U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen joined Kentucky leaders to celebrate a new clean energy plant in Elizabethtown and tout her boss’ economic accomplishments.
Janet Yellen joined Gov. Andy Beshear and business executives to cut the ribbon at Advanced Nano Products, in Elizabethtown Wednesday. ANP is a global supplier of carbon batteries and other products used to make electric vehicles.
The company is based in South Korea, and the production plant in Elizabethtown will be the first ANP location to open in the United States. The $49 million, 50,000-square-foot facility is set to open in May.
Upon opening, the U.S. Treasury Secretary said the factory will bring 93 jobs to Hardin County. Employees are expected to make $40 an hour and get health benefits.
The plant and other clean energy sites got funding from the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, Yellen said Wednesday. The IRA was enacted in 2022 as a law to support more domestic clean energy investments and initiatives.
“We’re starting to see the impacts from our policies and investments for middle class Americans in communities across the country,” Yellen said.
Beshear thanked the Biden Administration for the IRA’s impact on Kentucky economic development.
“This facility brings us one step closer,” Beshear said. “And just think, that Kentucky we grew up in being not a leader but the leader in this technology and where things are going to happen [for] the next generation of automobile manufacturing.”
He also credited Kentucky’s clean energy footprint to the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, an initiative to deploy more electrical vehicle charging stations across the country, backed by Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell.
ANP will be the supplier of other technologies to clean energy manufacturers in the future, company officials said in a statement. The company is set to provide products to Blue Oval SK, one of the largest EV battery manufacturers in the world, based in Glendale.
“This success is largely thanks to a commitment at every level of government to create an environment where new technology companies can thrive,” said Hyundong Cho, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the United States. “And few regions have been better at creating that environment, then right here in Kentucky.”
