This letter was submitted by Savannah Mayor Van Johnson.

Last week, Gov. Brian Kemp delivered his “State of the State” address, in which he lauded the 171,000 new jobs and $74.5 billion in investment Georgia has seen in the past five years. This week, he doubled down, claiming the Inflation Reduction Act — the most significant climate legislation in our nation’s history — has “hurt” Georgia more than it’s helped our state.

The evidence clearly suggests otherwise as this money did not come out of thin air. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will bring an estimated $180 million of investment in clean power generation and storage to Georgia between now and 2030. As of last fall, the IRA had created over 19,000 good-paying jobs and led to $21 billion in investment in Georgia in just over a year, according to the organization, Climate Power.

For example, Hyundai is building a $4.3 billion plant here in the Savannah area with LG, which is slated to bring 3,000 jobs to our area. And just this month, South Korean company Qcells announced a plan to supply Microsoft with solar power through panels made at its $2.5 billion factory; an American-made solar panel deal termed “one of the largest of its kind” happening right here in our state.

Our governor should know better than anyone the role federal investments have played to bolster our state’s manufacturing sector.

Even if Gov. Kemp isn’t sharing credit where credit is due, business leaders in the South acknowledge that the Inflation Reduction Act is spurring investment and job creation across the country. Christopher Chung, the CEO of North Carolina’s Economic Development Partnership, recently said on a panel that a third of prospective new deals being considered by the partnership are related to clean energy.

“…Whatever one’s politics are,” Chung said, “we hear enough from companies on the other end of the line that the IRA has been a big part of what is accelerating their plans to make these big investments in job creation facilities.”

As the mayor of Savannah, I’ve seen firsthand the remarkable impacts of collaboration at the local, state, and federal levels. Nowhere is this more evident than the clean energy transition. I’ve said before that Savannah is the epicenter of climate resilience. We’re aiming to have 100% renewable energy in our city by 2035. Federal investments stemming from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act are helping us reach that goal while also creating new, good-paying jobs.

Investing in clean energy isn’t just a smart economic move, it’s good for our planet too.

The administration is investing in our nation’s children, who will spend decades on the planet that’s being shaped by the choices we make each and every day. On Jan. 8, the Biden administration announced $57 million in funding to help Georgia school districts transition to electric school buses. This funding will help our kids breathe more easily, save schools money, and create jobs.

I’ve written previously that our clean energy transition represents the biggest economic opportunity in a generation, and I firmly believe that. But in order for this to be the case, we must take advantage of this opportunity. Partisan squabbling is not the means to that end.

Rather, collaboration is what will get our environment and our economy where they can and should be. This means the public and private sectors working together. Federal, state, and local governments working together. Frankly and honestly, we need all three.

If we continue to work in concert to tackle the climate crisis and grow jobs at the same time, everyone benefits.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Mayor Johnson: Gov. Kemp ignores benefits of Inflation Reduction Act