Photo: iStock/gerenme
Shifting vehicles to 100 percent electric in the U.S. is critical for improving air quality and slashing climate pollution. But the success of this transition doesn’t depend solely on the number of electric vehicles produced. We must also ensure that the transition to clean energy protects the health and human rights of workers and of residents in communities overburdened by pollution all along the supply chain. We can achieve this by institutionalizing and upholding strong environmental, labor, and equity standards while investing in fenceline communities that bear the brunt of the climate crisis and suffer the effects of racial and socioeconomic inequities.
In the past year, several actions at the federal level have made great strides toward this clean energy future. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes massive funding for electric vehicle charging and manufacturing, public transit, passenger and freight rail, and electric school buses — important priorities for decarbonizing the nation’s most polluting sector. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 invests billions of dollars in clean energy, climate action, and environmental justice. In addition, the Biden administration has issued executive actions — such as the announcement to lower industrial carbon emissions through the federal Buy Clean initiative — to address the climate crisis and clean up supply chains for essential goods.
This week, the Department of Energy announced $2.8 billion in federal funding to invest in electric vehicle battery manufacturing in the U.S. The awards will leverage up to $9 billion for the domestic battery supply chain, which will help to spur EV production at the pace required to meet our climate and health goals. Building out a cleaner supply chain in the U.S. will reduce toxic air and climate pollution, create clean energy jobs, lower manufacturing costs, and transform our economy for the better.
These substantial manufacturing and supply chain investments are expected to support over 8,000 jobs across the U.S. and several unions. As Sierra Club and United Auto Workers recently wrote, “Transportation is one of the few parts of the economy with the potential to actually create more union manufacturing jobs as it goes green.”
Sierra Club has a long track record of advocating for high-impact industrial policies. This includes pushing for public investments in clean, sustainable goods coupled with regulations and standards to maximize emissions reductions, reverse inequities, and ensure that jobs and pollution reduction are prioritized in communities that have been harmed by the status quo. We must continue to demand that the EV transition includes strong standards for workers and fenceline communities.
The same day the Biden administration announced the battery manufacturing grants, it launched the American Battery Materials Initiative. This effort will help to ensure that the critical minerals that make up EV batteries and solar panels, along with many other goods, meet strong environmental and labor standards and that there is meaningful community engagement and consultation with Tribal Nations.
To prevent the environmental and socioeconomic harm to communities caused by the mining of critical minerals, we must focus on solutions that will reduce the quantity of new lithium for EV batteries, for example by developing more sustainable alternatives and extending the usefulness of existing batteries through second-life applications. In addition, recycled lithium batteries could reduce the need for new mining. Scientists are currently developing and streamlining the recycling processes for lithium, and we need more investment into these endeavors. We must also find means of redressing the enormous harm already caused by mineral extraction.
We applaud the Biden administration’s actions to reduce toxic climate pollution by increasing the production of electric vehicles with a cleaner supply chain. We must produce the goods we need to thrive, and at the same time slash pollution, invest in our communities, center racial and environmental justice, create good jobs, and preserve life-sustaining ecosystems. The investments announced this week do just that.