Image Credit: @NovonixBattery / X & Canva
The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
Electric vehicle battery manufacturer NOVONIX is looking to expand, and they are asking Hamilton County and the City of Chattanooga to help them cover the costs.
The company has plans to purchase 812 acres of land at Enterprise South Industrial Park to build a new “greenfield site.” They plan to produce synthetic graphite, which is used in the EV batteries.
NOVONIX, which is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, is asking for approval of a 15-year PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) program, meaning they will create at least 500 new jobs for the area and provide more than a billion dollars in investments in exchange for a tax break from the city and county.
“Through this project, NOVONIX is affirming its commitment to Chattanooga as the ongoing base of its US operations,” said a NOVONIX spokesperson.
In December, the Department of Energy announced a conditional commitment to NOVONIX for a direct loan of up to $754.8 million to partially finance the proposed new facility.
While much of the response from city officials was positive, some expressed concern that previous PILOT programs were not well-monitored and corporations failed to meet their end of the deal. There was discussion of updating policies for such agreements and including them in city code.
When asked what changes have been made since a 2023 audit found that there was little oversight on these programs, Mayor Weston Wamp responded, “My office, alongside the department of economic and community development, is conducting aggressive oversight of these incentives to protect every tax dollar. For years, these programs went unchecked and lacked proper accountability.”
The Hamilton County Commission was scheduled to discuss its portion of the PILOT agreement with NOVONIX on Wednesday.
One Response
Anything connected to EV production is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. Stop using taxpayer money for these idiotic companies that just want to get rich on the backs of taxpayers. Nobody is buying EV’s or Hybrids just look at auto dealerships lots. They mark them down like crazy and still can’t sell them. The left keeps pushing their moronic climate change agenda. They are the biggest polluters of the world. Their strip mining of minerals, open pit dumping of car batteries and and turbine blades because they can’t be recycled. Oh and let’s not forget about the constant spraying of chemtrails into the atmosphere. Which aluminum is a key component. On Christmas Day the sky was filled with chemtrails where I live here in TN. How many pounds of jet fuel do you think was burn? What about the carbon that was produced? Oh that’s right the left doesn’t give a darn about the environment. They just like to virtue signal. I wish I could post pictures because I have a lot of chemtrail pics.
In God we trust not government or man.
Have a blessed day.