WASHINGTONpennslammer39500, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- About 40 percent of "the biggest U.S. manufacturing investments" announced in the first year of U.S. President Joe Biden's acts to strengthen its cleantech and semiconductor supply chain have been delayed or paused, the Financial Times has reported.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Chips and Science Act, launched in 2022, offered more than 400 billion U.S. dollars in tax credits, loans and grants to boost the U.S. cleantech and semiconductor manufacturing development, said the report on Monday.
In the first year of the program, more than 220 billion dollars were announced. Yet, 84 billion dollars have been delayed for two months to several years or paused indefinitely, a Financial Times investigation found.
"Slow government rollout of Chips Act funding for semiconductor projects and lack of clarity on IRA rules have left a number of projects at a standstill," it said.
Due to uncertainty over tax credit rules for hydrogen, Nel Hydrogen, an electrolyzer manufacturer, has paused its 400-million-dollar factory project in Michigan. Due to the lack of clarity over the IRA's electric vehicle regulations, Anovion, a battery parts manufacturer in Georgia, delayed its 800-million-dollar factory by more than a year.
The delays raised doubts on Biden's ability to keep his promise to deliver jobs, the report said.■