Georgia's governor says more clean energy will be needed to fuel electric vehicle manufacturing

Georgia, a capital for electric vehicle production, needs to increase its supply of electricity produced without burning fossil fuels in order to meet industries’ demand for clean energy, Gov. Brian Kemp told world business leaders Thursday.

Speaking as part of a panel focused on electric vehicles at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the Republican governor highlighted the construction of the Georgia Power’s two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, near Augusta — the country's first new reactors in decades.

“We’ve done as much as anybody in the country… but we’re going to have to have more,” Kemp said.

It's Kemp's second year in a row to visit the forum of world business and political leaders. He told The Associated Press on Thursday in Davos that the trip is aimed at “really just selling the state from an economic development standpoint.”

That includes touting the electricity produced at Plant Vogtle. One of the reactors in the $31 billion project is generating power, while the other is expected to reach commercial operation in coming months.

“We’re letting people know that we got a great airport, great seaport, got a great energy supply with our two nuclear reactors that are online and coming online,” Kemp said.

The fellow members of Kemp's panel said that electric vehicles need to be made with electricity that isn't produced by burning coal, oil or natural gas that emits world-warming carbon dioxide. Zeng Yuqun, founder and chairman of Chinese battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., or CATL, said a “dirty battery," or one produced with lots of carbon emissions, is “big trouble.”

“That’s why I’m looking for sustainability in all of this very quickly,” said Zeng, one of China's richest