New US Energy Secretary wants to shift strategic focus on energy metals
Jennifer Granholm particularly wants to increase national production of the metals.

US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said Tuesday that the United States must ramp up domestic production of minerals for making electric vehicles as long as it is done in a sustainable manner. The United States has been trying to wean its automotive supply chain from China and other countries for years, with mixed results. President Joe Biden signed an ordinance last month calling for greater coordination between federal agencies on supply chain issues, but many environmentalists have vowed to oppose new U.S. mines. Still, the United States relies on China for lithium, rare earths, and other EV minerals, a situation that Biden and Granholm have described as unsustainable. "Much of the country is sitting on the materials we need to make battery technologies," Granholm said at a webinar hosted by Securing America's Future Energy, a non-partisan renewable energy advocacy group. Granholm, who said she drives an electric Chevrolet Bolt from General Motors Co., said there would be "huge demand" for a sustainable mining process that mines and refines minerals in the United States, although it wasn't immediately clear how she defined the term. Granholm also suggested that coal miners - hit by falling demand from the power generation sector - could move on to digging for EV metals. "Having (coal workers) digging for critical materials is a natural change for them," said Granholm, a former Michigan governor who was sustained secretary last month. The Department of Energy said last week it would reopen a more than $ 40 billion clean energy loan program. The ministry's scientists are working to cut electric car charging times to less than 15 minutes, so a car can travel 300 miles (483 km), and also to cut the cost of battery packs, which would make electric cars more affordable, Granholm said .





