The Department of Energy announced $3.1 billion on Monday in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to make more batteries and components in the United States. The funding, according to Administration officials, will go toward bolstering domestic supply chains, which they explain will help to create jobs and lower costs for families.
The investment is supposed to back the creation of “new, retrofitted, and expanded commercial facilities as well as manufacturing demonstrations and battery recycling.” The Department of Energy announced a separate $60 million to back second-life applications for batteries that had once been used to power electric vehicles. The funding will help to back “new processes for recycling materials back into the battery supply chain.”
WATCH: THE AG'S RAN ON "GETTING" TRUMP
“Positioning the United States front and center in meeting the growing demand for advanced batteries is how we boost our competitiveness and electrify our transportation system,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced. “President 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.”
WATCH: THE TIMING OF TRUMP'S TRIAL, WHY NOW?
Administration officials expect the global lithium-ion battery market to grow “rapidly" over the next decade and stated that the Department of Energy is working with industry to prepare the U.S. for enhanced market demand.
SECURITY IN OVERDRIVE: HOME DEPOT'S UNCONVENTIONAL RESPONSE TO NEW YORK'S CRIME CRISIS
According to the Department of Energy, over 2.5 million plug-in electric vehicles had been sold in America by the end of March. The department announced that “responsible and sustainable domestic sourcing of the critical materials used to make lithium-ion batteries—such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and graphite—will help avoid or mitigate supply chain disruptions and accelerate battery production in America to meet this demand and support the adoption of electric vehicles.”
WHO'S UP NEXT? BALTIMORE MAYOR NEXT TO PLAY IDENTITY POLITICS...
Administration officials stated on Monday that the investments are “key components” of the Biden Administration’s “whole-of-government” supply chain strategy to “strengthen America’s energy independence to reduce our reliance on competing nations and support the President’s goal to have electric vehicles make up half of all vehicles sales in America by 2030.”
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law directs over $7 billion to strengthen the U.S. battery supply chain, including producing and recycling critical minerals without new extraction or mining and sourcing materials for domestic manufacturing.
The law also contains $7.5 billion for electric vehicle chargers, $5 billion for electric transit buses, and $5 billion for clean and electric school buses.
Discover alternative ideas that will make you think
Engage in mind bending debate
Earn points, rise in rank, have fun
