Vance Doesn't Give A Shit About White Ohioans, Either, Even Those In His Hometown - One Example

[hatrack]

A hulking steel plant in Middletown, Ohio, is the city’s economic heartbeat as well as a keystone origin story of JD Vance, the hometown senator now running to be Donald Trump’s vice president. Its future, however, may hinge upon $500 million in funding from landmark climate legislation that Vance has called a “scam” and is a Trump target for demolition.

In March, President Joe Biden’s administration announced the US’s largest-ever grant to produce greener steel, enabling the Cleveland-Cliffs facility in Middletown to build one of the largest hydrogen fuel furnaces in the world, cutting emissions by a million tons a year by ditching the coal that accelerates the climate crisis and befouls the air for nearby locals. In a blue-collar urban area north of Cincinnati that has long pinned its fortunes upon the vicissitudes of the U.S. steel industry, the investment’s promise of a revitalized plant with 170 new jobs and 1,200 temporary construction positions was met with jubilation among residents and unions. “It felt like a miracle, an answered prayer that we weren’t going to be left to die on the vine,” said Michael Bailey, who is now a pastor in Middletown but worked at the plant, then owned by Armco, for 30 years.

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When campaigning for the Senate in 2022, Vance said Biden’s sweeping climate bill is “dumb, does nothing for the environment, and will make us all poorer,” and more recently as vice presidential candidate called the IRA a “green energy scam that’s actually shipped a lot more manufacturing jobs to China.” America needs “a leader who rejects Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ green new scam and fights to bring back our great American factories,” Vance said at the Republican convention in July. “We need President Donald J. Trump.” Republicans in Congress have repeatedly attempted to gut the IRA, with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint authored by many former Trump officials, demanding its repeal should Republicans regain the White House.

Such plans have major implications for Vance’s hometown. The Middletown plant’s $500 million grant from the Department of Energy, still not formally handed over, could be halted if Trump prevails in November. The former president recently vowed to “terminate Kamala Harris’ green new scam and rescind all of the unspent funds.” Some longtime Middletown residents are bemused by such opposition. “How can you think that saving the lives of people is the wrong thing to do?” said Adrienne Shearer, a small business adviser who spent several decades helping the reinvigoration of Middletown’s downtown area, which was hollowed out by economic malaise, offshore jobs, and out-of-town malls. “People thought the plant was in danger of leaving or closing, which would totally destroy the town,” she said. “And now people think it’s not going anywhere.” Shearer, a political independent, said she didn’t like Vance’s book because it “trashed our community” and that he had shown no alternative vision for his hometown. “Maybe people who serve with him in Washington know him, but we don’t here in Middletown,” she said.

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https://grist.org/energy/how-jd-vances-hometown-has-won-millions-in-climate-investment-that-he-calls-a-green-scam/

[Diamond_Dog]

1. This article is excellent. Highly recommend.

K&R

[kimbutgar]

2. Besides electing VP Harris

We need a Democratic senator Sherron Brown to vote for additional funding for green new energy, a repuke controlled senate under President Harris will be a disaster. And nothing will be done for Ohio.