China’s gains and losses from energy policies during Joe Biden’s presidency were a contested topic during an April 26 hearing of the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Materials Subcommittee.
“Until we increase U.S. capacity for critical mineral extraction and refining, increasing our reliance on renewable energy and EVs [electric vehicles] will only benefit China,” said Subcommittee Chair Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) in his opening statement.
He also drew attention to China’s use of forced Uyghur labor.
“We need to take a long-term view of our critical mineral needs and find ways to meet those needs ethically and sustainably,” said Subcommittee Ranking Member Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) in his own opening statement.
“It honestly does not sound like Republicans even want to do anything about China’s lead in these critical industries,” he added, referring like other Democrats to spending in last year’s Schumer–Manchin bill, dubbed the “Inflation Reduction Act.”
Trevor Higgins, an energy and environmental expert with the Center for American Progress, told Tonko that the IRA and other Democrat-led laws from the last Congress are driving needed supply chains for advanced batteries back to the United States.
“Consumers across the world are interested in EVs, and automakers want to build them, and IRA’s making sure that every stage in the supply chain [will] have a home in the United States,” he said.
He concurred with Tonko that recent vehicle emissions standards from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are not EV mandates because they are technology neutral.
Yet Daniel Simmons, vice president for policy with the Institute for Energy Research, said that the standards are “de facto mandates when it comes to mandating massive amounts of EVs, because that’s the only way you can meet EPA’s upcoming GHG [greenhouse gas] regulations for vehicles.”
Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) told Simmons she worries the Biden administration’s “rush to green” will “strengthen China and weaken America’s energy security.”
“The lithium, the cobalt, the nickel—everything that goes into the battery packs—those are all dependent on Chinese supply chains, and that will not change for years, no matter how many dollars are in the IRA,” Simmons told Rodgers.
Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) seized the opportunity to argue that Republicans’ debt limit bill, which received a vote April 26, would “play right into China’s hands.”
The Republican-led bill eliminates clean energy tax credits established in last year’s IRA and takes other steps Pallone characterized as harmful to the United States.
“These investments help keep us competitive on the global stage, since China and other countries are already building the clean energy future,” Pallone said.
Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) followed Pallone with a few sharp remarks on the nature of U.S.-China technological competition.
“China’s objective is not to save the planet from climate change. China’s objective is to rule the planet as the sole superpower, and anyone who does not understand that I think contributes to the national security risk that we’re facing with China,” he said.
“Is clean energy clean?” Palmer asked Mark Mills of the Manhattan Institute.
“By the definition of what we used to think [broadly] in environmental domains, the answer is no. It’s no cleaner than, at best, any other form of energy,” Mills answered.
Mills pointed out that rare earth refining is still overwhelmingly dominated by China.
