Endorsers of the legislation represent a broad spectrum of U.S. industry, including manufacturers, distributors, labor unions and clean energy producers.
"We can revive American manufacturing through investment in clean energy," said Senator Brown, a Democrat from Ohio and a sponsor of the bill. "This bill will help our manufacturers retool, put our auto suppliers back to work and produce clean energy technologies."
The IMPACT Act would provide significant resources for small and medium-sized manufacturers through a 2-year, $30 billion manufacturing revolving loan fund, which will provide much needed liquidity for domestic firms to become more energy efficient, retool facilities, and retrain workers to produce clean energy products, says the Alliance.
It estimates that the IMPACT Act will generate more than $100 billion in revenue for clean energy businesses while creating 680,000 direct manufacturing jobs and nearly 2 million indirect jobs over five years.
"Without a program to support our own domestic manufacturers, policies that create new demand for clean energy will just lead to more imports," said Phil Angelides, chairman of the Apollo Alliance. "A healthy manufacturing sector is the key to middle class growth in this country. The IMPACT Act will help millions of Americans find work in well-paying clean energy jobs and greatly reduce our dependence on other nations to meet our energy needs."
"Our suppliers are a testament to the goal and promise of IMPACT: taking advantage of America's existing workforce and infrastructure to manufacture the components and systems of the clean energy economy. Infinia is a unique solar and renewable energy company in that our supply chain consists almost entirely of retooled Midwestern auto supply companies," said Peter Brehm, vice president of business development for Washington state-based Infinia Corp.
The IMPACT Act would also provide the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), a division of the Department of Commerces National Institute of Standards and Technology, with $1.5 billion in federal funds over five years to help manufacturers access clean energy markets and adopt innovative, energy-efficient manufacturing technologies.
In April, Apollo Alliance released its Green Manufacturing Action Plan (GreenMAP), which served as the blueprint for the IMPACT Act. Apollo's GreenMAP lays out aggressive steps to scale up production of American-made clean energy systems and components while making U.S. factories more energy efficient.
