WASHINGTON, Thursday, March 31 – Today, President Biden announced plans to invoke the Defense Production Act as a means of increasing domestic production and mining of critical minerals needed to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles and long-term energy storage.
Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) Managing Director Harry Godfrey, who leads the Advanced Energy Manufacturing and Infrastructure Working Group for AEE, released the following statement:
“We applaud the Biden Administration for invoking the Defense Production Act to expand domestic production of energy storage technology and access to the critical minerals that are essential to storage. Energy storage, both stationary and in electric vehicles, is essential to swiftly reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, building a clean, affordable economy, and securing America.
“The United States already has a robust domestic advanced energy industry that employs more than 3 million Americans. Safely securing the critical minerals that power clean energy technologies will create many additional middle-class jobs in an industry poised for sustained and accelerated growth for decades to come as the global economy transitions to clean, reliable and affordable resources.”