Washington (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced three projects to be built in the states of Texas, Ohio, and Georgia as part of the $550 billion U.S. investment pledge by Japan. The projects include a gas power plant in Ohio, an oil and liquefied natural gas project in Texas and a critical minerals facility in Georgia, Trump said on Truth Social. He did not identify the companies involved in the projects nor the specific investment amounts associated with them.
An administrative official later said the Ohio project will be a $33 billion natural gas power facility located near Portsmouth in southern Ohio. SB Energy, a subsidiary of SoftBank, will be the plant’s operator.
Trump’s announcement follows meetings last week between Japan’s economic and trade minister Ryosei Akazawa and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to sew up initial deals under Japan’s investment pledge connected to a trade deal to cut Trump’s tariffs on Japanese imports to 15%.
“First, in Ohio, together with Japan we will develop the largest natural gas generation facility in history, generating 9.2 gigawatts of power,” Lutnick said in a statement. “We will strengthen grid reliability, expand baseload power, and support American manufacturing with affordable energy.”
This announcement comes on the heels of Centrus Energy’s uranium expansion in Southern Ohio. The project which will produce HALUE (High Assay Low Uranium Enrichment) is expected to create 1,000 construction jobs, 300 permanent jobs and retain 120 existing positions.