OPINION: Keep the lights on for Michigan electrical workers, save clean energy investments

Trump’s attacks on clean energy are setting Michigan back.

For more than 100 years, the members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers have worked hard to keep the US and its vast industries powered. Through our efforts, we’ve not only secured fairer wages and safer working conditions but also played a crucial role in the clean-energy transition. This transition has strengthened our economy and diversified our energy supply, but now, because of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, those gains are being reversed.

To put it simply, Trump and his allies are destroying local, good-paying jobs by gutting funding for Michigan’s clean-energy projects.

Now, throughout the state, layoff notices are piling up. At Michigan facilities owned by General Motors, Avencez, and Dana Incorporated, just to name a few, workers that once made everything from EVs to battery parts have been let go.

On top of that, many projects that were planned or underway before the passage of the Big Ugly Bill have since been cancelled or delayed. Cancelled projects include what would have been a major battery factory in Detroit, a solar-manufacturing facility in Lansing, and a battery-parts facility in Independence Township. Although it’s only a partial list, those three projects alone represent more than $300 million in lost investment and more than 1,250 lost permanent jobs. We have the Big Ugly Bill to thank for that.

Additionally, Trump has harmed our state’s economy in other ways with a slew of executive orders and chaotic policymaking. For starters, his administration froze clean-energy investments that Congress had previously approved. And when challenged on this, his administration had no contingency plan for how to restart the funding and send those resources where Congress had intended.

That funding could have poured directly into our communities, creating job opportunities and stability for workers and their families alike. But this administration seems unconcerned with how everyday people are doing. They’re more focused, it seems, on enriching the already rich and breaking their promise to uplift the blue-collar workers who supported Trump in droves last year. These workers, including many of our members, supported him solely for the promise of job security and strong, living wages. But a year later, that’s not the reality our members face.

To say this is disappointing is underselling it: Our members and their families deserve stability, not chaos and confusion. In total, we’ve seen over $56 billion of planned investments and nearly 5,000 jobs in Michigan disappear in front of our very eyes. In the midst of a global trade war, one would think America would invest in domestic manufacturing and the building trades. Instead, good jobs are being eliminated in favor of white-collar polluters who have never done a day’s worth of the physically demanding, skilled labor that we have done for decades. 

Investments in clean energy have also been few and far between since November 2024. Since then, the industry has been attacked by misinformation spread far and wide by this administration, causing potential investors to become skeptical or scared of the political and economic fallout of continuing to fund clean-energy projects. 

Investors’ caution is also leading to turned-off consumers of clean-energy products and energy sources. Even the demand for electric vehicles is weaker than expected, creating a trend with no end in sight. EV companies and battery manufacturers are shutting down or canceling new factories due to decreased demand and repeal of vital tax credits, shutting their doors to electrical workers in our state. 

The economy is only as strong as its workers. And if the Trump administration continues attacking projects that create good jobs for working-class people, our economy will be at a severe disadvantage. It’s clear that the domino effect is actively at play, and it’s even clearer that there is a broader economic concern leading well into the future. 

To save our collective futures, it’s time to re-start support for clean energy, rather than attacking job opportunities in this sector. The economic benefits of the transition to clean energy outweigh any political agenda. The Trump administration’s recent actions and future intentions set up electrical workers to fail and energy prices to increase, all while destroying America’s historic industrial power and the people who continue to energize our national economy. 

The only way to change the country’s direction is to create jobs and restore federal investments in clean energy and in tax credits that lower costs for consumers. Let’s keep the lights on for future generations.