Contact: 
Elizabeth Fairchild
info@businessfwd.org
202-861-1270

Washington, D.C. – From small business owners and local communities to large scale multinational companies, America is beginning to reap the benefits of President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. Across the country, these historic legislative achievements are strengthening our supply chains, bolstering our clean energy economy, reshoring our manufacturing, improving our infrastructure, and expanding broadband to homes. One way to gauge how well the BBB agenda works is to look at the private sector investments unlocked by the President’s legislation.

Take North Carolina as a case study in how best to leverage this once-in-a-generation opportunity. The Tar Heel State has been an economic and clean energy leader because it ensures its businesses and households have access to cleaner, affordable, and reliable power. Governor Cooper and the local business community – energy producers, utilities, clean energy start-ups, and other companies – are working with Washington to ensure BBB investments build upon North Carolina’s competitive advantages and accelerate its remarkable growth.

The President’s agenda has created a strong multiplier effect in North Carolina, by leveraging public funding to unlock private sector investment. For example (as of January 2024), the state received:

 

  • $5 billion in private sector investment for its Semiconductors & Electronics industry, based on strong incentives from the CHIPS Act, including Wolfspeed, Inc. the global leader in Silicon Carbide technology, announcing it will build a new, state-of-the-art, multi-billion-dollar Materials manufacturing facility in Chatham County.
  • $19B in investment for EVs & Batteries, including Epsilon Advanced Materials (EAM), India’s leading battery materials company, announcing plans to build a $650 million graphite anode manufacturing facility in Brunswick County – based in large part by being able to maximize subsidies from the IRA.
  • $2.9B in funding from the Biden Administration to provide affordable, reliable high-speed internet. This funding incentivized CommScope to announce plans to invest $60.3 million over the next four years to expand its NC manufacturing facilities, which will bolster CommScope’s production capacity and ability to meet U.S. supply demands driven by federal initiatives to bring ‘Internet For All’ – including in underserved and rural broadband markets.
  • An increase in production and the creation of more than 250 new jobs aligned with the new demand driven by Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funding disbursement.

 

Build Back Better spending only works if each government dollar unlocks multiple private sector dollars – and those private sector dollars must keep flowing beyond the initial investments of BBB.

The Tar Heel State’s clean energy industry is ready to leverage the BBB to boost its competitive advantages. To transition away from coal to lower emissions fuels that still ensure reliability means industry over-indexes on wine and solar, in certain places, and transitions to natural gas in others. Putting North Carolina on a path to lower carbon emissions, through wind, solar, or natural gas, is what will continue to make North Carolina the #1 destination for businesses.

If we allow the Build Back Better Agenda to fulfill its full potential, North Carolina will continue to be a vibrant and desirable place to do business for years to come.

 

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