U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown toured BRITE Energy in Warren to talk about how the recently passed CHIPS act can benefit Ohio and the Mahoning Valley.
CHIP provides over $800 million to U.S. energy incubators like BRITE, developing new tech that can be built domestically.
While local incubators have had success creating tech locally, we don’t see the production of that tech stay here.
We asked the Senator what he would do to try to get something like the INTEL chip plant proposed for Columbus to come here. “Almost a decade ago with America makes and what we’ve done with building an infrastructure in the Mahoning Valley to fight back after decades after of betrayal of too many politicians and too many corporations,” said Sen. Brown.
There’s also news Monday that Honda wants to build a battery plant for EVs in Ohio. 21 News asked the Senator about trying to get that here. “No guarantees, but we’ll be talking to Honda to make sure they will come to Ohio.” When asked if he would get together with Gov. DeWine and put something together, Brown said, “Sure, I talk to the Governor often enough, and he’s in the middle of a campaign, so he may not be Governor next year, but we’ll see.” Brown.
The CEO of Brite says the Valley should be an attractive place for Honda to make batteries. One of the main reasons is our access to lots of water which is needed for production.
“Being in the Great Lakes and Ohio river basin here, we have a lot of access to clean water for energy production. Also, the supply chain opportunities can relocate here with our logistics and transportation area,” said Rick Stockburger.
People are starting to think of the Mahoning Valley as Voltage Valley, and two potential car battery plants along with the EV car plant would help make that dream a reality.
Read the story by WFMJ here.
