1 of 3 | President Joe Biden speaks in the South Court Auditorium at the White House on Monday in Washington, D.C., where the president highlighted the effects that he says his economic policies have been having on the technology sector in the country. Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI | License Photo
Oct. 23 (UPI) — President Joe Biden spoke about the economy at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., Monday afternoon, during which he touted the benefits of his administration’s initiatives, especially in terms of new clean-energy jobs.
“As a result of the Chips and Science act, companies all over the world are investing over $100 billion to bring to production back to the U.S.,” Biden said. “I have visited almost every major center starting from South Korea on, and they want to be here.”
In noting Monday’s announcement about tech hubs through the nation, Biden said his administration’s push for such jobs is wide-ranging.
“We’re doing this from coast to coast and in the heartland; in red states and blue states; small towns, cities of all sizes,” Biden said.
“All this is part of my strategy to invest in America and invest in Americans,” he said. “It’s working. We’re creating good jobs in communities all across the country, including places where, for decades, factories have been shut down, hollowed out when jobs moved overseas to find cheaper employment.”
While the White House did not give advance details of the speech beforehand, it did release an analysis by Heather Boushey, chief economist in the president’s Investing in America Cabinet, in which she analyzed so-called “Bidenomics” in relation to investments in clean energy and its impact on the current robust economy.
Bidenomics has become a shorthand term to describe the administration’s economic push that puts a foremost focus on middle-income benefits.
Boushey said growth in the clean energy sector has been “a key pillar” in Bidenomics and his economic plan to expand the economy “from the middle out and bottom up.”
“Strong investment in clean power generation and supply is critical to meeting President Biden’s goals of building the clean energy economy with high-quality job opportunities for American workers and addressing the climate crisis,” Boushey said in the released statement.
“Since the start of the Biden-Harris administration, private companies have announced plans for about 94 [giga-watts] of new clean power generation projects, representing an estimated $133 billion in investment as of August 2023.”
Boushey said 21,000 jobs were added to the economy in power generation and supply from 2021 to 2023. She said it marked the sector’s highest hiring total in more than a decade.
“These job gains were driven by increased employment in electricity transmission and distribution and increased clean electric power generation,” Boushey said. “Between January 2021 and March 2023, the economy added 11,000 jobs in electric power transmission and distribution,8,000 jobs in solar power generation, 2,000 jobs in wind power, and 1,000 jobs in hydroelectric power.”
The president increasingly has stressed his economic plan as part of his officials duties and on the campaign trail, too. This past month, Biden used a similar economic speech in Maryland to contrast his economic views with that of MAGA Republicans.
