On Friday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg held a press conference in Kokomo, Indiana.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for joining us today.
00:10My name is Yoon Jae Kim, CEO of Starbucks Energy.
00:14I would like to welcome all of you to Ivy Tech Community College.
00:21They have been an incredible partner on our journey,
00:26and we are thankful for their support.
00:29After months of hard work, innovation, and collaboration,
00:35we are almost ready for the start of production.
00:39I am very confident that Starbucks Energy will create a successful story
00:45here in Pocomon, Indiana.
00:49I want to express my deepest gratitude,
00:53on behalf of Starbucks Energy,
00:55for the real-disk, effort-friendly policy.
00:59Pocomon's continuous support
01:01and the effort made to coordinate with construction partners.
01:07Now, I would like to introduce a member of our construction partner,
01:14Houston Electric, John Collins-Wolfe.
01:18Please give him a big hand.
01:24Hello, everyone.
01:28Thanks for being here today.
01:30My name is John Collins-Wolfe.
01:32I was born and raised in Howard County, Indiana.
01:35I've been a proud member of the IBW Local 873 for over 20 years.
01:41I'm the superintendent for Houston Electric at the Pocomon Battery Plant,
01:46where I've worked on this project for over 17 months.
01:51The Pocomon Battery Plant has been a tremendous opportunity
01:54for our local contractors,
01:56allowing us to double the size of our membership for the IBW Local 873.
02:04For me, being part of the union is more than a job.
02:06It's a career that has allowed me to build a better life for my family.
02:12My brothers and sisters in union labor know,
02:15when unions succeed, America succeeds.
02:21With the projects happening here at Pocomon and around the country,
02:24there's a lot of success ahead.
02:28I'd now like to introduce the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg.
02:40First of all, thank you, John.
02:43We are so thankful to all of the workers who are part of this.
02:48We're excited about what this moment means for the good-paying jobs,
02:52the good-paying union jobs in the building trades,
02:55building these facilities,
02:56and then the good-paying union jobs working in these facilities.
03:00I bring greetings from President Biden and Vice President Harris,
03:03who very much view this as a moment for creating those kinds of jobs.
03:08This is exactly what we're seeing at the facility.
03:11We just tour really around the whole region.
03:14I want to thank Dr. Heiker for hosting us and the whole ID Tech Pocomoke team.
03:20It's extraordinary to see how this institution has adapted so quickly
03:26with all of the needs that are coming their way
03:28and how you're preparing generations of workers to succeed in this manufacturing renaissance.
03:34And a big thank you to you, J. Kim,
03:37and the entire leadership of Star Plus, of Samsung, and of Stellantis,
03:41not just for today's excellent visit,
03:43but for investing in America because that's what this is all about.
03:46So thank you very much.
03:50This is a real full-circle moment for me.
03:52I've been looking forward to this one for quite a while
03:55because I am myself a product of the industrial Midwest,
03:59and more specifically, out of northern Indiana.
04:02And I grew up in a city that was covered with acreage of factories
04:08that had a crown past building student acres,
04:12but a troubled present because by the time I was born,
04:16those factories had already gone quiet for more than 20 years.
04:19Even 20 years after that, when I was born, or 50 years after that,
04:24when I began to serve as mayor of my hometown,
04:27we felt the impact, both in terms of the prosperity that those jobs had once brought
04:32and the pain that had come with their loss
04:36when America was not able to support that particular firm that's hanging back.
04:42Which meant that also, as a young person growing up,
04:45every time I came down from US 31 to Indianapolis
04:49for a school trip to the museum or a music competition or whatever it was,
04:55had a sense of what it meant that there was a very dynamic manufacturing presence here in Kota.
05:02Those two facilities, ITP and ITP2, on either side of the road with jobs
05:08that those represented, powering the entire middle class and working class of this whole region.
05:14And I got into politics and public life in a fight over the future of that industry,
05:21working to make sure that the rescue of Chrysler that kept those factories up
05:26and kept those families in business,
05:29that that was supported and that had a chance to deliver the future that,
05:34I think then we couldn't have guessed in our wildest dreams, would bring us to a moment like this.
05:38I remember when I was first making friends in Howard County and knocking on doors around Kokomo,
05:43the unemployment rate approaching 19%.
05:46And we knew that it could hit 40 if these companies were allowed to go out of business,
05:51as many were proclaiming on off-ed pages, America ought to do.
05:55But instead, something different.
05:57It's just the Kokomo Electric plant, formerly the, or the engine plant, formerly the ITP2.
06:04Last time I was in that building, it was to be a member of the audience
06:07as President Obama and Vice President Biden came to celebrate the turnaround that had come back then.
06:14So it is thrilling, and I think a little bit poetic,
06:17for me to have the privilege of being here now on behalf of President Biden and Vice President Harris
06:23and this administration to celebrate the extraordinary work that's going on,
06:27the innovation, the job creation, the growth, and the opportunity that is at hand.
06:35You know, there's been a lot of talk that came to this region and regions like it over the years,
06:41but nobody in my lifetime has followed through from Washington the way that this administration has.
06:47And the focus on American manufacturing, American-made products, and American workers
06:53has characterized this administration and delivered big results.
06:56Under President Biden and Vice President Harris, the U.S. has created nearly 800,000 manufacturing jobs,
07:03which is, especially under the previous administration,
07:08we lost manufacturing jobs and experienced a manufacturing recession.
07:12But what I've seen here is not just the volume of manufacturing,
07:16but the quality of it, the sophistication and the advancement,
07:20which is part of why the skills of our U.P. workers and the skills being cultivated
07:25at an institution like IU Tech in partnership with our schools is so important.
07:31And it's great to see the jobs that are being created,
07:34even before that facility is fully up and running,
07:37with the good building trades jobs that are going to get that ready.
07:42Those jobs, and then of course the jobs that will be created at the facility itself,
07:47aren't just making magnets.
07:49They are making livelihoods.
07:52They represent presence under the tree.
07:54They represent education for kids.
07:57They represent cars and trucks and driving.
07:59There are so many families in this area.
08:02And of course it's especially exciting to see how Solantis and Samsung
08:06have partnered up right here in Howard County, Anaconda.
08:10This is a unique facility and extraordinary thing,
08:13but there are opportunities and good news announcements like this happening all across the country.
08:20And part of that, we believe, is driven by our once-in-a-generation infrastructure improvements,
08:25our insistence that companies receiving American taxpayer dollars use products
08:31and make products here in America.
08:33Our multi-billion dollar investments in the manufacturing of the future.
08:37Companies are seeing this, and as they prepare for that unique future,
08:42they understand that the best way to capitalize on that future is to invest right here in America.
08:48So far we've counted 400 new or expanded facilities.
08:52Since the start of this administration.
08:54Processing materials, manufacturing batteries, and assembling EVs.
08:58And those facilities alone are projected to create about 140,000 jobs.
09:03And just last month, we announced over a billion dollars in awards
09:07that will support 11 factories across 8 states going through transition,
09:12including the other ITP here in Oklahoma,
09:14that's going to see new life and energy joining Benjamin V. Howard.
09:19I'm also proud of how the workers and the companies investing here
09:23have broken the old false choice between doing the right thing for climate and creating jobs.
09:30This is what climate jobs look like.
09:33They are so-called green-collar jobs.
09:35I think they're good old-fashioned blue-collar jobs.
09:37But however you want to characterize them, they are the jobs of the future.
09:42I also do want to make a point of lifting up the bipartisan group of governors,
09:47including Governor Hope, who have expressed their recognition
09:51about something that's already very clear and obvious to workers and communities here,
09:55which is that in the long run, electric vehicles are going to be remembered
10:00not as some front in an invented culture war between red and blue America,
10:07but as a front in a very real global competition
10:10between the U.S. and countries like China for the future of manufacturing.
10:16Building EVs and the components that go into them is one of the best ways
10:19we can secure these good-paying careers on American soil.
10:23And I know that the workers and the students here take pride in knowing
10:27that they are helping America win that global competition.
10:32Where China tried to gain a competitive edge in the EV market,
10:36we are working to ensure that America leads in building that electric vehicle future.
10:41And we're working in ways to make sure the Midwest is a center.
10:46I got tired long ago of articles that characterized our part of the country as the rust belt.
10:51Right now, we see the beginnings of a battery belt with more growth to come
10:56for the balance of this decade and beyond.
10:58And again, we're supporting this not just directly with industrial policy,
11:02but with infrastructure policy to make sure that the supply chains work,
11:06whether it's the roads and bridges we're fixing, the railroads we're investigating,
11:10or ports, which includes not just vehicle-receiving ports on the East Coast
11:15or container-shipping ports on the West Coast, but places I was in earlier this week
11:20in the upper peninsula of Michigan, the denominator, Manitowoc, Milwaukee,
11:24and Wisconsin, where they are making the supply chain stronger across the Midwest
11:28and supporting our manufacturing economy.
11:32And this, of course, is a bigger picture.
11:34Part of the bigger picture is the administration is working across our economy
11:38to lower costs as well as create jobs.
11:41So I couldn't be more excited about the moment that we're in,
11:44the turnaround that a place like Howard County, Indiana, has seen,
11:48the future that is in front of us, and the innovation yet to come.
11:52Because we are still very early in the days of the electric vehicle industry
11:57that will dominate the automotive sector through the balance of this center.
12:02And yet, we've already seen so much change.
12:06The biggest change to come to the automotive sector, really,
12:10since Elwood Haynes had his vehicle up on the Pumpkin Vine bike here,
12:14I know that Haynes had it for just a few weeks.
12:17I wonder what they'll be thinking when we are 130 years from now.
12:22But we're not going to have to wait that long to see the transformation
12:25in prosperity as well as technology that is marked by this moment.
12:30So I want to congratulate and thank everyone who was part of this moment
12:34because this is what America's manufacturing comeback looks like.
12:38Thanks for the chance to be here, and let's celebrate.
12:41Applause