A $3.16 billion grant program to bolster the domestic manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries provided through the bipartisan infrastructure law was announced on Monday by the Department of Energy, The Hill reported.
The administration cited the move as an attempt to decrease the reliance of the United States on overseas producers, according to NBC News.
“President Joe Biden’s historic investment in battery production and recycling will give our domestic supply chain the jolt it needs to become more secure and less reliant on other nations — strengthening our clean energy economy, creating good-paying jobs, and decarbonizing the transportation sector,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement, The Hill reported.
Biden has established a goal for electric vehicles to make up half of American vehicle sales by 2030, but the U.S. remains heavily reliant on foreign companies, especially in China, to make the batteries needed for the program, according to NBC News.
“We need a lot of batteries, and we want American workers making those batteries right here in America,” National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy said.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has placed a spotlight on the economic risks from the reliance on overseas supply chains and energy imports, and Biden administration officials have used the sharp increase in gas prices due to the war to emphasize the necessity of shifting toward electric vehicles.
“We’ve seen, even just in recent days, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin trying to use Russia’s energy supply as a weapon against other nations,” said National Economic Council Director Brian Deese. “And that underscores why it’s so important that we in the United States reinvest and re-underwrite our own energy security.”
The announcement comes a month after Biden utilized the Defense Production Act to bolster mining of rare earth metals used in the production of batteries, which Deese described as “complementary support” to the grant program, according to The Hill.
McCarthy said the grant program "will ensure that the United States is not just the world leader in making batteries, but in innovating the advanced battery technologies that we need in the future and securing the supply chain so we can be less vulnerable to global supply disruptions and making this industry sustainable by recycling materials and using cleaner manufacturing processes.”
The lithium battery market will increase by a factor of five to 10 within the next decade, according to research from the Federal Consortium for Advanced Batteries.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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