PUEBLO — President Joe Biden on Wednesday visited Pueblo’s CS Wind manufacturing unit, the biggest wind turbine tower manufacturing plant on the planet, touting his administration’s clear power investments on the house turf of Lauren Boebert, considered one of his most vocal Republican critics in Congress.
“As I’ve mentioned for a very long time, once I suppose local weather, I believe jobs,” he mentioned, standing on a stage earlier than a crowd gathered on the manufacturing unit. “That’s what local weather is about. Not solely saving lives and saving the setting, however jobs.”
Biden’s Pueblo go to was a part of his “Investing in America” tour, which comes as he prepares to run for reelection subsequent yr. The president simply beat Donald Trump in Colorado in 2020, however his margin of victory in Pueblo was slim, at about 1,500 votes.
With a inhabitants of about 112,000, Pueblo can be the biggest metropolis in Colorado’s third Congressional District, which Boebert represents. The Garfield County congresswoman narrowly gained her race final yr and is anticipated to face a troublesome reelection bid in 2024.
Talking from a lectern in entrance of heavy equipment, Biden lauded his investments that he mentioned has helped increase the financial system whereas permitting extra Coloradans to assist their households by means of jobs near dwelling.
“If you stay in a blue state or a crimson state, you reside in rural, city areas, we’re delivering on that promise,” the president mentioned.
Biden devoted a part of his 22-minute speech to criticizing Boebert’s lack of assist for the Inflation Discount Act. When he talked about her title, the president paused, smirked and made the signal of the cross on his chest.
“She together with each single Republican colleague voted towards the regulation that has made these investments in jobs doable,” Biden mentioned, a nod to the laws, which was handed by Democrats in Congress in 2022 and signed into regulation by Biden.
“And he or she referred to as this regulation a large failure,” Biden mentioned. “Inform that to the 850 Coloradans who get new jobs in Pueblo at CS Wind because of this regulation. Inform that to native economies who profit from this funding. Inform that to anybody who desires to hear.”
He toured the manufacturing unit amid its $200 million plant enlargement to double manufacturing capability and add an anticipated 850 jobs by 2026. The South Korea-based firm mentioned the Inflation Discount Act helped spur the enlargement.
Because the firm broke floor earlier this yr, CS Wind has greater than doubled its workforce in Pueblo, hiring greater than 500 new staff.
The manufacturing unit will even have the ability to produce about 10,000 wind turbine tower sections yearly below the enlargement, which is anticipated to be full subsequent yr. The corporate shall be eligible for clean-energy tax incentives below the IRA.
The funding marked the start of “a worldwide transition to wash power to the brand new improvements and new expertise for a greater lifestyle,” Sen. John Hickenlooper mentioned earlier than the president’s speech.
“And I believe that this nice transition is beginning proper right here, right here in Colorado,” Hickenlooper added, calling the IRA the best local weather funding by any nation that may get the nation 80% of the way in which towards fulfilling Biden’s purpose of chopping emissions by 50% by 2030.
Investments by means of the IRA have grown rapidly in power communities, or these traditionally depending on fossil power jobs and tax revenues, together with areas with closed coal mines or coal-fired energy crops and people with important employment from fossil fuels and better than common unemployment, in accordance with a Biden administration evaluation launched Wednesday by the U.S. Division of Treasury.
Greater than 80% of investments into clear power introduced because the IRA handed have been for initiatives in counties with below-average weekly wages, information confirmed, and 86% are in counties with below-average commencement charges.
The portion of fresh funding {dollars} going to low-income counties rose to 78%, from 68%, with the passing of the IRA, the division mentioned.
White Home officers mentioned Biden meant to focus on how the laws is mobilizing firms to put money into clear power and create good-paying jobs in locations, just like the third Congressional District, “whereas excessive Home Republicans attempt to repeal the Inflation Discount Act and deny their constituents the roles and alternatives that the president’s agenda is creating.”
Boebert, an opponent of the Inflation Discount Act, launched a press release forward of the president’s go to criticizing Biden for the price of client items. She inspired Biden to assist her laws that she says would create new jobs in Pueblo for cleanup on the Pueblo Chemical Depot, which is shutting down after work destroying chemical munitions wrapped up earlier this yr.
Biden attended a fundraiser in Cherry Hills Village on Tuesday night time the place he additionally blasted Boebert’s refusal to assist the Inflation Discount Act. The president additionally talked about the necessity to shield abortion entry and stop Trump, his doubtless 2024 opponent, from retaking the White Home.
The president’s Colorado journey was his second this yr. He visited Colorado Springs in June to present the graduation tackle on the U.S. Air Drive Academy.
Biden has visited Colorado 5 occasions since taking workplace in early 2021.