This coverage is made possible through a partnership with Grist and WABE, Atlanta’s NPR station.

On a sweltering Friday this summer, a who’s who of Georgia political and business figures gathered under a large tent on a dusty expanse of vacant land outside of Savannah, sipping champagne. They were waiting for the governor to confirm the week’s exciting rumor: Hyundai was going to build electric vehicles here.

“It is my great honor to officially announce that Hyundai Motor Group will build their first dedicated electric vehicle manufacturing plant right here in this good soil in Bryan County,” Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican, announced to whoops and cheers.

He boasted that 20 EV projects had been brought to Georgia in the last two years, promising thousands of jobs as well as billions in investments. These companies have been actively pursued by the state, which has offered billions of dollars in tax breaks and other incentives to attract Hyundai, electric vehicle and SUV maker Rivian and EV battery manufacturer SK Innovation to Georgia. Kemp called the state “the unrivaled leader in the nation’s emerging electric mobility industry.”

And it’s not just EVs. Since 2008, Georgia Tech’s Suniva has been making Solar panels. And the industry has seen a lot of growth in recent years. In 2019, Qcells, a solar manufacturer, opened a plant and announced that it would be expanding this year. NanoPV also announced a new plant in the state last year.

At a May campaign event, Brian Kemp, Georgia Governor, speaks. Joe Raedle/Getty Images The green manufacturing boom is happening even though Georgia lags in climate policies that could encourage the adoption of EVs and solar panels. The state does not have any emissions reduction goals, and charges EV owners a $200 annual fee. The state Public Service Commission, which regulates Georgia’s largest utility and therefore most of the state’s electricity generation, has mandated more large-scale solar in the last decade but sets no overarching emissions goal for power generation. Recently, the commission approved more gas-fired electricity and delayed decisions about closing coal units or expanding rooftop solar.

Georgia isn’t alone in this disconnect. A December 2021 report by the Centers for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS, found that many states without what it called “climate ambition,” like Texas, Louisiana, Wyoming, and South Dakota, are still pursuing the economic opportunities of clean energy. Officials in Georgia see the opportunity to attract new businesses and invest. Companies are drawn to massive tax breaks as well as convenient ports for their goods. It’s a deal that makes economic sense, regardless of climate policy.

“Just because a state does not have targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions itself does not mean it has no aspirations to sell its products to others that do,” the report found.

‘Jobs of the future’ For economic development officials in Georgia, pursuing clean energy and tech facilities is a simple matter of reading the writing on the wall. It’s where manufacturers are investing their money.

“We’re trying to make sure that every small town in Georgia has an opportunity to thrive and really reach the jobs of the future,” said Pat Wilson, commissioner of the state’s Department of Economic Development. “It’s imperative on us … that we go after the jobs that are going to be here for the next 50 years.”

These jobs will be in electric automobiles, not gas-powered models, in the automotive sector. Georgia already has a Kia manufacturing facility and many facilities that produce parts for other manufacturers. This means that a lot of Georgians are employed in the industry.

“There are 55,000 Georgians whose life is really tied to an internal combustion engine,” Wilson estimated. Wilson stated that officials want to encourage EV companies, battery producers, and other links in EV supply chain to state. They also hope to create jobs for workers who can make the transition to electric as their industry becomes more electric.

In other states, the same holds true. “We can think about the desire to preserve some of their legacy industries,” said Morgan Higman, the author of the CSIS report on climate ambition and clean tech jobs. “There’s this sort of external market pressure.”

Michigan, another state that has strong automotive ties recently increased the number of economic development incentives it offers to attract large-scale manufacturing projects. Earlier this year, GM was given $666 million by state legislators to manufacture EVs in Michigan. 

Higman’s report also identified a similar motive in states with big oil industries, like Texas, Louisiana, and Wyoming. In Louisiana, for instance, the state’s Climate Initiatives Task Force adopted a Climate Action Plan earlier this year that calls for investment in “Louisiana-based low-carbon industry through tax incentives” as well as programs to train oil and gas industry workers for clean energy jobs. Exxon Texas proposes a $100 billion carbon storage and capture project. It says it will require public funding. Harris County officials have also supported the idea. 

Why would you want to build there? Renewable energy and electric vehicle companies list a lot of reasons for choosing states like Georgia, even though they’re not those companies’ biggest U.S. markets and they lack policies that help promote the companies’ products.

The tax incentives are an important piece of the puzzle. Georgia offered Hyundai $1.8billion in tax incentives and other incentives to help it attract new EV plants. Rivian received a $1.5B incentive package, while SK Innovations was awarded $300 million.

However, the state has other advantages such as a well-established industry. Qcells, the solar cell maker, opened a factory at Dalton in Georgia in 2019. The region has exported and made flooring for many years.

“So it’s already got a really strong manufacturing-focused workforce,” said Scott Moskowitz, head of public affairs for Qcells, which announced this year that it will expand the Dalton facility. “But it’s also just a really good place, both logistically and economically.”

On the assembly floor of Qcells’ solar panel manufacturing plant in Dalton (Georgia), a worker transports stacks of solar panels that are ready for shipping. Dustin Chambers, The Washington Post via Getty Images. He mentioned Georgia Tech as a place for students to learn and develop new technologies. Also nearby ports are available for importing raw materials or shipping products to consumers. The Port of Savannah is the fourth-busiest container port in the country, and the Port of Brunswick is the second-busiest for roll-on/roll-off trade — in other words, shipping vehicles. 

These are Georgia-specific factors, but many red states share a common advantage over their climate-ambitious counterparts. It is land.

“They have a lot of dirt that’s relatively cheap. And these are big facilities,” Higman said, citing a manufacturing incentive program in Alabama that applies to facilities on a minimum of 250 acres. The new Hyundai plant in Georgia will be built on a nearly 3,000-acre “megasite.”

“It’s a lot cheaper to do that in a place like Georgia than it is in a place like New York or California,” she said.

‘We’re going to need suppliers’ While states like Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas lack their own climate goals, their fast-growing clean technology industries make them a key part of the national story. States with carbon emissions reduction targets should purchase their solar panels and wind turbines from somewhere. The Inflation Reduction Act, which President Joe Biden signed last month, provides billions in clean energy incentives that are expected to increase demand.

“This is a great example of the capacity of states like Georgia … to play an important role in supporting the decarbonization goals of other states and even the president’s goals for our country,” Higman said. “We’re going to need suppliers of these technologies.”

Many of these suppliers are located overseas at the moment. That’s creating problems in light of the ongoing, global disruption of supply chains. COVID-19 caused a global pandemic that resulted in city-wide shut downs in Asia’s major export hubs. There were also shortages of truck drivers, dock workers, ships, and shipping containers. Also, there have been changes in the availability and price of key materials, such as steel, polysilicon, and an overall rise in shipping prices. Further delays and uncertainties have been caused by concerns about the labor practices of Chinese manufacturers and alleged attempts by them to lower U.S. solar producers.

The ramping up of U.S. manufacturing won’t ease the current difficulties, Higman said, but it could help prevent similar problems in the future.

The case for red state climate planning But should Georgia and other red States do more to help the market move in a cleaner direction than they are currently doing? Wilson, the Georgia economic development commissioner, doesn’t think so. He’s counting on businesses and consumers to lead the state’s transition to electric vehicles and renewable energy, not the government.

“We have become the fifth-largest state for installed solar in the country. The reason is that companies push for a renewable portfolio of our utilities. And companies are doing that because they’re being driven by the consumer,” Wilson said. “And so we don’t have a mandate, but we’ve created a business case.”

Qcells, a Dalton, Georgia solar panel manufacturer, has arrays of solar cells moving on a conveyor belt. Dustin Chambers from The Washington Post via Getty Images. In the same way, he believes Georgia drivers will switch to electric vehicles without any government intervention or regulators. In that case, he said, car manufacturers are going electric and so drivers will follow suit, in what he called a “business-led transition into electrification.”

Some advocates suggested that the state government should do more to accelerate these transitions and to attract manufacturing.

“What we’re seeing nationwide is that the states that set the conditions to really support the adoption of electric transportation, and that are aggressively working as a state but also with their investor-owned utilities to deploy charging infrastructure at scale, is where the market is strongest,” said Stan Cross of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, a nonprofit advocacy group.

Georgia is leading the Southeast in charging stations. It also ranks second in Southeast for EV per capita sales, but it lags behind other parts of the country.

Cross said that a climate plan that promotes electric vehicle adoption could ultimately boost Georgia’s economy. “Georgia has no skin in the oil game,” Cross said, so a hypothetical state policy to promote the transition to EVs would be as much about the state’s economy as about emissions. 

“It’s about stopping the hemorrhage of dollars leaving the state every time you pump gas and diesel,” he said. “Keep those dollars in the state by driving electric.”

In other words, for states that haven’t previously pushed EVs or renewable energy, a new case for climate policies is emerging that boils down to an old slogan: Buy local.

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