WARREN, OH – Today, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) visited BRITE Energy Innovators, a nonprofit that helps develop early-stage renewable energy technology companies. Brown toured the facility and discussed how the recently passed CHIPS Act will support organizations like BRITE and the companies they work with, and position Ohio to lead in these growing industries.

“With the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, we are finally putting in place a real industrial policy – it’s a new approach that puts American workers and American production first,” said Brown. “This is going to help nurture start-ups like the ones here at BRITE. It’s not enough to invent new technologies here – we have to make sure they’re commercialized in Ohio, that they grow new industries in Ohio, and that they create jobs in Ohio.”

The CHIPS Act includes the National Clean Energy Incubator Program, which supports energy incubators like BRITE that accelerate the commercial application of clean energy technologies by providing physical workspaces or support.

The CHIPS Act makes an historic $829 million investment in the Manufacturing USA program over the next five years, the largest increase in funding for the program since its inception. Brown codified the Manufacturing USA program into law through his bipartisan 2014 legislation, the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act, which created a network of 15 manufacturing innovation hubs around the country. BRITE is a partner of Youngstown’s “America Makes,” which was the nation’s first manufacturing and innovation hub, and served as inspiration for Brown’s legislation. America Makes was created when President Obama directed the Department of Defense to create it in 2012.

“We have this key moment to reignite manufacturing in Ohio and the industrial Midwest. This new act will boost efforts to manufacture more zero-carbon technology here in America, provide those entrepreneurs we work with everyday access to Department of Energy resources and research, and establish a new federal office for clean energy innovation. That’s exciting,” said Rick Stockburger, President and CEO of BRITE Energy. “Our valley’s greatest export has been our young people and legislation like this energizes that magnet to get those talented people back to our area. We are all in this together – I applaud the large bipartisan support in creating a cleaner tomorrow, reshaping our energy future, developing more jobs and making America the place to do it.”

###