The Biden administration on June 8 released a fact sheet and set of reports outlining plans to address shortfalls in semiconductor and battery manufacturing as well as critical minerals supplies, marking a new chapter in U.S. efforts to compete with China and other nations that dominate those markets.
The policy-heavy document was the latest step in an effort the Biden administration started in February to tackle supply chain vulnerabilities. However, many of the proposals for the semiconductor and battery sectors will require Congress to sign off on funding decisions, such as allocating at least $50 billion in investments for domestic semiconductor manufacturing and providing $50 billion to fund a federal supply chain resilience program.
Other concepts floated in the document were similar policies to those launched under former President Donald Trump, including quickly releasing U.S. Energy Department clean energy funding for mines and mineral processing and identifying key domestic locations for mining and processing battery metals such as copper, lithium and cobalt.
One of the largest policy shifts the administration made was about mineral sourcing, with the White House declaring it would move forward on setting sustainable mining regulations through public-private partnerships.
"Similar wording came out of the Trump administration in either executive orders or talking points," Ian Lange said in an interview. Lange is an economist at the Colorado School of Mines and a former White House economist under President Donald Trump.
"The executive branch is constrained by what legal authority it has. With a lot of people thinking about this issue, you kind of come back to the same place," Lange said. "My sense is that they are doing the best they can with things that don't need congressional approval. … But you can't do so much [without] it, right? What can they do? The laws are what they are, and they are not going to be changed."
Excluding legislative requests, the most prominent recommendation the White House made addressing the critical and battery mineral sectors was for the U.S. Energy Department Loan Program Office to "expeditiously" review applications from U.S. facilities that are refining and processing critical minerals as well as projects focused on the domestic production of advanced technology vehicle battery cells and packs.
The loan program contains approximately $17 billion in loan authority under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program and was expanded to include this type of project under Trump.
The DOE also released a blueprint geared toward establishing a secure domestic supply chain by 2030. Using the federal loan program could help achieve that goal as industry experts have said such federal grants and loans could inject new life into these types of U.S. businesses, especially mines.
"This contains significant proposals that, while working to build strong domestic supply chains, will also work to meet our nation's climate challenge. Some of this can be done by the administration, and other parts will require Congress' partnership," Ron Minsk said in an interview. Minsk is policy director at the nonprofit Securing America's Future Energy and former special assistant to President Barack Obama.
"I'm hopeful, given the understanding of the critical importance of developing domestic supply chains to promote and enhance our economic and national security, that Congress will join in this effort to address the challenges that are outlined in this report by implementing many of the proposals," Minsk said.
John Smirnow, general counsel and vice president of market strategy at the Solar Energy Industries Association, told S&P Global Market Intelligence that "long-term federal investments" will be needed to drive demand while supporting new renewable energy capacity and ongoing production. "It's going to take time with commitment, but if you have a federal administration that's leading the way [like] the Biden administration is, I think we'll get there," Smirnow said of the policy document.
The White House document also called for U.S. government agencies to work with private industry, labor groups and nonprofits to develop sustainability standards for critical minerals. This initiative will begin as a public-private partnership and should eventually involve Congress in the promulgation of federal sustainability guidelines, according to the fact sheet.
The document also set out a suite of federal policy recommendations related to specific minerals, including a request for the U.S. Geological Survey and the DOE to explore the development of a national lithium stockpile.
"Domestically, part of what's most promising [from the recommendations] is the direction we see to update our mining laws and mining rules so that, if we are sourcing some of these minerals from public lands, we're doing so in a way that respects justice and the environment a little bit more," Aaron Mintzes, senior policy council at the environmental group Earthworks, told Market Intelligence.