2.5 billion.

Wolfspeed CEO Gregg Lowe told The Associated Press that the United States currently produces 70% of the world’s silicon carbide — and that the investments will help the country preserve its lead as China ramps up efforts in the sector.

Lowe said “we’re very happy with this grant” and that the Commerce Department staff awarding funds from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act was “terrific.”

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October 15, 2024
Biden administration to host international AI safety meeting in San Francisco after election

Government scientists and artificial intelligence experts from at least nine countries and the European Union will meet in San Francisco after the U.S. elections to coordinate on safely developing AI technology and averting its dangers.

President Joe Biden’s administration on Wednesday announced a two-day international AI safety gathering planned for November 20 and 21. It will happen just over a year after delegates at an AI Safety Summit in the United Kingdom pledged to work together to contain the potentially catastrophic risks posed by AI advances.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told The Associated Press it will be the “first get-down-to-work meeting” after the UK summit and a May follow-up in South Korea that sparked a network of publicly backed safety institutes to advance research and testing of the technology.

Among the urgent topics likely to confront experts is a steady rise of AI-generated fakery but also the tricky problem of how to know when an AI system is so widely capable or dangerous that it needs guardrails.

“We’re going to think about how do we work with countries to set standards as it relates to the risks of synthetic content, the risks of AI being used maliciously by malicious actors,” Raimondo said in an interview. “Because if we keep a lid on the risks, it’s incredible to think about what we could achieve.”

Situated in a city that’s become a hub of the current wave of generative AI technology, the San Francisco meetings are designed as a technical collaboration on safety measures ahead of a broader AI summit set for February in Paris. It will occur about two weeks after a presidential election between Vice President Kamala Harris — who helped craft the U.S. stance on AI risks — and former President Donald Trump, who has vowed to undo Biden’s signature AI policy.

Raimondo and Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that their agencies will co-host the convening, which taps into a network of newly formed national AI safety institutes in the U.S. and UK, as well as Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, Singapore and the 27-nation European Union.

The biggest AI powerhouse missing from the list of participants is China, which isn’t part of the network, though Raimondo said “we’re still trying to figure out exactly who else might come in terms of scientists.”

“I think that there are certain risks that we are aligned in wanting to avoid, like AIs applied to nuclear weapons, AIs applied to bioterrorism,” she said. “Every country in the world ought to be able to agree that those are bad things and we ought to be able to work together to prevent them.”

Many governments have pledged to safeguard AI technology but they’ve taken different approaches, with the EU the first to enact a sweeping AI law that sets the strongest restrictions on the riskiest applications.

Biden last October signed an executive order on AI that requires developers of the most powerful AI systems to share safety test results and other information with the government. It also delegated the Commerce Department to create standards to ensure AI tools are safe and secure before public release.

San Francisco-based OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, said last week that before releasing its latest model, called o1, it granted early access to the U.S. and UK national AI safety institutes. The new product goes beyond the company’s famous chatbot in being able to “perform complex reasoning” and produce a “long internal chain of thought” when answering a query, and poses a “medium risk” in the category of weapons of mass destruction, the company has said.

Since generative AI tools began captivating the world in late 2022, the Biden administration has been pushing AI companies to commit to testing their most sophisticated models before they’re let out into the world.

“That is the right model,” Raimondo said. “That being said, right now, it’s all voluntary. I think we probably need to move beyond a voluntary system. And we need Congress to take action.”

Tech companies have mostly agreed, in principle, on the need for AI regulation, but some have chafed at proposals they argue could stifle innovation. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday signed three landmark bills to crack down on political deepfakes ahead of the 2024 election, but has yet to sign, or veto, a more controversial measure that would regulate extremely powerful AI models that don’t yet exist but could pose grave risks if they’re built.

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September 18, 2024
Musk deletes post about Harris and Biden assassination after widespread criticism

Elon Musk has deleted a post on his social media platform X in which he said “no one is even trying to assassinate” President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the wake of an apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump while he was playing golf.

Musk, who has nearly 200 million followers on the social media site he bought for $44 billion in 2022, has increasingly embraced conservative ideologies in recent years and endorsed Trump for president.

While he has removed posts in the past, Musk has also kept up and even doubled down on other such inflammatory comments. Last week, he made a joke about impregnating Taylor Swift after the singer posted an endorsement for Harris.

Early Monday, after taking down the post about the apparent Trump assassination, the 53-year-old billionaire wrote on the platform: “Well, one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on X.”

The original post was in response to DogeDesigner, one of the 700 accounts that Musk follows, who asked: “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?”

Musk’s reply was quickly condemned by many X users, and “DeportElonMusk” began trending on X on Monday morning.

“Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about,” said White House spokesperson Andrew Bates in response to Musk’s post. “This rhetoric is irresponsible.”

The Tesla CEO has previously posted conspiracy theories and feuded with world leaders and politicians. X is currently banned in Brazil amid a dustup between Musk and a Brazilian Supreme Court judge over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation.

He’s also received criticism in the past for what critics said were posts encouraging violence.

Last month, for instance, the British government called on Musk to act responsibly after he used X to unleash a barrage of posts that officials said risked inflaming violent unrest gripping the country.

Musk said when he bought the platform then known as Twitter that protecting free speech — not money — was his motivation because, as he put it, “having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization.”

Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute, noted that Musk has long been trying to “push the boundaries of free speech, in part by engaging in impulsive, unfiltered comments on a range of political topics.”

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Associated Press Writer Chris Megerian contributed to this story from Washington.

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September 16, 2024
Hunter Biden Offers New Plea in Tax Case, in 11th-Hour Bid To Avoid Trial Focused on His Lifestyle

A judge in California may decide in a matter of hours if Hunter Biden’s trial for felony tax evasion will take place, after the first son’s attorneys proposed an unusual plea structure that would allow Biden to maintain his innocence while accepting punishment from the government.

Biden’s plea, should prosecutors and the judge agree to it, would concede that the government has enough evidence to convict him should the trial move forward, but lets Biden maintain his proclamation of innocence.

Just before jury selection was set to begin Thursday, Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, informed Judge Mark Scarsi that the first son would change to what is known as an “Alford Plea” after originally pleading not guilty.

Biden’s attorneys in 2023 had worked out on an agreement with Special Counsel David Weiss to allow the first son to plead guilty to alleged tax crimes and his illegal purchase of a firearm while addicted to drugs and avoid prison time. The deal collapsed after it came under criticism from GOP members of Congress as a “sweetheart deal” and a judge in Delaware rejected that plea agreement.

Biden would go on to be convicted in the firearms case. He has yet to be sentenced in the matter and could face prison.

Now the president’s only surviving son is seeking to avoid the embarrassment of a second trial, which would again put a focus on his sordid lifestyle while addicted to alcohol and crack cocaine. He still does not want to admit wrongdoing.

According to Cornell University Law School, an Alford Plea, also known as a best-interests plea, “registers a formal admission of guilt towards charges in criminal court while the defendant simultaneously expresses their innocence toward those same charges.” Should prosecutors agree to the plea and Judge Scarsi accept it, Biden will have to accept whatever punishment is handed down.

Prosecutors asked for time to consider Biden’s Alford Plea after Mr. Lowell made the announcement in court Thursday, according to Politico. Judge Scarsi’s ruling on the plea could come in a matter of hours.

The tax trial was set to be one of the most embarrassing moments for Biden, his father, and the rest of his family. Prosecutors alleged that he dodged more than $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019 while he was making millions of dollars by doing consulting work for entities in Communist China, Ukraine, and Romania, among other countries. During that same time, prosecutors say Biden spent more than $1 million in cash withdrawals from banks and hundreds of thousands of dollars on payments to “various women.”

Biden still faces up to 17 years in prison and a hefty fine if Judge Scarsi accepts the Alford Plea, though given that this is his first tax offense, it is unlikely he would get a punishment anywhere near that maximum. He is set to be sentenced in Delaware either in September or October for his illegal purchase of a firearm; the judge in that case has yet to set a firm date.

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September 5, 2024
Yellen says ending Biden tax incentives would be ‘historic mistake’ for states like North Carolina

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is warning voters in the battleground state of North Carolina that they could lose jobs if Republicans weaken a signature Biden administration law that encourages investments in manufacturing and clean energy.

Yellen says that Republican-dominated states like North Carolina are greatly benefiting from tax incentives under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and that eliminating them would be a “historic mistake,” according to a draft of a speech she will give Thursday at a community college in Raleigh. The Treasury Department released the remarks ahead of the address.

North Carolina has emerged as a key battleground this election cycle between Republican former President Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, where Trump ultimately won North Carolina in the 2020 presidential election.

Yellen says Treasury data shows that 90,000 North Carolina households claimed more than $100 million in residential clean energy credits and $60 million in energy efficiency credits.

“Rolling them back could raise costs for working families at a moment when it’s imperative that we continue to take action to lower prices,” Yellen says in her speech. “It could jeopardize the significant investments in manufacturing we’re seeing here and across the country, along with the jobs that come with them, many of which don’t require a college degree. And it could give a leg-up to China and other countries that are also investing to compete in these critical industries.”

“As we see clearly here in North Carolina, this would be a historic mistake,” she says.

Some Republicans have called on their leaders to reconsider repealing IRA energy tax incentives.

A group of 18 House Republicans in August called on House Speaker Mike Johnson to reconsider efforts to eliminate them.

“Prematurely repealing energy tax credits, particularly those which were used to justify investments that already broke ground, would undermine private investments and stop development that is already ongoing,” the letter reads. “A full repeal would create a worst-case scenario where we would have spent billions of taxpayer dollars and received next to nothing in return.”

But Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, tweeted on social media site X that the lawmakers who signed the letter want to “preserve so-called ‘green’ handouts to Democrats’ corporate cronies.”

“The GOP must ignore K-Street lobbyists and refuse to fund the climate corporate cronies destroying our country,” he said.

The Republican case against the Inflation Reduction Act hinges on the argument that the spending is wasteful and benefits China.

IRS data released in August states that 3.4 million American families have claimed $8.4 billion in residential clean energy and home energy efficiency tax credits in 2023 — mostly towards solar panels and battery storage.

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September 5, 2024