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The Biden administration plans to begin a $3.1 billion effort Monday to spur domestic production of advanced batteries, which is essential to its plan to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles and renewable energy.

President Biden has encouraged automakers to use electric vehicles and utilities to switch to solar, wind and other clean energy, saying it’s critical to eliminating transitions. pollution that is warming the planet dangerously.

Next rising energy prices In large part due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, administration officials described the transition to clean energy as a way to isolate consumers from fluctuations in global oil markets and achieve true energy independence.

Energy secretary Jennifer Granholm last week described renewable energy as “the greatest peace plan this world has ever known”.

But lithium, cobalt, and other minerals currently required for electric car batteries and energy storage are primarily processed in Asia. China alone controls about 80 percent of the world’s processing and refining of these critical minerals.

Senator Joe Manchin IIIA crucial vote for potential climate legislation in the equally divided Senate, West Virginia Democrat said. last month He said he has “serious concerns about moving towards an EV-only future” as China controls essential minerals for car batteries.

“We cannot replace one unreliable foreign supply chain with another and think that will solve our problems,” he said at the April 7 session of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

A senior management official said Ms. Granholm plans to reveal her funding plan during her visit to Detroit on Monday. The $3.1 billion grant, along with a separate $60 million program for battery recycling, is an effort to “reduce our reliance on competing countries like China, which has an advantage over the global supply chain,” according to the Department of Energy’s statement.

Department of Energy officials said the funding is for companies that can create new, upgraded or expanded processing facilities and battery recycling programs. The grants will be funded through the $1 trillion infrastructure law, which includes more than $7 billion to improve the local battery supply chain.

In April, President Biden introduced the Defense Production Act to provide government support for the mining, processing and recycling of critical materials. lithiumnickel, cobaltgraphite and manganese.

The move came in an election year when Republican leaders in Congress blamed high gas prices on the Biden administration’s pursuit of renewable energy – a claim that most economists say is untrue.

However, achieving widespread electrification will require large federal investment. A June report An official from the Energy Department said there was “a real threat that US companies will not be able to benefit from local and global market growth” for batteries, and that “the US risks long-term dependence on external sources for batteries and critical supplies”.

Independent experts and industry officials raised similar concerns at a recent congressional hearing of the Science, Space and Technology House of Representatives.

“While demand for electric vehicles is strong, supply chain constraints will limit their entry into the market,” Chris Nevers of electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian Automotive Inc. told lawmakers.

Mr Nevers said the United States has the mineral resources and industrial capacity to create a fully domestic electric vehicle battery supply chain, but for that to happen, the federal government must mobilize a massive “all of the above.”

Venkat Srinivasan, director of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science at Argonne National Laboratory, told the panel that the United States “could become a dominant force in energy storage technology” and “has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to seize it.” moment.”

Dr. Between electric vehicles and grid storage, the lithium-ion battery market in the United States is expected to grow 20 to 30 times over the next decade, but a secure local supply chain is needed, Srinivasan said.

The Biden administration wants half of all new vehicles sold in the United States to be electric by 2030. The President also issued purchasing guidelines for all new cars and trucks purchased by the federal government to transform the federal fleet of 600,000 vehicles by 2035. it is zero emission.