Senators Urge Biden to Invoke Defense Act for Battery Materials
- Manchin, Murkowski among 4 signatories of letter sent Friday
- Letter cites graphite, manganese, cobalt, nickel, and lithium
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U.S. Senators sent a bipartisan letter to the Biden administration Friday afternoon asking the president to invoke the Defense Production Act to accelerate production of battery materials that are needed to power electric vehicles.
The letter, signed by Democrat Joe Manchin and Republicans Lisa Murkowski, James Risch and Bill Cassidy, said doing so would bolster America’s critical mineral supply chains by ensuring responsible mining and sourcing. The letter comes two weeks after President Joe Biden announced the U.S. is seeking to boost domestic extraction of minerals known as rare earths.