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| The leaves are getting crunchier and the pumpkins are getting spookier – but there’s still time to assemble your last-minute clean energy tech-themed costume before Friday’s trick-or-treating begins. In less spooky news, a new report by ReImagine Appalachia finds that manufacturing for the wind energy industry could create more than 70,000 jobs across Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia by 2045. These jobs would include production for new wind turbines as well as production to maintain the existing fleet; the report finds they would be split across existing manufacturing companies and new developments in the region. It’s another proof point of the extent to which investing in clean energy technologies built in the United States has far-reaching implications throughout the supply chain. In the battery supply chain, our work continues across the Southeast United States with our final event of the year in Atlanta, Georgia next week. Our team has learned a lot through our conversations with many of you on the ground in Charlotte, NC earlier this month and in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in September. Across the board, we’re hearing from companies and communities alike that they remain invested in building out the battery industry, despite some recent headwinds that have dealt a few blows to the industry. We’ve had discussions on the economic opportunity of investing in American-made components and materials to serve the battery industry, we’ve talked about some of the challenges to commercializing innovative technologies at scale, and we’ve started to consider what policy solutions might help unlock this industry in the next 6-12 months. After our discussion in Georgia next week, our team will begin synthesizing everything we’ve learned from leaders across the region and building toward a policy roadmap grounded in the recommendations developed by stakeholders throughout our roundtable events. I’m looking forward to engaging with all of you as we enter that next phase. Want to chat with our team? Book a meeting here. In the meantime, I hope everyone has a lovely Halloween (I hear putting a tariff on your kids’ candy is good for teaching economics) and I look forward to seeing many of you in Atlanta next week. From the hand of a 12-foot lawn skeleton, Stephanie |