Biden administration officials touted that nearly 200 new clean energy projects have been announced since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), but spoke of the need to develop an energy-independent supply chain to meet demand.
Speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo highlighted the development of domestic supply chains for renewable energy and its components.
“For batteries—where we must work with allies and partners to obtain the critical minerals we need—the IRA requires that purchased EV final assembly occur in North America in support of manufacturing jobs at home ,” Adeyemo said. “This approach is already working. Since the IRA passed, nearly 200 new clean energy projects totaling $83 billion have already been announced in the U.S.”
A Treasury spokesperson confirmed to The Hill that the definition of clean energy projects used by the department includes batteries and storage, clean vehicles, fuel cells, wind and solar manufacturing, charging and wind and solar generation.
Adeyemo also spoke of the need to strengthen the security of the renewable energy supply chain, saying “this transition must improve our energy security.” However, he said, some components, such as critical minerals necessary for uses like wind turbines and electric vehicle batteries, cannot currently be produced entirely in the U.S.
“The International Energy Agency estimates that the world is already on track to double critical minerals demand by 2040—and more still will be needed to meet our climate goals,” he said. “The United States will need to build new supply chains to access these inputs and other technologies that power the clean energy economy.”
Critical mineral capacity is currently dominated by China, while the U.S. relies entirely on imports for supply of 14 such minerals. The Biden administration has frequently pushed to increase domestic production particularly of EV batteries, announcing $3 billion in funding for domestic manufacturing last October. The administration has set a goal of electric vehicles making up 50 percent of new car sales by the end of the decade.