Planned factories for the Moses Lake area bring up questions about the future of economic development and the role of government in directing that development.
While the issue lends itself to an interesting philosophical discussion about free markets, the primary question is whether Washington will effectively position itself as a leader or be left behind. A necessary transition to a green economy offers boundless economic opportunity, and government and business leaders in our state should continue to embrace that opportunity.
All of that is evident in a recent announcement from the U.S. Department of Energy. The department is awarding $100 million grants to two companies that plan to build factories in Moses Lake, a city of about 25,000 people in Central Washington. The facilities will produce battery materials for use in electric vehicles and would employ hundreds of people.
Group14 Technologies Inc., based in Woodinville, and Sila Nanotechnologies of Alameda, Calif., are the companies involved. “We did a nationwide search to find one of the best places to manufacture our product, and Moses Lake checked all the boxes for us,” a Sila executive told The (Spokane) Spokesman-Review.
That includes abundant hydropower, but Washington has other attributes that appeal to high-tech industries. An educated workforce, a history of innovation and a quality of life that is attractive to prospective employees long have drawn companies to our state.
The Department of Energy grants are part of $2.8 billion for 20 projects in 12 states to expand domestic battery manufacturing for electric vehicles. The funding was approved in a bipartisan infrastructure package passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden last year.
The need for bolstering electric vehicles, alternative energy and other efforts to mitigate climate change is obvious. Warming temperatures and the extreme weather events that accompany them are a serious threat to the economy and the American way of life. They also are costly, requiring billions of dollars worth of repair work.
Still, government support for a particular industry is bound to draw criticism from free-market advocates. In response, we offer reminders that Boeing is in the middle of a state tax break estimated to be worth $8.7 billion over 13 years; that Amazon reportedly has received $4.7 billion in subsidies from governments around the globe; that American farmers received $28 billion in federal subsidies necessitated by Donald Trump’s misguided tariffs on Chinese goods; and that fossil-fuel industries received $5.9 trillion in subsidies from various governments in 2020, according to the International Monetary Fund.
While capitalism is based on the theory that a free market will dictate the supply of goods and services, that market is inevitably shaped by the public through its elected government. In Washington, such guidance has helped develop burgeoning wind- and solar-energy industries, which account for more than 85,000 permanent jobs and more than one-fourth of all construction jobs.
Whether it is in wind-energy farms, solar-energy facilities or the production of materials for electric vehicle batteries, a green economy offers a chance for economic growth. In that regard, it is similar to the burgeoning digital economy of two decades ago; who would have imagined that a startup online bookseller based in Seattle would evolve into the world’s second-largest retailer?
Washington should position itself to develop the Amazon of the clean-energy industry.
