Siemens USA CEO Barbara Humpton is urging companies to tell voters about the benefits of the Biden Administration’s industrial policy, including the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes a $369 billion package of incentives for green energy, according to an interview with the Financial Times.
“We’ve got to get stories out to help paint the pictures to voters,” Humpton told the Financial Times in an interview. “So that whoever is sitting in the White House or whoever’s legislating on Capitol Hill knows the importance of this to American workers, to American families, and frankly, to our national security.”
US President Joe Biden (L) speaks with Siemens USA CEO Barbara Humpton during an event on Biden’s Made in America commitments at the White House complex in Washington, DC, on March 4, 2022. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Humpton also stressed the need for “stability and predictability” for businesses, despite the current “hot political season.” The IRA, which passed in 2022 and includes subsidies and tax breaks for green energy, provides a 10-year framework of incentives to help boost the green economy and manufacturing in the United States, per the Financial Times.
Siemens announced in a 2022 meeting at the Biden White House a $54 million investment in its U.S. manufacturing footprint, and the company has moved some solar component manufacturing from Germany to the U.S. as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), according to the Financial Times. Siemens also considers the US government its largest customer. (RELATED: Inflation Reduction Act ‘Has Nothing To Do With Inflation,’ Biden Says)
There are growing calls from Republican candidates to repeal the IRA if they win the 2024 presidential election.
Former South Carolina governor Nicki Haley vowed in September to repeal the IRA, calling it a “communist manifesto filled with tax hikes and green subsidies that benefit China.”
Former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have also slammed the IRA.
DeSantis refused upwards of $350 million in IRA funding for the state of Florida, according to Politico.
Democrats agree with Humpton and are pushing for voters to recognize the IRA’s benefits.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in an interview with NPR he believes if Democrats continue to highlight the IRA’s implementation, voters will come to see it as beneficial by Summer 2024.
The IRA provides more than $300 billion for energy and climate-related programs, including $60 billion for renewable energy infrastructure and manufacturing of clean energy technologies like solar panels and wind turbines, according to NPR.