Glendale, Kentucky — When Ford revealed plans to increase investment in the emerging electric vehicle industry, the automaker chose to create thousands of jobs and discredit the Republican leaders for promoting green energy and defending fossil energy. The two states have injected billions of dollars in investment. fuel.

Ford said on Monday that, in cooperation with its battery partner SK Innovation of South Korea, it will invest US$5.6 billion in Stanton, Tennessee, to build a factory to produce electric F-series pickup trucks there. A joint venture called BlueOvalSK will build a battery plant at the same location near Memphis and a dual battery plant in Glendale, Kentucky. Ford estimates that Kentucky's investment is 5.8 billion U.S. dollars. The largest single manufacturing company in the history of this iconic company will create approximately 10,800 jobs.

The choice of Tennessee and Kentucky for the coveted large-scale projects has created an ironic disconnect between the high-risk bets of automakers on the future of battery-powered cars and the remarks of many Republican leaders who oppose moving toward green energy and Move away from fossil fuels. 

More: Ford's planned $5.6B project at a large site in the Memphis area: how we got here

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On Monday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell praised Ford for boosting Kentucky's economy, saying it strengthened Kentucky's position as a world-class automotive state at the forefront of research and development. Two months ago, McConnell proposed a different theme when he went to the Senate to criticize the Democrats for wanting to "wake a war on fossil fuels" and tried to turn their efforts to promote electric vehicles into a wedge problem.

McConnell said in July: "They want to further expand the huge tax credits for expensive electric cars-80% of which will go to households with incomes of six figures and above." "They also want funding and authorization. To push the entire federal government fleet to electric vehicles. Don’t you want to see the auditors of the IRS driving a $97,000 Tesla to accept your tax audit?"

In Kentucky, Republican state lawmakers recently approved an incentive plan with Democratic Gov. Andy Bessier that helped attract battery projects to Glendale, and the hostility to green energy focused on the decline in coal production. And the erosion of high-paying mining jobs lies in the regions that depend on them. The battery plant will be built in central Kentucky, a long drive from the coal fields in eastern and western Kentucky.

Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky expressed his gratitude for Ford's latest investment in the state on Twitter, and he often criticized the Green New Deal. In 2019, he condemned it as an “industry killing, a full-scale attack on our way of life in Kentucky” and an attack on automakers.

Senator Martha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, said the project "will change the landscape of western Tennessee." Last month, when explaining her vote against a $1 trillion infrastructure plan, she said that most of the legislation is equivalent to "the gateway to socialism-there are many green new deals in it." She said Tennessees "do not want the Green New Deal."

Scott Jennings, a Kentucky native and former adviser to Republican President George W. Bush, said on Tuesday that politicians generally support economic development "no matter what they get."

"As for Republicans, at least most of us, we support the market," he said. "If the market bears the production of electric cars, then I don't think anyone will think it is an insult to their cultural or energy heritage. Coal and other fossil fuels still have a role in this world...and this factory This will not change. I always think that conservatives support the'all of the above' energy strategy, which of course fits that slogan."

Beshear took the lead in promoting the state's largest single economic development project and the Glendale battery production project. He said the private sector is leading the transition to green jobs.

"So everyone else will have to join," Bashir told The Associated Press in an interview on Monday. "But let me say that there is a big difference between Washington, D.C.'s theoretical arguments and the prospects of thousands of jobs in the country." 

Ford chief executive Jim Farley said that Ford chose some locations in Kentucky and Tennessee because of lower electricity costs and less impact from floods and hurricanes than other states. Farley said that the battery factory uses 5 times the electricity of a typical assembly factory to manufacture batteries and assemble them into battery packs, so energy costs are an important factor.

About 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Louisville, Glendale is a small community surrounded by corn and soybean fields, and residents seem to be ready to accept new connections to the green energy movement and the fight against climate change.

"This is good for my grandchildren," said Wayne Noe, a farmer and retired union carpenter.

Laura Tabb said that the arrival of Ford will elevate Glendale to the "frontier of green technology", which is "awesome". She said that tackling climate change should not be a political issue.

"Everyone should participate in the action to save the planet," she said. "Who doesn't want to save the planet? If you oppose measures that help make things greener, then you are on the wrong side of history."

Adam Lobert was in Glendale at the end of the bike tour and lived in nearby Elizabethtown. He said he could support electric vehicles, but he opposed the government's dangling tax credits to promote the development of electric vehicles.

As a self-proclaimed "little government man", he said: "I think battery-powered cars are a brilliant idea.... But they must exist independently."

Crischer reported from Detroit and Sainz from Stanton, Tennessee.