Joe’s “Devil Made Us Do It” Energy Plan

Joe Manchin insisted at Davos “we didn’t intend to harm anybody” by Inflation Reduction Act’s massive green energy subsidies for US investing that Euros & Asians now promise to retaliate over. But only blind man (or other Joe) couldn’t see the domestic bribe's impact on other nations?

Ironically, in talking to reporters, the West Va Senator who was a key critic-turned advocate of the poorly-named Inflation Reduction Act & its energy subsidies in the billions of dollars, openly worried about loopholes that would allow foreigners to get new tax credits for EVs with batteries or other components made outside the US. According to the WSJ, he is “wrangling [anew] with the Biden Administration” to block Treasury regs that would presumably allow it. Not surprisingly, France, Germany, UK and a swath of Asian countries are up in arms promising copycat subsidies to keep those billions in investments in their homelands. Meanwhile, however, “more than $35 billion in manufacturing investment for solar, wind & battery components in the US has been announced since” the IRA was enacted. In the last quarter of 2022 alone, “utility-scale solar, wind & battery power developers [from around the world] unveiled more than $40 billion in projects, more than the total investment for all such developments in 2021.”

So, since “you can only spend an investment dollar once,” the EU & Asians will have to move fast in their threatened response to the IRA. But, if their Biden-like speed countering the Russian invasion of Ukraine is any indication …

Davd Soul