President Joe Biden visited a wind turbine tower plant south of Pueblo on Wednesday as part of a two-day trip to Colorado. He used the stop in southern Colorado to promote his signature Inflation Reduction Act.
“We're investing in America, we're investing in Americans, and it's working,” Biden said. “Because of my commitment to a clean energy future made in America, clean energy companies started investing here, here in Colorado.”
The giant manufacturing facility is owned by CS Wind, a Korean company, which said that the climate, tax and health care law is helping with a $250 million expansion project at the Pueblo plant. The expansion is expected to add hundreds of jobs.
“As I've said for a long time, when I think climate, and I mean this sincerely, I think jobs,” Biden said during prepared remarks. “Jobs. That's what climate's about. Not only saving lives and saving the environment, but jobs.”
Biden points to CS Wind as an example of how the law is helping the economy in places like Pueblo that have long depended on manufacturing.
He said the law is “the most significant investment combating existential threat of climate change ever anywhere in the world. It does many things including providing incentives to make wind towers in America and bonuses for clean energy projects that use those American-made wind towers to power American homes.”
Pueblo–and the plant–is located in the congressional district represented by Lauren Boebert, who along with other Republicans, has been critical of the act and has tried to repeal it.
Boebert hails from Colorado’s Western Slope, where oil and gas producers have historically been a key part of the economy and job creation. She said earlier this week that Biden’s efforts are harming working-class people.
Biden narrowly won Pueblo in 2020. The city has been a solid Democratic voting area for decades but has begun to swing more conservative in recent years.
The president made the sign of the cross as he noted that the wind tower plant was in Boebert’s district. He also reminded those in attendance–including CS Wind executives and staff, Pueblo officials and others–about her statement that the Inflation Reduction Act was a “massive failure.”
He also highlighted other clean energy projects in Colorado, like the Arkansas River Conduit and the investment of solar company Meyer Burger in Colorado Springs, and said, “Folks, none of that sounds like a massive failure to me. How about you? I mean, it's crazy. This is an incredible opportunity. I've gone around the plant today, to those I got to talk to - you're changing America. You're changing America.”
Sen. John Hickenlooper, Gov. Jared Polis, and Pueblo Mayor Nick Gradisar also addressed the audience prior to the president’s speech.
