Startup Rivian will be manufacturing electric vehicles in Georgia.
ATLANTA – A California-based electric vehicle startup will invest $5 billion in a truck manufacturing plant east of Atlanta that will create 7,500 jobs.
Gov. Brian Kemp touted the Rivian deal Thursday as the largest single economic development project in Georgia history.
“Today is just the start of a generational partnership that will benefit not just this company but our great state,” Kemp said during a ceremony at Liberty Plaza across from the state Capitol. “We are so proud to welcome Rivian.”
Construction of the plant is expected to begin next summer on 2,000 acres known as the East Atlanta Megasite, located off of Interstate 20 in Stanton Springs.
Production is due to begin in 2024. When fully operational, the facility will produce up to 400,000 trucks per year.
Helen Russell, Rivian’s chief people officer, said Georgia’s educational system and talented workforce attracted the company to Georgia.
“The kinds of resources Georgia has at its disposal, we feel, will allow us to have an incredible partnership with the state,” she said.
Kemp said the Rivian plant is an outgrowth of work the state’s political and business leaders have been doing for years to make Georgia a leader in the automotive industry.
That track record goes back to the huge auto plant Kia built near LaGrange in 2006 and, more recently, two electric vehicle battery plants South Korea’s SK Innovation built in Jackson County.
The governor also cited the Electric Mobility and Innovation Alliance, an initiative he launched last summer aimed at strengthening Georgia’s status as a leader in the electric mobility industry.
“We have all been preparing for a project like Rivian for a long time,” Kemp said. “We knew we could land a project like Rivian. We just had to find the right fit.”
Russell said Rivian will be filling a wide range of jobs at the new plant. Open job postings in Georgia will be immediately available at www.rivian.com/careers.
The Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Global Commerce division was involved in landing the project along with local partners, primarily the Joint Development Authority of Jasper, Morgan, Newton, and Walton counties.
“Rivian’s decision to locate in Georgia will have a tremendous impact on the entire state,” said Pat Wilson, the state economic development agency’s commissioner.
“We will see more change in the automotive industry in the next 10 years than we have seen in the past 100, and with this announcement, Georgia will be home to one of the main drivers of this transformation.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – A Republican from Thomasville is looking to take advantage of Georgia’s newly redrawn, more GOP-friendly 2nd Congressional District.
Chris West, general counsel to a Southwest Georgia real estate company, announced Thursday that he will challenge the longest-serving member of Georgia’s congressional delegation, Democratic U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop.
West, an officer in the Georgia National Guard, is pointing to Bishop’s age – 75 – and longevity in Congress as reasons for change. Bishop was elected to the House in 1992.
“Southwest Georgia deserves a political outsider, job creator and problem solver who will push back against overreach of the federal government, get our economy back on track and deliver real results,” West said.
“I’ve spent my career creating jobs, serving my country and delivering results for communities across South Georgia. I’ll bring that same energy and determination to Washington to deliver for Southwest Georgia families.”
The new congressional map the Republican-controlled General Assembly adopted last month creates a better opportunity for the GOP in the 2nd District. It adds conservative, predominantly white Thomas County as well as conservative portions of Muscogee and Houston counties.
However, the district remains a majority-minority district. That favors Democrats since minority voters historically have supported Democratic candidates by large margins.
Bishop rolled up more than 59% of the vote last year in defeating Republican Don Cole to win a 15th term in the House.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Georgia’s unemployment rate dropped to another record low last month, while the state’s all-time high workforce is larger than it was before the coronavirus pandemic.
The state’s unemployment rate fell to 2.8% in November, well below the national jobless rate of 4.2%, the Georgia Department of Labor reported Thursday. At the same time, more than 5 million Georgians held jobs.
“We have fully recovered from this pandemic when it comes to employed Georgians,” Georgia Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler said. “The hard work is still in front of us as job creation is outpacing new workers in the labor force.”
Jobs in Georgia were up 13,500 over the month and are up 4.4% over the year to more than 4.6 million. During the last six months, the number of jobs has increased by 130,600.
“We have regained almost all of the jobs we lost during the pandemic,” Butler said. “However, the number of job seekers is still below pre-pandemic numbers.
“Creating more jobs becomes very difficult if we can’t fill vacancies in the 300,000 jobs that are currently open. It’s a good problem to have and shows how strong Georgia’s recovery has been, especially compared to other states our size.”
Job sectors with the most over-the-month job gains included transportation and warehousing, which gained 4,300 jobs; non-durable goods manufacturing, which was up 2,300 jobs; and accommodation and food services, which gained 2,200 jobs in November after being decimated during the pandemic.
First-time unemployment claims declined last month by 10,116 to 17,194, a 37% decrease and the first time since November 2019 that initial claims fell below the 20,000 plateau.
More than 190,000 job openings are posted at EmployGeorgia.com, the labor department’s website.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – A Georgia utility is working with one of the nation’s largest independent power producers to bring utility-scale solar energy projects to Georgia.
Walton Electric Membership Corp. (EMC), and Nashville, Tenn.-based Silicon Ranch Corp. announced Wednesday they have three new solar farms up and running in Stewart, Colquitt and Jeff Davis counties.
Together, the three facilities are generating 287 megawatts of solar energy, enough to provide 100% of the power needs for a data center in Newton County operated by Facebook, which recently changed its corporate name to Meta.
The three projects created more than 1,200 construction jobs. Silicon Ranch funded the construction and will own, operate and maintain the solar arrays.
Altogether, Walton EMC and Silicon Ranch now have six solar farms operating in Georgia. Construction began in October on a seventh in Lee County.
“Silicon Ranch has now invested more than half a billion dollars across half a dozen counties to help our partners meet their renewable energy goals, a legacy we are pleased to expand in Lee County over the next 12 months,” said Reagan Farr, co-founder and CEO of Silicon Ranch.
Each solar project, including the facility under construction in Lee County, will use an innovative model developed by Silicon Ranch that co-locates renewable energy projects with sustainable agricultural practices.
The company employs grazing sheep to help restore the land housing each solar array to functioning grassland, while keeping each site in farm production.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr landed the endorsement of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce Wednesday.
Carr, who served as commissioner of the state Department of Economic Development before then-Gov. Nathan Deal appointed him attorney general in 2016, is seeking the Republican nomination to a second full term.
“The chamber wishes to thank the attorney general for his efforts to end human trafficking, combating the opioid crisis and strengthening Georgia’s cybersecurity position,” said Chris Clark, the chamber’s president and CEO.
“His long-standing relationships with the legal community, and organizations like ours have solidified his resolve to ensure Georgia remains prosperous.”
Carr said the Georgia Chamber of Commerce has been a valuable partner in his efforts to maintain Georgia’s ranking as the top state in which to do business.
“During COVID, I pushed for liability protections for businesses navigating this unprecedented global pandemic, and I have fought back against the unconstitutional federal vaccine mandate that would have turned our businesses into the health-care police and made the workforce shortage even worse,” he said.
“I am working on solutions to the growing organized retail crime issue that is resulting in skyrocketing online theft as well as smash-and-grab incidents in retail stores. I am proud to play a role in creating a predictable and stable legal regulatory climate in our state that allows business to grow and create jobs, and I am honored to have the Georgia chamber’s endorsement as we work together to keep Georgia’s economy thriving.”
Carr appears to have a clear path to the Republican nomination for another term as attorney general.
Two Democrats are vying for their party’s nod to challenge Carr: State Sen. Jen Jordan of Atlanta and Charlie Bailey, an Atlanta lawyer and former prosecutor, who lost to Carr in 2018.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
