BUCYRUS, OH – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) visited the GE Lamp plant in Bucyrus on Friday to celebrate a new $60 million investment that will create up to 130 new jobs for Ohioans.
“In Ohio, we know how to make things. Our rich manufacturing history is exactly why companies like GE Lighting choose to locate their plants in our state,” Brown said. “This $60 million investment will put more than 100 Ohioans to work in stable, good-paying jobs making energy-efficient products that consumers want to buy. It’s yet another reason why we should extend the popular and successful 48C program from the Recovery Act that helped GE refit its plant and made today’s event a reality.”
In May, the Bucyrus plant received a $19.8 million tax credit, funded through the Recovery Act’s Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit (“48C”) program, to retool for clean energy manufacturing. The 48C program provides a 30 percent credit for domestic companies that invest in new, expanded, or reequipped clean energy manufacturing projects. The program is aimed at building capacity to meet this new and growing source of demand. Qualifying facilities manufacture a wide range of clean energy products, including wind turbines, solar panels, hybrid vehicle systems, carbon capture and sequestration systems, and biofuel refinery components, among others. Through 48C in the Recovery Act, seven Ohio companies received more than $125 million in tax credits.
The 48C program was a highly popular component of the Recovery Act that has since run out of funds. As Chairman of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy, Brown introduced the Security in Energy and Manufacturing (SEAM) Act to extend the 48C program and promote more domestic manufacturing of clean energy technology.
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