Courts protect Biden’s clean energy policies and Georgia EV jobs from Trump’s ax – for now

by Stanley Dunlap, Georgia Recorder
February 3, 2025

The beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term at the White House was marked by a flurry of executive orders rolling back environmental regulations.

Most prominent environmental organizations involved in climate issues in Georgia and across the country expected Trump’s recent announcements on environmental policy, but the promptness caught them off guard. The Trump administration will once again be subject to intense scrutiny over its controversial environmental policies like the ones implemented in his first term.

Debate over Georgia’s environmental future has largely centered on winding down fossil fuel burning power plants, providing tax incentives for clean energy developments such as solar and electric vehicles, and fraught issues such as the proposed mining near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge border.

Now back in the White House, Trump is pursuing environmental policies that amount to a reversal of clean energy goals in the prior administration’s 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

On his first day in office, Trump issued his “Unleashing American Energy” plan featuring a flurry of executive orders directing federal agencies to fast-track energy permitting for energy sources like offshore oil drilling.

Trump’s order directs agencies to consider eliminating the social cost of carbon from federal regulatory decisions.

The president declared a national energy crisis, and plans to reduce energy costs and what he calls an overreliance on foreign sources by expanding drilling for oil and natural gas. 

Last week, Trump rescinded efforts to freeze grants and other federal payments for a number of programs after a U.S. District Court judge in Rhode Island issued a temporary restraining order blocking the order. So for now, grant and loan programs associated with climate, renewable energy, and environmental justice can continue.

Several environmental experts have predicted that Trump’s new term, which will run through 2029, will prioritize economic growth over environmental concerns, which will result in fewer regulations on fossil fuel production of oil and gas, and a decrease in funding for environmental conservation efforts.

At Trump’s inauguration, he promised to attack the nation’s energy “crisis” by lowering costs and reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign energy sources.

Trump’s executive orders also included an “EV mandate” which is intended to eliminate governmental regulations and subsidies that benefit electric vehicle manufacturing by effectively “mandating” their purchase over gas-powered vehicles.

Georgia’s top elected and economic development officials, as well as clean energy advocates, are closely watching the shift in policy regarding electric mobility, especially given the state’s $27 billion bet on the electric transportation industry since 2018. 

The clean energy rollbacks could also spell the end of a popular federal income tax credit of up to $7,500 for the purchase of electric and plug-in hybrid cars. 

Several days prior to Trump’s inauguration, nine Georgia-based clean energy advocates sent a letter to the newly sworn-in Congress, urging its members to keep supporting federal clean energy and climate policies and expressing “adamant opposition” to any attempts to reverse the efforts under new leadership.

“The message we want Congress to hear going into the major policy discussions they have before them this year is that the clean energy policies from the last several years are delivering for our communities in the Southeast in a big, big way, whether it’s to the big job-creating manufacturing companies, clean energy producers, rural power customers, homeowners, or kids who get to breathe in cleaner air,” Chris Carnevale, climate advocacy director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, wrote in a statement.

Georgia is leading the nation in new clean energy jobs and private investment, including a projected 43,000 new jobs created since August 2022, according to a Jan. 16 report from environmental watchdog Climate Power. 

Georgia is a major reason why the Southeast is the national leader for EV and battery-related jobs and private sector investments, according to a 2024 report from the clean alliance. Georgia earned the group’s top spots in the region for its projected 27,394 new jobs and investments exceeding $24 billion. 

Tax incentives offered by the state with the strong backing of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp were used to secure commitments from Hyundai and Rivian to build electric powered vehicles at massive new plants that employ thousands of people. Hyundai started producing electric SUVs in October. Rivian plans to resume work on its plant about an hour east of Atlanta in 2026 after the Biden administration jump-started the partially completed project last year with a $6.6 billion loan that was pushed through before Trump was sworn in.

The state offered a $1.5 billion incentive package that would give Rivian tax breaks based on the number of jobs and other investments into a plant for producing electric SUVs and crossovers.

The loan was offered after Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff made frequent requests for federal aid to save a project that he said would threaten Georgia’s economic future if it wasn’t completed. 

Solar manufacturer Qcells officials have cited the major tax breaks offered through

the landmark climate bill passed in 2022 as playing a major role in its Dalton plant expansion. Tax credits have also been important in spurring auto parts suppliers to produce electric vehicle components at a $7 billion Hyundai plant near Savannah. 

Mark Woodall, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club of Georgia, supports the state’s efforts to establish Georgia as the U.S. e-mobility capital. But the state and the national market demand could be significantly curtailed if the federal programs and other government resources are no longer available.

“EVs are coming, one way or the other I mean, we’ll see what they do about the $7,500 tax credit,” he said. “The Chinese have the largest car market in the world now. In 2024, they were down to 50% gasoline and the rest of it is hybrids and EVs. If Georgia and the United States do not move forward with electric vehicles, the Chinese are going to eat our lunch.”

Trump’s attempts to freeze federal grants also targeted the unspent funds for a national EV charging station program that’s been in place since 2022. Georgia has been investing its share of $135 million distributed over five years to build a network of stations along interstates and highways.

Ryan McKinnon, a spokesman for Charge Ahead Partnership, a coalition of businesses and individuals advocating for development of a national charging network, said there remains a huge need for strategically placed plug-in stations so that more owners of electric-powered automobiles and hybrids don’t worry about getting stranded on the road because their car batteries died.  

In August, several Georgia Democratic congressional lawmakers announced that the state was awarded a $27 million grant to install 200 chargers in Middle Georgia and to build a fast charging hub at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

The state’s largest charging network is managed by Georgia Power, a member of Drive Electric Georgia, a coalition of utilities, car dealers and manufacturers and the EV companies.

About 34,000 electric vehicles are registered in Georgia, and 1,300 chargers and 3,400 charging ports are scattered across the state.

Georgia Republican Congressman Buddy Carter applauded Trump’s latest executive orders for paving the way toward energy independence and letting private industry determine the success of industries like auto manufacturing.

During a television interview on Newsmax on Jan. 22, Carter said that the Biden-Harris administration waged a war against fossil fuels for four years.

Carter represents the Georgia coastal region that includes the Okefenokee Swamp and stretches south from Savannah where Hyundai is building its EV and battery manufacturing facility. And there is strong bipartisan opposition to offshore drilling, evidenced by yard signs in front of homes along the Georgia coast in both red and blue political turf.  

“We’ve got an opportunity here to be energy dominant, and (Trump’s going to make us that so I’m very excited about it,” he said. “Look, there’s going to be a market for EVs without the government having to tell people, ‘you’ve got to buy an electric vehicle,’” said the Pooler congressman who serves on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. “There’s going to be a market for all of these things.” 

Carnevale said it is critical that federal officials do not roll back energy policies that were implemented in the last few years through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. 

Last year, Georgia school districts were able to purchase 370 electric school buses with grants from the Environmental Protection Agency’s clean bus program, replacing toxic exhaust fumes from diesel-powered school buses, he said.

“As we enter the new year, kids are being spared toxic fumes while riding on clean electric buses to school, families are seeing lower energy bills after making energy efficiency improvements to their homes, and people are making good livelihoods with new good-paying jobs creating the clean energy and electric vehicle supply chain,” Carnevale said.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.

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