Provisions under consideration in the Build Better Back Act are essential to addressing climate change and strengthening the U.S. economy for all. All of the United States’ major economic competitors, and particularly China, are making significant and strategic investments in the production and deployment of clean and advanced vehicles and technologies.

If the United States fails to make commensurate strategic investments over the next decade as part of the Build Back Better plan, America’s manufacturing sector and its workers will fall even further behind in the most important global economic race of our time.

Clean Technology Manufacturing and Supply Chains

The Build Back Better Act includes robust funding to spur domestic clean technology manufacturing, which is critical to ensure that communities across America see the jobs and economic benefits from efforts to fight climate change. Specifically, it: 

• Expands and  provides $25 billion in funds for the 48C Advanced Manufacturing tax credit to spur domestic manufacturing of essential clean energy and vehicle technologies. A significant portion of these funds are set aside for communities that need it most, including those that have experienced deindustrialization and the decline of energy jobs. Not only would this investment support hundreds of thousands of jobs, a previous study found that every $1 billion issued annually through the 48C credit program could add $3.6 billion in GDP.
• The Build Back Better Act also enacts important new strategic manufacturing production tax credits to onshore, establish, and expand domestic manufacturing supply chains for critical clean technologies, like solar and wind components—a multi-billion dollar need.

Auto

The Build Back Better Act provides strong funding to strengthen the domestic automotive supply chains, protect workers and communities, and build the electric vehicle fleet of the future here. Specifically, the act:

• Provides $3 billion in credit subsidy funding to the ATVM loan program, enabling at least $20 billion in loans. Past ATVM funding has supported the building or expansion of major facilities that today support tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs and hundreds of thousands of jobs across the economy.
• For the first time, provides $3.5 billion for the important manufacturing conversion grants program, which is focused on reinvestment in existing manufacturing, particularly to retool facilities at risk of closure. 

Industrial

• The Build Back Better Act includes a $4 billion dollar program that will provide financial assistance to support commercial scale deployment of technologies to reduce emissions from ​​energy intensive industrial and manufacturing facilities, like aluminum smelters, steel mills, or cement plants.
• Together with programs like tax credit for carbon capture at industrial facilities and for industrial energy efficiency tax credits, these investments achieve significant job creation and retention as well as deep carbon emissions reductions from a sector that makes up over 20% of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States—30% if the electricity used by the facilities is included in their emissions.
• In addition to investments that support clean technology manufacturing expansion and retooling directly, the Build Back Better Act also expands and funds broader programs that provide the economic, technical, and workforce infrastructure and support to strengthen advanced manufacturing ecosystems and communities.  This includes funding for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership, expansion of Manufacturing USA, and to the Economic Development Administration for support of economic growth clusters and other relevant economic development measures.
• The bill enacts and provides $5 billion for the new Build Back Better Critical Manufacturing Supply Chain Resilience initiative at the Department of Commerce, and a manufacturing investment tax credit to address the critical gap domestic semiconductor production. 
  

Essential Labor and Domestic Content Provisions in Energy Deployment Tax Credits

The Build Back Better Act takes measures to ensure all clean energy deployment tax credits include labor and domestic content standards that support the retention and growth of domestic manufacturing and high-quality jobs. Specifically, the bill:

• Expands and updates the 30D (now 36C) consumer EV tax credit  with a phased-in domestic manufacturing requirement and an added bonus for vehicles built in facilities where workers have a collective bargaining agreement.
• Incentivizes clean energy deployment like solar, onshore and offshore wind, battery storage, direct air capture (DAC), carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), and transmission/grid development. These credits are coupled with high-road labor standards and domestic content requirements to ensure high-quality jobs and a robust domestic supply chain. The Build Back Better Act creates a new “bonus” tax credit for clean energy projects that utilize domestically produced iron and steel and manufactured goods, and makes the continued receipt of direct pay of the credits for these projects contingent on meeting these Buy America standards.