Will Kentucky get its $15M back from aluminum mill? Legislative effort stalls in House
A bill asking for the return of Kentucky’s $15 million investment in an aluminum plant that never materialized stopped dead in its tracks in the House after unanimous passage in the Senate.
The state gave the funds to Unity Aluminum, previously Braidy Industries, which promised to build a $1.7 billion aluminum mill near Ashland. So far, nothing has been built there.
The company’s website still promises “the largest project of its kind in the region,” which it says will create 550 full-time jobs in the Eastern Kentucky city.
Senate Bill 48 would have directed the Cabinet for Economic Development to recover the $15 million, along with any interest, penalties and fees, at the end of the year. Sponsor Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Taylor Mill, said Wednesday the bill is likely dead, based on his conversations with members of the House.
“I think they just didn’t like the concept. I wish I could expand more than that, but from the limited amount we’ve talked, they just weren’t interested in taking it up,” McDaniel said. “I wish I could say otherwise.”
Like the Senate, the House is dominated by a Republican majority. Majority leadership makes decisions on which bills get assigned to committees and which of those bills eventually get a floor vote.
Once received by the House, Senate Bill 48 was never assigned to committee despite its 35-0 support in a Senate vote last month.
A spokesperson for GOP leadership in that chamber did not respond to a request for comment on why the bill never moved in the House.
Gov. Andy Beshear last year said he understands “every lawmaker who is concerned” about the project and that he believes “we all are on the same page,” about the $15 million investment.
Unity Aluminum has not responded to a request for comment on the status of the project.
The company has faced some turbulence in recent years.
Former CEO Greg Bouchard was pushed out of then-Braidy Industries after the company accused him of misspending $330,000 on travel and meal expenses for himself, chartering unauthorized private planes and awarding himself bonuses, against the company’s policy.
The current CEO is Terry Gill, former Gov. Matt Bevin’s secretary of the economic development cabinet, who arranged the $15 million investment when he worked for the state in 2017. Gill initially became a contractor with Unity Aluminum in April 2020.
Nate Haney, senior vice president of global affairs and commercial operations, said Unity Aluminum is “cautiously confident” about the project at an interim committee hearing last year. Like Gill, Haney was also a member of the Bevin administration.
Unity Aluminum previously generated controversy by attempting to partner with the Russian aluminum company Rusal, which had faced U.S. sanctions and offered to invest $200 million in the aluminum mill. Haney told lawmakers that Rusal was no longer in the picture as of mid-last year.
This story was originally published March 31, 2022 at 2:08 PM.
