Growing Opposition to Manteno Battery Plant

By Andrea Arens

A generous crowd showed up to protest the Gotion battery plant in Manteno on Monday, just before the village board meeting. With signs in tow, many attended the village board meeting immediately thereafter. Gotion, Inc. is set to receive more than $536 million in incentives and tax breaks to bring the battery plant to Manteno.

Gotion, Inc. produces lithium iron phosphate cell batteries for companies like Volkswagen, which is the single largest shareholder in Gotion’s parent company.

State Rep. Brad Halbrook, from the 102nd District and founding member of the Illinois Freedom Caucus, spoke at the press conference and said it was clear the deal was bad for Manteno. Halbrook said Gotion is in line for $7.5 billion in federal tax credits, in addition to the Illinois incentive package.

Halbrook continued, “The company is getting considerable tax breaks to construct a plant that will cost $2 billion dollars to build. The total subsidies for the plant calculate to an astounding $3 million dollars per job created. Why are U.S. taxpayers providing $8 billion in economic incentives for the construction of a plant that costs $2 billion to build?”

In the incentive package to Gotion, $125 million comes from a $400 million fund overseen by Pritzker’s office that was approved by lawmakers and gave Pritzker sole authority to offer incentives to businesses to come to Illinois.

Halbrook said it’s the largest incentive package in business in decades, only exceeded in current dollar value by the Soldier Field expansion.

Resident Ryan McCaffey spoke at the press conference to applause. He spoke of concern for contamination and cancer causing agents. McCaffey said he plans to run for trustee.

Former U.S. Representative for Michigan’s 2nd Congressional District and Former U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands, Pete Hoekstra said he was here to help and he’d been fighting Gotion in Michigan. Hoekstra told the crowd he’d be sharing their resources and playbook with Manteno residents wanting to fight the battery plant.

Hoekstra said, “You can never underestimate the power of grass roots. They work for you; you don’t work for them. Never underestimate the power you have.”

Hoekstra added that putting 2,600 employees into the community will change the nature of the community.

Chris Miller, chairman of the Illinois Freedom Caucus, also spoke and said, “I got a feeling Manteno is not for sale,” to rounds of applause. Miller referenced the Chinese spy balloon and said the bottom line is to ask the question if Manteno is for sale.

Vice Chairman of the Illinois Freedom Caucus State Rep. Blaine Wilhour also spoke and said regular folks coming out and getting involved is how change is affected. Wilhour said Prtizker is not answering questions regarding the project and suggested any questions with regards to the deal are political grandstanding.

He said, “Here’s the deal. This deal was done behind closed doors and to our knowledge today, and the Governor refuses to answer any questions. There were no disclosures, and we apparently have just handed over literally $500 million in Illinois tax incentives to a company with ties to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), with little or no expectations on our end.”

All who spoke at the press conference referenced Gotion as having ties to the Chinese Communist party. Many expressed concern over environmental concerns. They’re not wrong.

In June 2021, an old paper mill in Morris, storing an estimated 184,000 pounds of lithium batteries, caught fire. A half-mile evacuation was ordered for nearby residents due to hazardous substances in the building. The Illinois EPA requested assistance from the U.S. EPA to monitor air quality and, while the levels never quite reached hazardous levels, the EPA still was cleaning up hazardous and potentially hazardous substances almost a year later. Fire from the batteries had to be smothered with 28 tons of cement in order to put it out.

Morris Fire Chief Tracey Steffes said at the time that as the lithium batteries get wet, they short out, ignite, and explode. Steffes referred to the smoke, fumes, and gas from the fire as “highly poisonous and very deadly.” The evacuation lasted about four days and, upon return, residents were encouraged to clean the dust off everything.

Kirk Allen from the Edgar County Watchdogs asked Wilhour if speakers would be attending the village board meeting, and Wilhour said the speakers would leave the public comment to the residents of Manteno.