Sen. Manchin of West Virginia, a Democrat who sometimes votes with conservatives given his state’s deep red electorate, recently tore into President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle agenda during a U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing. Sen. Manchin chairs the committee, which makes sense given his state’s traditional reliance on coal and his position as a moderate and swing vote.
As background, the hearing was meant to examine the incentives the federal government is giving for EVs, ostensibly for the purpose of creating and sustaining reliable supply chains for EVs. Sen. Manchin, the Chairman of the committee, noted that the Biden Administration’s proposed rules are not in line with the Inflation Reduction Act and how China currently dominates EV production and supply chains.
Speaking on the matter, Sen. Manchin highlighted what the Biden Administration is up to and what the Inflation Reduction Act was meant to accomplish. He said, “When it comes to EVs, this administration is implementing the Build Back Better approach they wanted, not the Inflation Reduction Act law that passed. The Inflation Reduction Act had three purposes: 1) Reduce our debt; 2) Secure our energy and produce cleaner in America than anywhere else; and 3) Bring back manufacturing of the building blocks that run our country and made us the superpower of the world. While some may believe I just have a vendetta against EVs, I just think we got way ahead of our skis on this.”
Continuing, he argued that while he is not against EVs in principle, he is against the Biden Administration’s EV “crusade.” he said, “Alternative fueled vehicle technologies like EVs, hydrogen vehicles, and hybrids can play an important role in lowering emissions while providing an opportunity for the United States to maintain our status as an automotive powerhouse, re-shore our manufacturing base, and create good paying jobs. My problem is not with EVs. My problem is this Administration’s crusade to convert everyone over to an EV regardless of where the battery came from or what the law actually says.”
Sen. Manchin went on to note how the Biden Administration’s agenda conflicts with the provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, saying, “First, in proposed guidance the administration has cut the IRA critical mineral sourcing percentage requirements in half—which is a blatant violation of the numbers that Congress wrote directly into the law. They are also pretending battery component manufacturing is the same as critical minerals processing. Extraction and processing are different than manufacturing and it’s stated in the bill that manufacturing has to be done in North America to get the $3,750. They are proposing fake “critical minerals free trade agreements.” Indonesia is controlled by China. You can’t think that Indonesia is going to be a free trade agreement country, these are the things we are talking about.”
One item with which he was particularly concerned was China’s involvement in America’s battery supply chains. He said, “And, most recently with their proposed rules on Foreign Entities of Concern, the administration is delaying deadlines we wrote into the IRA to remove China completely from our battery supply chains. As shown in the chart behind me, under the weakened Foreign Entity of Concern rules, vehicles that contain battery minerals and components from China and other adversaries can qualify for years longer than the law allows. The Biden Administration didn’t write this bill and, quite frankly, it seems like some of the people implementing the law haven’t read it or really understand what our intentions were.”
Later in the hearing, Sen. Manchin brought up much the same issue when questioning Department of Energy Secretary David Turk. The Senator asked, “Some U.S. automakers and battery producers have said there’s just no way we can make these EV batteries without China. That makes no sense to me at all since most of this technology was started here in America and then taken to China and other foreign countries of concern. Do you agree with some automakers that it’s okay for U.S. tax credits to benefit these countries of concern such as China, Russia, North Korea, Iran or another such as that?”
Replying, Secretary Turk told him, “I think we can absolutely do it without China. We talked about the fact that graphite right now, the processing, is 100% in China. Just from the investments, the tools that you’ve given us so far, right now our projection is that 16% of the graphite that will be used in passenger vehicles in the U.S. by 2027 will be U.S. [graphite]. That goes from basically zero to 16% just with the investments we’ve made so far.”
Watch Manchin’s hearing performance here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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