President Joe Biden reportedly plans to invoke wartime powers to increase domestic production of critical minerals needed to build batteries for electric vehicles and other types of energy technologies.
Biden is responding to outside pressure, most notably from Democratic lawmakers and green energy interest groups, and will invoke the Defense Production Act to produce more minerals, thereby enabling the development and construction of more green technologies, Bloomberg reported. [bold, links added]
Batteries and renewable energy technologies require metals such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel to operate, and the Biden administration had already been exploring ways to increase domestic production of such materials before Russia invaded Ukraine.
A range of interests has urged Biden to use the Defense Production Act to accelerate battery, wind turbine, and solar panel building as a means of easing the strain on consumers and shifting the economy away from fossil fuels, so as to avoid the rising energy prices now straining households.
Republicans have also urged him to use the Defense Production Act.
Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Bill Cassidy, and Jim Risch joined Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin in urging Biden to use the act to improve mineral production and reduce foreign imports.
Read more at Examiner
OK, fine & dandy. So are you just going to suspend the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the MYRIAD of other federal & State environmental laws & regulations and local ordinances to “green light” this massive effort? What about all the endless environmental LITIGATION promoted by the Sierra Club, NRDC, WildEarth Guardians, et al. So, all the sudden those folks are going to play nice with the mining industry? Do you realize how UNGREEN these extraction & smelting processes are for the minerals needed for this purported GREEN revolution? Hate to throw a “wet blanket” on the festivities, but pencil me in as a SKEPTIC on this one…
California Governor Benito Newsolini already decided NEPA is to be ignored to get the lithium from the Salton Sea area… but he also used NEPA to sue the Feds to prevent them from doing fire mitigation & forest clean up on Federal lands in Calizuela…
& then blamed the Feds (under Trump) for not doing anything to mitigate the fires etc. There’s hardly a single person in Califalure who didn’t fall for this BS by Newsolini thanks to the media. They also didn’t mention that Newsolini cut the fire mitigation budget by 50% last year.
While Newsom may elect to ignore NEPA at the Salton Sea, I am quite sure one of the environmental NGO’s will hold his feet in the fire. These folks despise ANY form of extraction, so I’m dubious that will stand…
One other thing. So when you (domestically) cannot possibly achieve the massive SCALE of minerals required for all these “green” gadgets you already know who (then) you will be beholden to…China & Russia. You just traded one set of challenges for an equally daunting and (probably) more complex set of geo-political headaches. Happy Trails…
What ” Wartime Powers ” ??!
Congress has not declared war since
December 8, 1941 !
Even Retard Joe is old enough to remember that.
Biden Americas 3rd Dictator behind Clinton(Bill)and Obama only Biden will be far worst