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WASHINGTON (AP) — Continuing its efforts to dramatically increase electric vehicle sales, Biden’s management on Monday announced a $3. 1 billion investment for U. S. corporations that make and recycle lithium-ion batteries.
Last year’s $1 trillion infrastructure law investments are separate from a Joe Biden executive order issued this spring, invoking the Defense Production Act to increase production of lithium and other critical minerals used to force electric vehicles.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the new program will offer subsidies to corporations that process or recycle battery parts to build a domestic source in a market now controlled by China and other countries. Subsidies will help U. S. energy independence. They will help Biden’s goal of having electricity. cars account for part of all vehicle sales in the United States through 2030, he said.
Electric cars accounted for 4. 2% of new vehicle sales in the U. S. The U. S. in the first quarter of this year, according to Edmunds. com.
“Positioning the United States at the forefront of assembly, the demand in complex battery development, is how we increase our competitiveness and electrify our transportation system,” Granholm said in a statement.
Granholm, the former governor of Michigan, announced the battery initiative as a stopover in her home state to highlight the blank energy provisions in the bipartisan infrastructure bill Biden signed in November.
The subsidy program “will give our domestic supply chain the surprise it wants to be safer and less dependent on other countries,” while creating good-paying jobs and reducing greenhouse fuel emissions that are warming the planet, he said.
“We want a lot of batteries. And we want Americans to make those batteries here in america,” Gina McCarthy, Biden’s weather adviser, added in a separate briefing Monday at the White House.
The $3 billion will be allocated in the form of grants to up to 30 companies, officials said, and represents nearly a portion of the $7 billion approved under the Infrastructure Act for the domestic battery supply chain.
Companies will need to adjust subsidies on a 50-50 basis, with a minimum investment of $50 million, the Energy Department said. The cash will go to corporations that can create new, improved or expanded processing facilities, such as battery recycling programs, the branch said.
Battery processing and recycling is part of a broader effort through Biden to shift the country from gasoline-powered cars to electric cars and combat climate change.
A March 31 executive order to increase the extraction of lithium and other critical minerals waives or suspends existing environmental and hardwork standards, the White House said. Nor does it address the main impediment to expanding domestic mining: the multi-year procedure. required to discharge a federal permit for a new mine.
Still, mining supporters and Congress applauded Biden’s use of the Defense Production Act.
Rich Nolan, president and CEO of the National Mining Association, called it a historic step in the White House to “recognize the importance of minerals and drive the electrification of the automotive industry. “
But unless management also acts to speed up approvals of new hard rock mines, “we are fueling the mineral dominance of geopolitical rivals” such as China and Russia, Nolan said.
As of March 31, more than 2. 5 million plug-in electric cars had been sold in the United States, adding up to more than 800,000 since Biden took office, the Energy Department said. Battery prices have fallen more than 90% since 2008, while functionality has increased.
“Responsible and sustainable domestic sourcing of critical tissues used to make lithium-ion batteries, such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite, will help avoid or mitigate supply chain disruptions and increase battery production in the United States to meet this call and adoption. of electric vehicles,” the branch said in a statement.
“Long-term mobility is electric,” Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich. , said in a statement. technologies needed to implement the next all-electric fleet,” Peters added.
The Infrastructure Act is expected to lessen U. S. dependency. UU. de foreign manufacturers like China for those critical technologies “and our automakers are delivering on the developing call for cleaner and safer cars,” Peters said.
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Associated Press Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this story.
Matthew Daly, The Associated Press