JD Vance claims Biden’s focus on green energy hurts the ‘industrial heartland’ states central to November

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) criticized the Biden administration’s focus on green energy, arguing that this attention is coming at the cost of the United States’s “industrial heartland.”

The administration announced last week that it would place tariffs on $18 billion of imports from China in an effort to protect American workers and businesses. Vance, who has supported tariffs in the past, explained that he is opposed to these new tariffs partly because he sees the president shifting his policies ahead of the presidential election.

“There’s a second thing that’s important here,” Vance said. “Biden’s entire agenda, such that it exists, has been about protecting green energy jobs at the expense of the industrial heartland. If you are in Wisconsin, Michigan, or Pennsylvania, you are not empowered or enriched by Joe Biden’s green energy agenda, so him applying tariffs on the green agenda stuff, does it help steelmakers? Does it help natural gas workers? Does it help the heart of the American economy? The answer is no, which is another reason why Donald Trump would make a much better president.”

Vance stressed the need for the U.S. to become self-reliant on its manufacturing so as not to be dependent on other countries such as China. He added that this would take time to implement, as it would not be “rebuilt in four years.”

The Washington Examiner reached out to the White House for comment on Vance’s remarks.

The Ohio senator is rumored to be on Trump’s shortlist for vice presidential candidates and was asked about the possibility. Vance said that he does not care who Trump’s vice president is, but he underlined the importance of getting the former president back in the White House.

Vance, a strong ally of Trump’s, was one of several Republicans who visited Manhattan last week to support the former president in his hush money trail. The Ohio senator said he was showing his support for a friend and called Trump’s trial “a sham prosecution.”

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The tariffs in question will be raised on steel and aluminum from 0-7.5% to 25%, semiconductors from 25% to 50% by 2025, electric vehicles from 25% to 100%, batteries and critical minerals from 7.5% to 25%, solar panels from 25% to 50%, and medical products from 7.5% to 25% in 2026. 

These tariffs have also received criticism within the Democratic Party, as Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) described this announcement as “horrible news for American consumers and a major setback for clean energy.”