Lauren Boebert Gives Biden a Request During Colorado Visit

Representative Lauren Boebert says President Joe Biden should "apologize" for his energy policies when he visits a city within her district on Wednesday.

Biden is visiting CS Wind, the world's largest wind turbine manufacturing facility, in Pueblo, Colorado, to tout the Inflation Reduction Act that passed on August 16, 2022. The legislation, perceived as a hallmark of his administration that overcame Republican opposition, is described as a historic push towards producing more domestic energy and clean energy, and in turn additional middle-class jobs.

The legislation still has its detractors due to the name itself. Inflation has slightly decreased compared to its high rate during the COVID-19 pandemic, but American households still feel the monetary pinch at grocery stores and via higher-than-average interest rates.

While the rate of inflation slowed in October from a month earlier and numbers are the best they've been since July, a recent Bankrate survey found that 69 percent of Americans said their cost of living is worse now compared to three years ago—including over 50 percent of independent voters and roughly 20 percent of Democrats. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said last month that inflation is still too high.

"Joe Biden is taking a break from his lavish vacations to come to Pueblo to talk about what he calls 'clean energy,'" Boebert wrote Wednesday on X (formerly Twitter). "He should be coming here to apologize for his all out war on on fossil fuels and his Green New Deal agenda which have cost the great people of Colorado's 3rd District dearly.

"I have legislation that will create 1,000 new jobs in Pueblo. If Biden truly wanted to help out the community rather than come and pander, he'd work with me to get it signed into law!"

The congresswoman references the Pueblo Jobs Act that passed the House of Representatives in July as an amendment with bipartisan support, as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.

Boebert, whose flagship office is located in Pueblo, says the legislation would support at least 1,000 jobs in Pueblo by closing a loophole in the Pueblo Chemical Depot closure process dating back to the 1980s. It would require the secretary of the U.S. Army to follow the standard Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process when closing the remaining portions of the chemical depot, "to provide certainty for the Pueblo economy and foster future job creation."

"Families in Colorado's 3rd Congressional District are being crushed by so-called 'Bidenomics,'" Boebert told Newsweek via email. "On his watch, credit card debt, inflation, groceries and gas prices have all reached record highs. These high prices are squeezing working class Coloradans and rural America.

"Rather than cutting wasteful federal spending and unleashing American energy production, Joe Biden continues to pander to radical extremists, lock up more land, and spend his time focused on campaign stunts and vacations rather than doing the job he was elected to do."

The White House, as part of its own statement accompanying Biden's visit to Pueblo, criticized Boebert's past remarks about the Inflation Reduction Act—which she has previously referred to as "dangerous for America," a "massive failure," and "bad for Colorado's Third District."

The White House said the event is "to highlight how Bidenomics is creating jobs and opportunities in Colorado's third congressional district. CS Wind recently announced it is expanding operations and creating hundreds of jobs as a direct result of the Inflation Reduction Act...Since President Biden took office, companies have announced $7 billion in new manufacturing and clean energy investments in Colorado—including hundreds of millions of dollars in Representative Boebert's district."

Newsweek reached out to the White House via email for comment.

In April, CS Wind—headquartered in Seoul, South Korea—broke ground on a 900,000-square-foot expansion in Pueblo said to boost the plant's overall production to approximately 10,000 wind turbine tower sections per year, a move that the White House said is a "part of the President's Bidenomics agenda."

Estimated to complete its first phase of the new facility by summer 2024, with phases two and three expected to be complete by 2028, the 24-7 plant is expected to hire about 850 additional employees by 2026 in addition to the approximate 250 already hired this year.

They credit the Inflation Reduction Act's tax incentives towards clean energy for making the project possible.

"This groundbreaking ceremony is not just about a new investment; it is a celebration of a shared vision for a common future, which is cleaner, greener and more sustainable," Seong-Gon Gim, chairman of CS Wind, said in April. "This expansion investment will have a transformative impact on our environment, economy and local Colorado society."

Newsweek reached out to CS Wind via email for comment.

In October 2022, Primergy Solar announced a $400 million investment to build a 1,900-acre solar field in Pueblo that could power up to 56,000 homes and create 250 jobs.

A new analysis published on Wednesday by the Department of Treasury credits the Inflation Reduction Act for driving clean energy investment to underserved communities, such as those historically dependent on fossil energy jobs and tax revenues—such as areas with closed coal mines or coal-fired power plants, or those with significant employment or local tax revenues from fossil fuels and higher-than-average unemployment.

The analysis also shows that 99 percent of clean energy investments in Colorado since the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act, which Boebert voted against, are in counties with below-average weekly wages; 99 percent are in counties with below-median household income; 99 percent are in counties with below-average college graduation rates; and 68 percent are in counties with higher-than-average child poverty rates.

Treasury analysis shows that funding is going where it's needed most across the country, not just to the coasts or to wealthy communities," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. "The American economy is more productive when communities can realize their full potential, and more than one year into implementation of the law, there is strong evidence that's happening."

Aside from aiming to reduce carbon emissions by roughly 40 percent by 2030, the Inflation Reduction Act allows Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices and it extends the expanded Affordable Care Act program for three years, through 2025.