{"id":80774,"date":"2025-02-26T17:07:52","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T22:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=80774"},"modified":"2025-02-26T17:07:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T22:07:52","slug":"as-trump-backs-off-of-clean-jobs-eu-sees-an-opening-with-e100b-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=80774","title":{"rendered":"As Trump backs off on manufacturing, EU sees an opening with \u20ac100B funding"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"img-border featured-image\">\n\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"1400\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/03\/2035-EU-ban-Commision.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1400\" class=\"skip-lazy wp-post-image\" alt=\"EU tariffs\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/electrek.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/03\/2035-EU-ban-Commision.jpg?w=320&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/electrek.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/03\/2035-EU-ban-Commision.jpg?w=640&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/electrek.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/03\/2035-EU-ban-Commision.jpg?w=1024&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/electrek.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/03\/2035-EU-ban-Commision.jpg?w=1500&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1500w\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>Europe will give \u20ac100 billion in short-term relief to clean-tech manufacturing in order to compete with China, as it unveiled today in its Clean Industrial Deal. The money comes at the same time as the US is actively seeking to harm its manufacturing sector and send jobs to China.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-403400\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The<a href=\"https:\/\/commission.europa.eu\/topics\/eu-competitiveness\/clean-industrial-deal_en\"> EU\u2019s Clean Industrial Deal<\/a> is a new plan focused on advancing clean manufacturing and increasing efficiency for energy-intensive industries.<\/p>\n<p>The European Commission advanced the deal today with the hope of easing Europe\u2019s current energy difficulties and making its manufacturing sector more competitive with China\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>The \u20ac100 billion (~$105 billion USD) from the plan will support several initiatives to improve Europe\u2019s manufacturing and clean energy competitiveness, including acceleration of clean energy and electrification, energy efficiency measures, recycling and raw materials access, and education for clean jobs.<\/p>\n<p>\t<span class=\"outbrain-ad-label\">Advertisement &#8211; scroll for more content<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The hope is that this money, which will be drawn from several sources including existing funds and from member states, will spark additional private sector investment in the amounts of several additional hundreds of billions of Euros through the next decade.<\/p>\n<p>Europe intends to implement a number of reforms to help act on this plan, including cutting red tape, using its scale as a single market in order to better negotiate for raw materials, and bolstering coordination between EU member states to promote quality green jobs. It says the deal will create 500,000 new jobs in Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, the EU expects the plan to save \u20ac130 billion annually on energy costs by 2030, largely by boosting domestic supply of clean energy.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-european-energy-concerns-drive-this-deal\">European energy concerns drive this deal<\/h2>\n<p>These moves are important right now for Europe, as the bloc has experienced significant energy difficulties in recent years. Europe has long been reliant on supplies of methane gas from Russia, despite decades of urging from environmentalists <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euractiv.com\/section\/energy\/news\/tusk-warns-merkel-against-russian-gas-addiction\/\">and others<\/a>. Russia has exploited this reliance to push Europe into accepting various misdeeds over the years, including <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Annexation_of_Crimea_by_the_Russian_Federation\">stealing Crimea<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_17\">shooting down a passenger plane<\/a>, knowing that Europe\u2019s addiction to its oil products leaves it in a compromised position.<\/p>\n<p>All of this came to a head during Russia\u2019s (second current) <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine\">invasion of Ukraine in 2022<\/a>, where Europe finally woke up and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bruegel.org\/dataset\/european-natural-gas-imports\"> acted to reduce<\/a> imports of Russian gas. However, since the bloc had not properly readied itself for this moment by building up its own domestic supply, this led energy prices to skyrocket in the short term, and today they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/1267500\/eu-monthly-wholesale-electricity-price-country\/\">remain higher<\/a> than they were before the crisis started (though it turns out, cutting off Russian gas <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transportenvironment.org\/articles\/lessons-from-the-without-russian-gas-miracle\">wasn\u2019t as apocalyptic<\/a> as some had thought it would be).<\/p>\n<p>This, along with global inflation experienced by every country due to the COVID epidemic, has fueled popular resentment and social unrest in Europe \u2013\u00a0even counterintuitively leading some voters (and one <a href=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/2025\/01\/16\/tesla-boycott-is-gaining-momentum-in-germany-due-to-elon-musks-meddling-in-politics\/\">EV company CEO<\/a>) to support anti-climate, pro-Russian extremist parties.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-but-so-does-looming-chinese-dominance-in-clean-tech\">But so does looming Chinese dominance in clean tech<\/h2>\n<p>It also comes in the context of a steep rise in Chinese clean-tech exports, particularly in the realm of electric vehicles. China recently became the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/02\/02\/cars\/japan-china-top-car-exporter-data-intl-hnk\/index.html\">world\u2019s largest exporter of automobiles<\/a>, an industry which has long been a cornerstone of Europe\u2019s industrial base.<\/p>\n<p>In response to this, and to increasing sales of Chinese EVs in Europe, the bloc <a href=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/2024\/10\/04\/europe-pushes-ahead-with-china-ev-tariffs-despite-germanys-objection\/\">recently implemented import tariffs on Chinese EVs<\/a>, in an attempt to buy local industry time to transition.<\/p>\n<p>But whether European industry will actually take that time to make the right choices, or whether it will continue to <a href=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/2025\/02\/26\/another-luxury-automaker-cuts-jobs-after-failing-to-keep-up-with-evs\/\">delay<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/2024\/12\/18\/stellantis-delays-its-first-bev-pickup-to-push-ahead-its-range-extended-ramcharger\/\">EV<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/2024\/02\/22\/mercedes-backtracks-ev-plans-gas-cars-2030s\/\">manufacturing<\/a> and therefore lose the lead even further, remains a question. This is one of the reasons why <a href=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/2024\/05\/12\/tariffs-on-china-arent-the-way-to-win-the-ev-arms-race-taking-evs-seriously-is\/#h-china-is-the-new-japan\">there are better solutions than tariffs<\/a> \u2013\u00a0like investment, which incidentally, the Clean Industrial Deal announced today provides.<\/p>\n<p>And so, the Clean Industrial Deal is an important moment. It signals an additional commitment by Europe not just to try to compete with China \u2013\u00a0by <em>actually investing<\/em> in doing well, instead of just trying to put up barriers and sit on its laurels \u2013\u00a0but to acknowledge that the future needs to be clean and that the bloc is currently not doing enough to ensure that it is.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-us-made-a-similar-deal-under-president-biden\">The US made a similar deal under President Biden<\/h2>\n<p>The United States undertook a similar effort under President Biden via the <a href=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/2022\/08\/07\/senate-improves-ev-tax-credit-in-largest-climate-bill-ever\/\">Inflation Reduction Act<\/a> (IRA), which dedicated nearly $400 billion in funding for climate and energy-related programs, with a focus on bringing back American manufacturing of advanced products.<\/p>\n<p>The IRA, along with Biden\u2019s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), were incredibly effective at bringing more manufacturing investment and green jobs to the US. In total, companies announced $211B of investment and 227K jobs in EV manufacturing alone since the IRA and BIL were passed. And the net effect of the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s clean investments resulted in a savings of <a href=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/2024\/09\/12\/biden-harris-epa-rules-save-253b-yr-202k-lives-project-2025-seeks-rollback\/\">$250B and 200k lives <em>per year<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-but-republicans-are-trying-to-ruin-it\">\u2026But republicans are trying to ruin it<\/h2>\n<p>\u2026Or at least, those investments would have helped. <a href=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/2025\/01\/22\/elon-musk-is-not-good-for-america-or-the-world-according-to-himself\/\">Unfortunately for America and the world<\/a>, the current occupier of the White House is convicted felon Donald Trump, who finally received more votes than his opponent on his third attempt (despite committing treason in 2021, for which there is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/constitution.congress.gov\/browse\/amendment-14\/section-3\/\">a clear legal remedy<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Trump campaigned on <a href=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/2024\/07\/15\/just-after-his-huge-stock-grant-elon-musk-commits-45mil-mo-to-harm-evs\/\">ending support for US EV manufacturing<\/a>, and his party has <a href=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/2024\/05\/05\/republicans-introduce-bill-that-would-hand-us-ev-lead-to-china\/\">previously passed bills to this effect<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>While he has only occupied the White House for a little more than a month now, Mr. Trump has already signaled several attempts to give back the environmental, efficiency and manufacturing gains seen under President Biden.<\/p>\n<p>For example, the Department of Transportation <a href=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/2025\/01\/29\/new-dot-sec-reality-tv-contestant-signs-memo-to-increase-us-fuel-costs-by-23b\/\">signed a memo to increase your fuel costs by $23 billion<\/a>, the EPA wants to <a href=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/2024\/11\/12\/trump-epa-pick-says-hell-protect-clean-air-by-making-the-air-dirtier\/\">clean the air by making it more dirty<\/a>, and, perhaps surprisingly to some, Mr. Trump is working to <a href=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/2025\/02\/14\/big-oil-is-mad-the-candidate-it-bought-is-raising-its-costs-with-tariffs\/\">increase costs of domestic energy production <em>even for the oil industry<\/em><\/a> via unwise tariffs \u2013\u00a0on top of the <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/regulation\/court-battles\/5163543-trump-federal-aid-freeze-blocked\/\">illegal<\/a> funding freezes for <a href=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/2025\/02\/06\/trump-just-canceled-the-federal-nevi-ev-charger-program\/\">EV programs<\/a> and others. There is even an effort to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/cuts-made-department-education-billion-dollars-cuts-savings-jobs-2029795\">harm American education<\/a>, which will also reduce long-term competitiveness of America\u2019s labor market (in contrast to the European plan, which boosts investment in education).<\/p>\n<p>The effect of all this hostility towards manufacturing and energy progress is that companies\u00a0have <a href=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/2025\/02\/14\/republican-districts-lose-billions-as-clean-energy-cancellations-surge\/\">canceled billions of dollars in plans<\/a> to build new manufacturing hubs in the US, seeking greener pastures. These cancellations have disproportionately hit republican districts harder than the rest.<\/p>\n<p>But perhaps it shouldn\u2019t be a surprise that an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/30\/opinion\/trump-executive-orders.html\">ignoramus<\/a> who has famously <a href=\"https:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2016\/03\/08\/news\/economy\/donald-trump-trade\/index.html\">sent manufacturing jobs to China in his own businesses<\/a> is actively seeking to cut education and manufacturing investment here in America. All of this can only result in the US becoming less competitive in manufacturing in the long term \u2013\u00a0especially in the face of greater commitments from the rest of the globe in leaning up their act.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-and-europe-sees-an-opening\">And Europe sees an opening<\/h2>\n<p>But that\u2019s not just us saying this: Europe itself recognizes the US\u2019 backwards move, and sees it as an opening. With the US floundering on manufacturing, Europe knows that it has a chance to gain prominence now that one of its global competitors seems ready to take itself out of the game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that the US is now moving away from the green agenda\u2026 does not mean that we would do the same. The opposite. It means that we need to step forward,\u201d EU energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen said today,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/eu-launches-clean-industrial-deal-to-overhaul-energy-sector\/a-71750700\"> as quoted by DW<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And, after a hotly contested German election this week, the leader of the winning CDU said Europe should <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/02\/23\/europe\/german-election-results-cdu-afd-intl\/index.html\">\u201cachieve independence\u201d from the United States<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>China, too, is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/politics\/politics-features\/china-take-advantage-trump-trashing-clean-energy-1235224713\/\">ready to take advantage<\/a> of the US\u2019 missteps. It\u2019s looking to <a href=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/2024\/10\/30\/china-tells-automakers-to-pause-investment-in-tariff-supporting-countries\/\">throw its weight around<\/a> against countries (including those in Europe) who would erect trade barriers to EV growth, and shows no sign of relenting on EV development. And since no serious person thinks the future of the auto industry is anything but electric, or that energy won\u2019t become more renewable as time goes on, those who stall on the way there will only be left in the dust of those who carry on.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n<p><em>Even if your government doesn\u2019t feel like supporting the future, you can do it yourself by installing home solar. EnergySage is a free service that connects you with trusted, reputable installers in your area \u2013 without having to give up your phone number until you select an installer. Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you\u2019ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way through EnergySage. <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dpbolvw.net\/click-101268381-15908683\"><em>Get started today!<\/em><\/a><em> \u2013 ad*<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-disclaimer-container\" readability=\"6.3518518518519\">\n<p class=\"disclaimer-affiliate\"><em>FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/about\/#affiliate\">More.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/4gRpdqU\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-403139\" src=\"https:\/\/electrek.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/9th-Raffle-Banner-750-150.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"205\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Europe will give \u20ac100 billion in short-term relief to clean-tech manufacturing in order to compete with China, as it unveiled today in its Clean Industrial Deal. The money comes at the same time as the US is actively seeking to harm its manufacturing sector and send jobs to China. The EU\u2019s Clean Industrial Deal is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-cars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}