A Georgia town that solidly backed Trump could fall victim to his tax bill's green energy cuts

CARTERSVILLE, Ga. — When two South Korean companies announced a multibillion-dollar investment to build solar panel and electric battery factories in northwest Georgia, federal subsidies helped close a deal to diversify the local economy.

The factories promised thousands of new jobs, transforming the manufacturing base in Cartersville, once a cotton mill town before an Anheuser-Busch brewery arrived in the 1990s and a tire plant in 2006.

But now Republicans in Congress want to gut the subsidies for projects across the country in a tax cut bill likely days from final passage. President Donald Trump's signature legislation could harm Cartersville despite it being in overwhelmingly Republican Bartow County, which backed Trump with 75% of the vote all three times he appeared on the ballot.

Both companies say they're continuing their buildout plans. But Steve Taylor, a Republican who is Bartow County's lone elected commissioner, says ending the tax credits would be ''a little concerning.''

''Those companies came and it gave us a completely different type of industry and manufacturing for our community,'' Taylor said.

By some measures, no state may have more to lose than Georgia from such cuts in Trump's '' Big Beautiful Bill.'' Top Georgia Republicans have been mostly silent, while Georgia's two Democratic U.S. senators are staunchly opposed.

''A vote for this bill is a vote against Georgia's economy and a vote that will put so much of what we've worked so hard to achieve at risk'' U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff told The Associated Press.

And few towns have more to lose than Cartersville, the Bartow County seat about 35 miles (55 kilometers) northwest of Atlanta. As the county transforms from rural to suburban, leaders foresee an economic boost from the $5 billion battery factory that Hyundai Motor Group and SK On are building, as well as the $2.3 billion solar panel plant belonging to Qcells, a unit of Hanwha Solutions. Both plants pledge to pay workers an average of $53,000 a year.

Clean energy projects are taking off in Georgia

Georgia's huge inrush of clean energy projects had already begun before 2022, when then-President Joe Biden signed his signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act. But if anything, that rush accelerated. The 33 additional projects announced by the end of 2024 were the most nationwide, according to E2, an environmental business group. Exact figures differ, but projects in Georgia top $20 billion, pledging more than 25,000 jobs.

Buyers of Qcells solar panels get a 40% federal tax credit, including a 10% bonus for domestic content, which would go away under the bill. Qcells itself would still get production tax credits for panels it started producing last year in Cartersville. The bill would also tax companies that buy panels or components from some foreign countries including China. That could help Qcells, but wouldn't aid domestic producers as much as the domestic content bonus.

When the 1,900-job plant is complete, it will take refined polysilicon, cast it into ingots and then thinly slice ingots into the wafers that become solar cells. Qcells says controlling its own supply chain will let it work more efficiently. Those additional steps would earn the company additional tax credits.

Scott Moskowitz, vice president of market strategy and industry affairs for Qcells, said the company built its first American factory up the road in Dalton during the first Trump administration in response to Trump's protectionist trade policy. Moskowitz argues that a quick curtailment of federal subsidies undercuts Trump's goal of bolstering domestic manufacturing, pushing buyers back to Chinese-controlled producers.

Some local Republicans are expressing alarm, with 16 GOP state legislators imploring Congress in a June 17 letter to preserve tax breaks for solar panels.

''We urge you not to weaken the tax credits, as doing so would only harm the manufacturing renaissance in Georgia while creating opportunities for Chinese companies to take over the solar industry,'' wrote the Georgia lawmakers, led by Republican state Rep. Matthew Gambill of Cartersville.

Some argue it's unfair for Congress to pull the rug out after companies relied on the promise of federal support to invest huge sums.

''I would like to think that from a business perspective that when you have agreements in place that you carry those out to fulfillment," Cartersville Mayor Matt Santini said.

High-ranking Georgia Republicans have been publicly silent

Clean energy projects have overwhelmingly located in Republican-held congressional districts, with a report by Atlas Public Policy finding GOP districts host 77% of planned spending.

Republican U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, who lives in Bartow County, addressed the local impact in a Monday statement to the AP, saying the cuts will push Qcells and Hyundai-SK On to become ''independent of government subsidies.''

''It is important to keep industry as free from government control as possible, and not dependent on government,'' said Loudermilk, who in May labeled the Biden incentives as ''the Democrats' Green New scam.''

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp says he's staying out of the debate.

''Our position is that Congress needs to be the one to decide the future of the IRA," said Kemp spokesperson Garrison Douglas.

Kemp loves green energy investments and jobs, and even declared that his goal is to make Georgia the ''electric mobility capital of America.'' But Kemp and Ossoff clash over who should get credit for Georgia's green energy boom. Kemp sharply disputes that the Biden-era incentives spurred the flood of investment, saying industries were already coming to Georgia before the Inflation Reduction Act was passed.

Unlike his current silence, Kemp vociferously opposed some domestic content requirements that made it hard for Hyundai to access the same tax credits as unionized U.S.-based automakers.

''Just generally speaking, the Inflation Reduction Act picked winners and losers, and we saw that negatively impact our partners," Douglas said.

All nine of Georgia's Republican House members voted to support the bill, including U.S. Rep Buddy Carter, who earlier signed a letter supporting green energy subsidies. Carter, who is seeking the GOP nomination to oppose Ossoff for Senate in 2026, represents a coastal district that includes a $7.6 billion Hyundai plant in Ellabell that started production last year.

Hyundai wants to make batteries at what would be a 3,500-employee plant near Cartersville so that Hyundai and Kia buyers can fully take advantage of the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles. Those credits would end six months after the bill is enacted under the current version.

The company is publicly sidestepping the current legislative fight. But with American demand for electric vehicles slow to take off, Hyundai now says it will also build gas-electric hybrid vehicles in Ellabell, once projected to make only electric vehicles.

''We remain focused on electrification because we believe it represents a significant long-term opportunity,'' Hyundai spokesperson Michael Stewart said in a statement. ''At the same time, our business is driven by consumer demand, which is why we continue to offer a full range of powertrains.''

Bartow County leaders say it's in everyone's interest to keep the projects on solid footing and that jobs should outweigh politics.

''I don't know that people are lining up along party lines over this topic,'' Santini said.

But Ossoff says partisanship is motivating many Georgia Republicans to turn their backs on the state's economic interests.

''For national Republicans right now, loyalty to Trump is more important than anything else, and this is what Trump says he wants," Ossoff said.