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President Biden launched the Defense Production Act on Thursday to accelerate local mining of critical minerals needed to manufacture electric vehicle batteries.

The White House said the move would reduce its dependence on the United States. Chinese and other authoritarian regimes while planning to move away from gas-powered vehicles.

“We need to adopt all the tools and technologies that can help free us from our dependence on fossil fuels and steer us towards more home grown clean energy,” said Mr Biden. “We need to end our long-term addiction” Chinese and other countries for inputs that will power the future.”

Appealing to the Defense Production Act means the federal government is now considering supporting the supply of critical minerals, including nickel and cobalt, which are vital to the national interest. Thus, the White House will be able to increase funding and aid to domestic companies working to extract these minerals.

However, the management does not give loans to companies or offer to purchase mines directly. Instead, it will provide assistance in mining operations and conduct feasibility studies on how to modernize the domestic mining industry.

White House officials say the overall effect will be to encourage local mining rather than directly subsidizing it. The resolution reflects Congressional Democrats’ deep opposition to increased domestic mining, particularly what will happen on federal soil.

“We’ve seen abuses and many sites abandoned,” said Ben Ray Luján, Democrat Senator for New Mexico. “The United States government takes responsibility and takes a lifetime to undo it, but what is never talked about is the people in the community living in that community, how much harm they have suffered.”

Critics say the Democratic opposition has severely curtailed Mr Biden’s attempts to end foreign domination of the critical mineral supply chain. They say it may be worthwhile to fund some feasibility and modernization studies, but will do little to speed up the Byzantine permitting process for new mines to become operational.

“Announcements like today are an attempt at a political cover-up, not a real solution to actually gaining access to American mineral resources, only two months after the leases for a mining project on federal land in my district were canceled,” said Pete Stauber, Republican Representative of Minnesota. . “We should look at the actions of this administration, not the words,” he said.

According to the report of London-based Benchmark Mineral Intelligence firm. Chinese produces 80% of the total raw material used for advanced batteries. Lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite are at the heart of electric vehicle manufacturing.

in 2019 Chinese produced 72% of the world’s lithium-ion rechargeable batteries, while the US accounted for 9%. The Department of Energy says these types of batteries are most often used to power electric vehicles.

The advantage of the communist regime is the result of long-term investment and planning. Beijing is on track to develop at least 107 lithium-ion battery megafactories by 2030. At least 53 of these factories are already up and running.

The US is expected to develop nine megafactories during the same period. Currently only three of them are working.

“The supply chain for electric vehicle batteries is directly Chinesesaid Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and the Environment at the Conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute. “Opening a new rare earth mineral processing plant in the US is more or less impossible due to our strict regulations.”

ChineseIts dominance also stems from its commercial partnerships with countries accused of employing both slave and child labour. In particular, the Democratic Republic of Congo is alleged to employ forced child labor to extract raw cobalt, which was then exported to other countries. Chinese for the transaction.

Beijing processes these critical minerals and turns them into electric vehicle batteries in the state of Xinjiang, where the communist regime is accused of violating the human rights of hundreds of thousands of Uighur Muslims.

GOP lawmakers, especially those on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, have long sought to prevent US tax dollars from going to buy electric vehicle pulp or critical minerals made with slave labor.

“Instead of continuing to rely on nations that exploit child labor, we must hold our nation to a much higher standard and empower American workers to responsibly source these critical minerals under the best environmental and labor standards in the world,” said Mr. Stauber. .

Legislation on the matter was blocked by Democrats every time it was put to a vote in the House Transportation Committee.

“Ending child labor should not be a partisan effort, and it remains a mystery to me why my Democratic colleagues continue to turn a blind eye to these abuses,” Mr. Stauber said.