When Eos Energy Enterprises moved into a vacant 19th-century factory two years ago, a group of employees searched the vast, darkened building for a light switch by the glow of their phones. Today, the lights are beaming brightly, offering a glimpse of the clean energy revolution that President Joe Biden hopes he has unleashed in America.
More than 300 people are making long-duration batteries for the power grid here. On one floor, workers assemble components against the backdrop of a large American flag. On another, a fleet of yellow robotic arms inject electrolytes and seal lids on the parade of gray, suitcase-sized batteries riding down a conveyor belt.
“I think we’re going to change the world,” said Dana Radic, a 34-year-old operations manager, as she watched batteries being loaded into containers bound for customers. “I’m working for a company that’s doing something that no one else in the world is doing.”
The question is whether voters will notice.
Western Pennsylvania is ground zero for the climate agenda inherited by Vice President Kamala Harris, who became the Democratic presidential nominee on Monday after Biden’s exit from the race last month. The region is a focal point of America’s natural gas industry and home to a powerful labor movement and an emerging clean energy sector, making it a testing ground for the administration’s plans to phase down fossil fuels while ramping up renewable energy jobs.
This swing region could help tip the scales in a state election forecasters widely believe could decide the presidential contest. In 2016, Donald Trump won the state by less than a percentage point on his path to the White House, only to see Biden reverse those margins four years later. The outcome this year stands to determine whether the climate agenda begun under Biden continues to gather steam with Harris, or if Trump, who has labeled such efforts a “Green New Scam,” will steer it toward a dead end.
