U.S.A.
Page 8 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
March 7, 2022
U.S. wants to cut into China’s electric battery dominance
By Kathleen Ronayne
The Associated Press
S
ACRAMENTO, Calif. — President Joe Biden in
February highlighted his efforts to counter China’s
dominance of the electric battery market as he
touted domestic efforts to mine and process lithium and
rare metals necessary to create the technology that
powers cars, electronics, wind turbines, and more.
The
Democratic
president
announced
his
administration is giving $35 million to MP Materials, a
company that mines rare earth metals near the Nevada
border in Southern California. The funding will boost
MP’s ability to process the materials domestically for use
in U.S. manufacturing.
He also touted efforts to extract lithium from
geothermal brine found around California’s Salton Sea.
Biden said U.S. demand for such materials will grow by
400% to 600% over the next several decades.
“We can’t build a future that’s made in America if we
ourselves are dependent on China for the materials that
power the products of today and tomorrow,” Biden said.
“And this is not anti-China, or anti-anything else. It’s
pro-America.”
Biden spoke virtually from Washington with a group of
California business and government leaders, including
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ELECTRIC EFFORTS. Clouds and nearby mountains are reflected
in a polluted canal, once used as a boat dock, along the Salton Sea in
Desert Shores, California, in this July 14, 2021 file photo. President
Joe Biden last month pointed to plans to extract lithium from geothermal
wastewater around the sea as an example of U.S. efforts to compete with
China and other nations when it comes to domestic lithium production.
The metal is a key element in rechargeable batteries. (AP Photo/Marcio
Jose Sanchez, File)
governor Gavin Newsom.
Las Vegas-based MP Materials runs the Mountain Pass
mine and processing facility that is the only one of its kind
in North America. It extracts rare earth metals and
produces a concentrate that’s exported for use in other
countries. Such metals are used to produce magnets
necessary for batteries in electric cars and many other
items.
The federal money will help the company create a
processing facility for “heavy” rare earth metals, and it
follows a $10 million award last year for “light” rare earth
metals. The company is spending $700 million of its own
money for improving processing and creating a
manufacturing facility in Texas to produce magnets. The
company has a deal with General Motors, said Matt
Sloustcher, MP Materials’ senior vice president for policy
and communications.
“My team is committed to bringing this supply chain
home,” company chief executive officer Jim Litinsky told
Biden on the call.
Elsewhere, Biden touted lithium production efforts in
California. Newsom has called the state the Saudi Arabia
of lithium, a reference to that country’s abundance of oil.
Newsom said lithium extraction in California has the
potential to boost national security by improving domestic
supply chains and accelerating the transition away from
fossil fuels in the transportation sector. Biden earlier
noted the nation could produce a half-million electric cars
per year by 2025.
“If it’s as big as it appears to be, this is a game-changer
in terms of our efforts to transition to low-carbon green
growth and to radically change the way we produce and
consume energy,” Newsom said.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy is among
several companies working on extracting lithium from
geothermal brine found around the Salton Sea,
California’s largest lake. Berkshire Hathaway has run
geothermal plants around the lake for decades, but the
lithium has historically been pumped back under ground
with the brine after it’s used to generate power.
With state and federal investments of about $20
million, the company is working on projects to
demonstrate it can extract the lithium and convert it to
battery-grade in a way that’s commercially viable, said
Alicia Knapp, president of BHE Renewables.
The Newsom administration said it wants to ensure
economic benefits from lithium extraction go back to the
areas around the Salton Sea, which have been hit by
economic hardship and environmental degradation as the
lake dries up because of dwindling supplies from the
Colorado River.
Silvia Paz, chairwoman of the state-created Lithium
Valley Commission, told Biden that communities in the
region have seen “unfilled promises” before. She called for
investments in career development and education for
people in the region as well as improvements to basic
services and environmental cleanup.
“We want to be at the table and help you understand
what it means for us to have a prosperous economy,” she
said.
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