Secretary Yellen delivers remarks on the Inflation Reduction Act’s impact in North Carolina.

e e e e e e e e e Wake Tech East this campus which is entirely heated and cooled by 297 geothermal Wells solar fto volic on all of our buildings which reduce our electrical cost by 15% and you know it's not just our sustainability features and our facilities Wake Tech is a leader in programs to embed Energy Efficiency skills into all of our technical programs that started back uh as a system back uh going back almost 15 years ago with an initiative we had called code green across the state that was led by Wake Tech secretary Ellen and Governor Cooper were're able to see how that's transpired today in the many programs that we have at Wake Tech so we're honored and excited for everyone to be here today and particularly thank you us secretary treasurer of Yellen for being with us today and for for bringing us all together here at Wake Tech thank you please welcome to the stage Congressman Wy all right good morning it is great to to be with everyone here today at Wake Tech uh I'm Congressman Wy nickel proud to represent North Carolina's 13th District uh and it's an honor to welcome you all to our great state today uh I serve on the house Financial Services committee where uh we get to hear from secretary Yellen uh a few times a year uh secretary Yellen thank you so much for coming here today our 78th Secretary of the Treasury a former Fed chair always an economist uh really some someone who has uh been a real leader in the the Biden Harris Administration also known for finding the best local hole in the wall spots for food so uh I've got some great eastern North Carolina Barbecue for you if you're looking uh you are in eastern North Carolina so you definitely want eastern North Carolina Barbecue um you know but on the the house Financial Services committee it's uh it's one of the Committees that is I'd say a little less of a food fight committee uh in terms of the work we do uh you know we we cover you know housing banking Wall Street and uh but secretary Yen does come and and it's always you know a newsworthy event uh and and for me it's it's always interesting watching these cabinet secretaries come before our committee because they get to um they get just some crazy questions from my my Republican colleague so you never know what they're going to say uh but I can say that when I had my last five minutes I have just five minutes and we got through fsock custodial banking for digital assets Russian oil sanctions and civil nuclear exports so that was that was the last time I got to see you um but we're here today to celebrate the success of the inflation reduction act the IRA which has already given millions of Working Families more Breathing Room in their budget every month once again the Biden Harris Administration is delivering for North Carolina here in North Carolina far too many of my constituents are facing an uphill battle when it comes to their finances yes our region is growing quickly but for the folks who've lived here for decades and those who've chosen North Carolina as their home to retire that growth means an increasing cost of living especially when inflation hits hard for those on fixed incomes that's why the inflation reduction Act is so important our community is truly starting to feel the impact of this important once in a generation legislation the IRA Investments are lowering costs reducing our energy bills and making every Necessities more affordable over 3.5 billion has already been awarded to North Carolina through the IRA and the bipartisan infrastructure law enacted in 2021 so far we have secured 1.4 billion for Road Rail and Transit improvements 800 million for electrification 500 million for renewable energy and pollution reduction and 100 million for Workforce Development something we got to see on display here uh today and that's just the beginning with many grants still to be be awarded the benefits will only grow from here for North Carolina I want to take a special moment again to thank secretary yelen for her partnership and willing to collaborate on key issues impacting North Carolinians um you know one of the things too that I think is important to point out we the Congress gives the the cabinet secretaries a ton of power and discretion over over the legislation that we enact um and we worked very hard with Governor Cooper uh and treasury on uh implementing the IRA tons of meetings with pest uh on the uh energy Adder uh portion of of that uh and want to thank treasury for issuing additional guidance on the energy communities provision of the IRA which provides a bonus on the investment tax credit for renewable energy projects in areas impacted by Unemployment uh from the closure of fossil fuel sites this is an area where we spent months with treasury to get it right and it is because of the guidance that that your agency offered we are providing more green jobs for North Carolina again secretary Yellen today 90,000 families in North Carolina have claimed over a 100 million in residential clean energy credits and over 60 million in Energy Efficiency credits that is a big deal for North Carolina these tax credits cover 30% of the cost of community clean energy projects with additional bonuses of 20% for affordable housing properties and 10% for our lowest income communities from installing solar panels and battery storage systems to purchasing El electric vehicles and Chargers reducing energy leakage through Home Improvements and upgrading heating and cooling systems North carolans are benefiting from lower costs while investing in clean energy and protecting our environment I'm especially grateful to secretary Yellen and her team for the adjustments made to ensure that North Carolina wasn't Left Behind uh with these vital tax incentives these credits will create jobs for Working Families across our state and help protect the planet for future Generations this is a huge win for North Carolina and for communities across the country yet another example of the Biden Harris Administration delivering for North Carolina Working Families I'm grateful for your partnership and to be able to celebrate this special occasion with you today thank you again secretary Yellen now I'd like to turn it over to congresswoman Deborah Ross please welcome to congresswoman debah Ross well thank you Congressman nickel we have been great partners for Wake County and it is always a good day to be with Wake Tech I just love um I've been to all of your campuses this brand new campus is a game changer for Eastern Wake County I also want to recognize that mayor York from zebulun is here um and I've been hearing about this campus for let's just say years and to be here and to see how amazing it is under the leadership of Dr rolls is just really warms my heart so welcome secretary Yellen you get to see this Brands banking new campus it's an honor to welcome you to Wake County the last time I was with you in North Carolina we were in Orange County with Congressman price and um we are just celebrating the incredible success of the historic inflation reduction act when Congress passed this leg legislation we voted to make transformational investments in our nation's future and we are seeing that on the ground I worked hard on this bill because I recognized the urgency of both combating the climate crisis and reducing the high cost of living for hardworking people we know that climate change is real and I'm so glad that Wake Tech has a sustainable campus that recognizes that we also know that its effects are real from scorching heat waves which we even had last week to destructive hurricanes North Carolinians understand the disastrous consequences of rising global temperatures for our state and our country and that's why the inflation reduction Act is so important clean energy technology is a powerful tool for combating this crisis while also creating good paying jobs I know this because of North Carolina's leadership in this area almost two decades ago and of course Governor Cooper knows about this too first state in the Southeast to have a renewable energy portfolio standard creating jobs during the last recession I worked on this as a state legislator and as an attorney so through the IRA we have an opportunity to do even more to harden a solar electric and offshore wind energy to power homes reduce costs and pave the way for sustainable future last year alone 3.4 million Americans benefited from $8.4 billion in clean energy tax credits which lowered the cost of energy and Energy Efficiency up upgrades in homes across the country I particularly like Energy Efficiency because it saves money and means we don't have to depend on more fossil fuels in addition thanks to funding from the inflation reduction act the Biden Harris administration's solar forall initiative is investing millions in federal of federal dollars to lower energy costs for lowincome families and disadvantaged communities which frequent do not get to benefit from clean energy programs these critical initiatives ensure that no one is Left Behind in the transition to renewable energy these are momentous steps forward but to fulfill the promise of this once in a-lifetime legislation we need to train our workers for the clean energy jobs of tomorrow that's where weight Tech comes in we need to equip our young people with skills to help build the clean energy econ economy of the future and thankfully weight Tech has been at the Forefront of this transition the exceptionally talented students and faculty at this institution are playing an integral role in growing North Carolina's clean energy sector and helping our state to become a global leader in advanced manufacturing Wake Tech is leading the way with electric vehicle technician training that will help our Workforce meet the growing demand for electric vehicle infrastructure I was proud to secure Federal funding for this Innovative program at Wake Tech North and I will continue to partner with you going forward the skills being taught here at Wake Tech will power our economy for generations to come and I am confident that today will only be the first of many celebrations North Carolinians continue to lead as North Carolinians continue to lead the na in clean energy technology with help from this important inflation reduction act thank you again to my fellow Brown University Alum secretary Yellen for visiting Wake County today and I know where the voice of God will tell you that our amazing Governor will take the stage next please welcome to the stage Governor Roy Cooper he didn't say amazing uh good afternoon everybody thank you for being here uh we have great leaders in Congress in Wy nickel and Deborah Ross thank you for your leadership grateful to have uh from my staff Caroline Sullivan who heads up our North Carolina business committee for education and Lee Lily who is heading up our pandemic recovery and economic development uh grateful for local elected officials members of the Wake Tech board uh president RS uh we are so excited to have the best community college system in the country I'll stack it up against anybody and we have the president of that system with us here today Jeff Cox as as well um North Carolina is leading the nation in Innovative Workforce Solutions all you have to do do is talk to some of the students on this campus uh they they will tell you about the lifechanging courses that they are getting and certificates that they are earning to be able to make a living for themselves and their families uh a number of them are changing careers and using this institution and I'm grateful for that and I also want to thank the The Faculty here at Wake Tech and really all of our community colleges across North Carolina most most of them could be doing something in the private sector for more money yet they make the sacrifice to be teachers and making sure that they uh transfer their knowledge to people so that they can learn we've got employees of Wake Tech and faculty all you guys please stand up and let's give them a big hand our community colleges really are at the Forefront of creating a great Workforce here and it is the main reason why for The Last 5 Years North Carolina has ranked in the top three states in the country for business two of those years we were number one we would have been number one this year if they hadn't changed the criteria and moved at Workforce down a notch and put infrastructure above Workforce they just didn't want us to win it three years a row let me just tell you that um you know North Carolina has become the epicenter for clean energy several reasons number one we have targeted this this industry we want clean energy to come to North Carolina the reason I have on a green tie is a the fight against climate change but B Money uh the reason we've been able to form a bipartisan Coalition of people to go after clean energy jobs is even some people who don't believe in the fight against climate change know that this is where the private sector is going this is where the jobs are coming let's have North Carolina at the Forefront of this and we are so grateful for the Biden Harris Administration and the generational Investments that have been made to allow us to recruit these companies and to help us get here and I our special guest today I'm going to talk about her in just one minute as I introduced her about how that has made such a fundamental difference um I think you've seen the Workforce Solutions on full display today uh Wake Tech launched the country's first EV charging Technician class uh through partnership with my office and I'm grateful for that we got the Seamans Foundation to also help to contribute to that first in the country we're excited about that um when we have a clean energy Workforce they will come and you just saw in just in the last few months a thousand jobs in rural Edgecomb C County producing sodium ion batteries 500 jobs in rural Brunswick County uh making battery components 550 jobs with Seamans to improve the electric grid and of course we have Toyota's largest battery battery manufacturing plant in the world here in in North Carolina and those kinds of companies Seamans Toyota Honda aircraft they could go anywhere in the world that they want but they have chosen North Carolina it's because of the kind of people that we have and the kind of Workforce that we bring so I'm I'm really delighted today to to introduce to you the Secretary of the Treasury number one I see this juice box back here uh we got in a Juiced up M Mustang EV Mustang and uh she can drive it she can drive it both of us were unfamiliar with the control panels and serving as the co-pilot at least I found the park button at the end of the day so we made sure we didn't run into the Press Corp which which I think played a critical role in in our success today so I want to I want to thank you for that but she obviously has been in Academia she has been an economist she's also been the kind of person who understands government and the need for flexibility and I think our both our members of Congress mentioned this but I'll just give you one example of of how she has helped us we've wanted in North Carolina for decades we know how important it is when when the internet started we understood and the pandemic made it more apparent than ever that we have to have I high-speed internet all over our state for educational purposes for medicine for job opportunities for small businesses we had to do it so we started an Innovative grant program that was a public private partnership that we were putting tens of millions of State dollars toward it when the a the Biden Harris Administration came in and invested in the American Rescue plan and bipartisan infrastructure our system didn't quite fit the rules and we were either going to be able to continue to use our system and get this money out there because we moved from tens of millions to billions so that we can actually hook up every house and business in North Carolina to high-speed internet which is an amazing thing or we would have to start all over again secretary Yellen helped us with the rules to make sure that we could use the same program that we had been using which makes a real difference in getting high-speed internet to people faster she is the first person in history to lead the White House Council on economic advisors the Federal Reserve and the treasury Department I'll introduce to you our Secretary of the Treasury Janet y thank you so much for your kind words um Governor Cooper and it's been a real pleasure to collect collaborate with you and um to try to get the best possible results for North Carolina I'm so glad to be here today at Wake Tech with Governor Cooper Congressman Ross and congresswoman Ross and Congressman nichel North Carolina community colleges led the way that's more than a decade ago when they overhauled their curricula to equip students pursuing technical education with skills in Clean Energy Technologies and more recently Wake Tech has continued to lead by using federal funds to launch new training for jobs in the electric vehicle industry and an advanced building Technologies and weight Tech is also moving forward to take advantage of one of the inflation reduction acts most significant reforms it's called Direct pay and it allows tax exempt entities like colleges and universities to benefit directly from the Ira's clean energy tax credits wi Tech has informed us that it plans to claim credits for its major construction projects including EV charging stations and the central energy plant which so impressive we just toured it which is claim for its use of thermal and solar energy to heat cool and power the campus well what's Happening Here is part of a broader transformation we're seeing across the United States thanks to the Biden Harris administration's economic agenda and congress's support for the IRA I'd like to focus today on the progress we're making through the inflation reduction act to bring down costs for American families and to invest in clean energy industries that will drive our country's growth but first let me just step back and talk about the state of the US economy over the past three and a half years our Administration has driven an historic economic recovery and today the US economy is strong the second estimate of second quarter GDP came in last week it was 3% very substantial number had enjoyed growth of just over 3% over the last year and unemployment remains near historic lows inflation is also significantly declined that said our Administration knows that prices for key household expenses things like Health Care housing energy they're still too high and bringing down down the costs of these Essentials is our administration's top economic priority we've taken bold action when Global oil prices spiked following Russia's invasion of Ukraine we released 180 million barrels from the Strategic IC petroleum reserve and we worked with our uh Partners in the G7 and other countries to put in place a novel price cap on Russian oil we've had record domestic production of oil and natural gas even as we ramp up clean energy production and the result is that we've kept Global energy markets well supplied and addressed our immediate needs while keeping prices at the pump low for American families gas prices are down from $5 a gallon in June of 2022 to around $3.30 today but we can't act only in respon response to crisis and that's where the inflation reduction act among other actions comes in the ira was designed to help families to shrink and stabilize their energy bills right away and to serve them in the years to come let me start with the Ira's residential clean energy and Home Efficiency tax credits these enable American families to make much needed Investments at much lower costs last month the Internal Revenue Service published new data showing that 3 .4 million American families have claimed $8.4 billion in residential clean energy and home Energy Efficiency tax credits that's just so far for the tax year 2023 credits for residential clean energy went towards Solutions like solar panels and battery storage families claiming these B these CR credits have claimed an average of $5,000 and credits for Energy Efficiency went toward improvements like heat pumps efficient air conditioning and insulation with families claiming $880 on average for those credits and these credits are being claimed by taxpayers across all 50 states here in North Carolina the data we have so far shows that about 990,000 families took advantage of them and these households claimed over $1 million in residential clean energy credits and over $60 million in Energy Efficiency credits and these are just preliminary numbers for 2023 that we expect to increase as more data comes in and this is just one year of claims well it's easy to see how these credits make a difference they first make um Home Improvements more affordable for millions of families across the country households that have made improvements can then see increased savings and reduce price volatility in their monthly energy bills while exact sa the exact level of savings vary One National study found households that adopted solar for their homes had median Savings of $700 in 2021 and once the cost of the panels is paid off the savings from adopting solar can increase to as much as $2,000 a year families here and across the country are benefiting from other Ira credits as well such as the $7500 off the purchase of a qualifying electric vehicle and so far just this year consumers have saved $1.5 billion dollar in upfront costs across purchases of more than 250,000 clean vehicles and this is going to allow Americans across the country to reduce their spending on gas and from residential clean energy and home Energy Efficiency credits to credits to purchase EV is our work doesn't stop at just making these credits available we're also doing everything possible to make sure that it is really easy to access these these credits this includes our efforts to transform the Internal Revenue Service into a modern tax agency that provides taxpayers the support they deserve to get the credits for which they're eligible it's of course not just near-term savings we're focused on across the country Ira incentives are also fueling massive private sector investments in manufacturing and clean energy we're scaling up our domestic manufacturing capacity to reverse a decades long decline in manufacturing but now our focus is on clean energy industries of the future last fall I visited besser North Carolina with go Governor Cooper to visit livent which built the first new lithium hydroxide production facility in North America in more than a decade and this investment expanded us manufacturing capacity for what is a key input for electric vehicle batteries by 50% life incites the IRA as a key driver of its Investments as do many companies I've heard from across the country and as production of clean energy increased increases cost will drop over time making it even more affordable for American consumers and of course these Investments are also creating jobs jobs for people and places that historically haven't benefited from enough investment treasury analysis shows that here in North Carolina 97% of clean energy Investments that have been announced since the IRA was passed have been in counties with college graduation rates below the Statewide average and 93% have been in counties with median household income comes below the Statewide average and key Ira Provisions help make sure these jobs are good ones and that there are Pathways to them through expanded training and apprenticeship programs well let me end by emphasizing that there is some out there who want to eliminate the credits I've talked about today but I think as you can see clearly here in North Carol Carolina that would be an historic mistake rolling them back would raise costs for Working Families at a moment when it's imperative that we continue to take action to lower prices it could jeopardize the significant Investments we're seeing in manufacturing here and across the country along with all the jobs that come with them many of which don't require a college degree and it could give a leg up to China and other countries that are investing to compete in these critical Industries so what all this means is we have more work to do from defending the Ira's credits to getting the word out so that as many Americans benefit from them as possible but we are already changing the lives of American families now and for the future and I very optimistic that our efforts will continue to pay off thank you so much for showing me this impressive work you're doing here in thanks for hosting me today