17th District state Senator Jonathan Lindsey is calling for a closer look to be taken at an electric vehicle battery project planned for Mecosta County. The Gotion, Incorporated battery plant would employ more than 2,300 people by 2030 if opened, but Lindsey says Gotion has ties to China. Speaking at a press conference Wednesday, Lindsey said concerns about the national security implications of such a plant are reasonable.
“I believe it brought us to a point in the Michigan Legislature where we should be pumping the brakes on this project,” Lindsey said. “We’re still facing a potential transfer vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee about this. I think that should be entirely off the table, and I think we should go back to the drawing board and really build out some tools to do a deep dive evaluation of this partnership and this project.”
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted last week to approve state funding for battery plants proposed by Ford Motor Company and Our Next Energy, but the plant proposed by Gotion was left out. The company says it’s a U.S. owned subsidiary of Gotion High Tech, based in China. The project was in line to receive $175 million from the state for its $2.4 billion plant. Lindsey says Democrats are “willing to hand over money to a company that takes orders from the CCP and do so without any sort of diligence.” He wants more review.
