U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visits electric battery plant in Glendale

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made his way to the Commonwealth today to talk about the growth of the electric vehicle industry, and huge investments from the government.

One of them being the $5 billion BlueOval SK Battery Park facility in Glendale, Kentucky.

There’s a lot of excitement surrounding the BlueOval SK Battery Park facility in Glendale, Kentucky. So much so that the U.S. Transportation Secretary says it can make Kentucky a global leader in the electric vehicle revolution.

The multi-billion dollar facility is expected to add 5,000 jobs to the commonwealth.

It’s something U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said is a part of the Biden Administration’s plan to keep jobs in America.

“And for to many years, Americans have watched manufacturing move in one direction, which is away,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. “For so many communities and so many families, that meant watching a next generation move away.”

Secretary Buttigieg said more than 800,000 manufacturing jobs have been added since 2021 because of facilities like the BlueOval SK Battery Park.

The plant can put the U.S. and Kentucky at the front of the global race for what he calls, the jobs of the future.

“In the long run, EVs are going to be remembered not as a front between in some invented culture war between red and blue America but as a front in the very real competition between the U.S. and competitors like China for the future of manufacturing,” Buttigieg said.

For this to work however, places like Kentucky need to ensure the infrastructure is in place for electric vehicles to thrive.

Buttigieg said that plan is already in place.

“We got to make sure that there are chargers all across the highway network and Kentucky has put forth a plan we’ve approved and are now funding through funds from the bipartisan infrastructure law to start getting those chargers in place where they already don’t exist,” Buttigieg explained.

The advancements are key to making strides to ensure the U.S. stays ahead.

“We can’t power the economy of tomorrow with the grid of yesterday,” Buttigieg said. “We’ve got to be making these kind of upgrades, have the right kind of resiliency, the right kind of transmission distribution and the right kind generations.”

The EV manufacturing facility is set to open in 2024.

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