By Jeff Mason and Jarrett Renshaw
WEST COLUMBIA, South Carolina (Reuters) -President Joe Biden traveled to South Carolina to tout a new $60 million solar investment as the latest example that he is rebuilding the U.S. manufacturing industry.
Biden and top administration officials are fanning across the country to champion how the administration’s economic policy – dubbed by them “Bidenomics” – is reshaping the country. US voters continue to question the strength of the economy, and Biden’s leadership, amid record employment and slowing inflation.
The investment by Enphase Energy Inc is part of some $500 billion in private investment that has boosted U.S. manufacturing since he became president, Biden said.
“I’m not here to declare victory on the economy. I’m here to say we have a plan to turn it around quickly,” Biden said.
The investment by Enphase will create some 1,800 new U.S. jobs, including 600 in South Carolina, between Enphase and its partner, multinational manufacturing giant Flex Ltd, according to the White House.
Enphase intends to open up six new manufacturing lines, bolstering clean-energy supply chains and helping power as many as 1 million homes per year with solar energy.
Biden administration officials are stressing that Republicans voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, which created hundreds of millions of dollars in tax incentives to promote green energy projects. Yet, officials note, that these same Republicans applaud local investments spurred by the legislation.
One project will soon break ground in the district of Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, an unrelenting Biden critic who recently sought to impeach the president.
“I’ll be there for the groundbreaking,” Biden said.
Biden toured a Flex facility in West Columbia, South Carolina that will make products for Enphase at the plant.
Enphase sells microinverters and batteries for solar arrays but its products are manufactured at factories in China, Mexico and India.
Thursday’s announcement will mark Enphase’s first US-based contract manufacturing facility.
Raghu Belur, co-founder and inventor, Enphase Energy, showed Biden a table of the company’s products and said his company has built millions of them over the years, but all outside the U.S.
“Thanks to your leadership, we are building them in the U.S. now,” Belur said.
(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Heather Timmons and Alistair Bell)
