[1/4]U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the economy at Arcosa, a wind tower manufacturing facility, in Belen, New Mexico, U.S. August 9, 2023. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
BELEN, New Mexico, Aug 9 (Reuters) – US President Joe Biden delivered his economics address to New Mexico on Wednesday to brag about how his signed bill helped convert a previously closed facility into a wind tower manufacturing facility.
Biden, a Democrat running for re-election, said the Arcosa plant is the latest evidence that the country is on the cusp of a clean energy production boom, fueled in part by billions of dollars in tax credits that included in its Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which passed Congress last year without a Republican vote.
Biden is in the midst of a three-state move by the American West to revitalize his re-election by touting the economy and new infrastructure projects to an American public still unhappy with the country’s direction.
Biden said previous administrations have promised to invest in U.S. manufacturing only to move jobs and capital abroad. He said the historic investments from the IRA law, combined with strict requirements designed to force companies to build supply chains domestically, have reversed that trend.
“I’ve decided that we’re going to invest in America,” Biden said.
Arcosa (ACA.N) CEO Antonio Carrillo said his company and the wind power industry have struggled as new funds flow from Washington. After the IRA passed, he said he had won the largest order for wind towers.
The White House and the Biden campaign are keen to convince skeptical Americans of the effectiveness of his policies in stimulating the economy and fighting global warming.
Recent surveys show a steep learning curve, even as the US economy beat recession warnings with record-low unemployment, strong wage increases and better-than-expected GDP growth.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week, some Americans who voted for Biden in 2020 say they believe the economy has fared badly under his leadership and they may not vote for him in the 2024 election.
About half of those who voted for Biden in 2020 said they had heard little or nothing about his key policy initiatives to lower inflation or boost infrastructure spending.
Reporting by Nandita Bose, Jeff Mason and Jarrett Renshaw; Edited by Simon Cameron-Moore and Jonathan Oatis
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Comments are closed.