U.S. Congressman John Moolenaar, R-Midland, isn’t giving up on efforts to block the Chinese Communist Party linked Gotion, Inc. from federal tax credits.
The Michigan Republican reintroduced his NO GOTION Act last week after the same legislation failed to make it through the 118th Congress.
“The NO GOTION Act is a commonsense, bipartisan measure that prohibits our adversaries from benefitting from the tax dollars of hardworking American families, and right now there is a loophole that allows (Inflation Reduction Act) tax credits to go to Chinese companies,” Moolenaar said in a statement. “The United States is in a competition with the CCP and under no circumstance should we be gibing taxpayer money to Chinse companies.”
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The legislation follow’s Gotion’s efforts to utilize green energy production tax credits to offset costs of building battery component plants in Michigan’s Mecosta County and in Kankakee, Illinois.
Last year, Moolenaar’s House Select Committee on the CCP highlighted Gotion’s close ties to the CCP, from the company’s reliance on forced labor in Xinjiang Province to federal filings that admit the company is “wholly owned and controlled” by the Chinese company Gotion High-Tech and subsidized by the People’s Republic of China.
Moolenaar notes Gotion High-Tech’s bylaws requires the company to “carry out Party activities in accordance with the Constitution of the (CCP).”
Moolenaar first introduced the NO GOTION Act in November 2023, but it did not move from the House Committee on Ways and Means. Moolenaar reintroduced the legislation on Thursday alongside Reps. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., and Jared Golden, D-Maine.
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Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is expected to introduce the same legislation in the upper chamber, which shifted from Democratic control to Republican control in 119th Congress.
“U.S. adversaries shouldn’t be allowed to benefit off American taxpayer dollars with incentives meant to build American businesses,” Scott said in a statement. “Americans elected us to represent their best interests, and I’m proud to do that with our NO GOTION Act to crack down on companies owned by our adversaries attempting to take advantage of U.S. tax subsidies.”
Gotion is set to receive $715 million in state taxpayer subsidies through a secretly negotiated deal with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration to build a battery component plant about 88 miles south of Camp Grayling, Michigan’s National Guard base, and the company is eying further support from Washington.
While prominent Michigan Democrats including Whitmer and U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin are strong supporters of the planned Gotion plant, Republicans including President Donald Trump and the vast majority of local residents are adamantly opposed.
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“The Gotion plant would be very bad for the State and our Country,” Trump posted to Truth Social in August. “It would put Michiganders under the thumb of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing. I AM 100% OPPOSED!”
Public polling on the project shows most local residents share that sentiment.
A survey conducted by the Big Rapids Pioneer news site in early January resulted in the vast majority of reader submissions to the online poll voting “no” for Gotion in Green Charter Township.
A whopping 7,605 out of 8,786 reader submissions opposed the Gotion facility, while only 1,172 backed the company. The results equate to nearly 87% of respondents opposed, and a little over 13% in support, figures that largely align with an informal Moolenaar survey of constituents a year prior that showed 91% opposed.
Other polls highlighted by the Mecosta Environmental & Security Alliance last year also showed overwhelming opposition.
A door-to-door poll in Green Charter Township found 97% don’t want Gotion, while it was 81% opposed in a mail survey in Barton Township. About 68% opposed in Colfax Township, where less than half of surveys were returned, and it was a similar result for the 43% who responded to a mail survey in Grant Township: 84% opposed.
“Overall, these polls indicate a community largely uneasy about the project, with environmental issues and the involvement of a foreign nation being principal concerns,” MESA reported last year. “The variance in support levels across townships suggests differing perceptions and levels of awareness about the project’s implications.”
The data also shows those who live closest to the proposed project are the most opposed.
That was evident in Mecosta County earlier this month, when newly elected commissioners voted 5-2 to rescind Resolution 2023-04, which stated the prior commission’s support for Gotion, citing “new information and developments … concerning the project and its ownership structure with direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party CCP and broader issues of foreign investment.”
“When 92% of the Mecosta County residents opposed the Chinese battery plant in our community, the board of commissioners should have listened,” newly elected board Chairman Chris Zimmerman said. “When our congressman says there are security concerns with China in our community, the board of commissioners should have reversed their approval of the project.”
The move, which was applauded by many locals, follows a similar shift in support in Green Charter Township, where locals recalled officials who approved the Gotion deal from office.
The battery component plant remains mired in litigation over the opposition in Green Charter Township, with court records showing company officials bribed the township’s previous leaders to gain approvals.
Local reports, however, suggest Gotion may be getting the message.
The company’s lease for an abandoned JC Penny’s store that was never occupied has expired, while local sources contend about 20 employees who worked for Gotion no longer do.
There have been no applications from Gotion for a required environmental impact study of the site, and no significant work has been completed.
Gotion stopped attending its requested weekly meetings with Big Rapids officials, and all three municipalities that originally authorized tax incentives for the project – Big Rapids Township, Green Charter Township, and Mecosta County – have since reversed course.