![]() The working group’s recommendations are not expected until after the midterm elections. The Biden administration formed a working group earlier this year to come up with proposals to deal with domestic mining and sourcing from foreign countries. ![]() However, DOE declined to say when it proposed the loan whether it included conditions that could help improve working conditions around the mine, something experts said would help reduce the odds of conflict breaking out. Jigar Shah, head of the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, expressed confidence in the company at the time, saying the company released “some of the best environmental, social and governance sort of reports in the mining world.” ![]() financing could lead to dislocation that foments distrust that could be exploited by hostile actors ( Greenwire, May 11). The graphite for the anodes will come entirely from Syrah’s Balama mine in a region of Mozambique where violent fighters linked to ISIS have fomented an international humanitarian crisis. to expand a graphite anode plant in Louisiana for electric vehicle batteries. battery manufacturing perhaps more than any president since the growth of modern consumer electronics through the recent Inflation Reduction Act, last year’s bipartisan infrastructure package and a swath of other federal financing programs.īut his administration has been mum on how it’s addressing risks within the supply chain for making batteries, including human rights issues near the mine sites where raw materials for batteries are originally gathered.įor example, the Energy Department in July finalized a $102 million loan to a subsidiary of Australian mining company Syrah Resources Ltd. “Anyone worried about the state of the planet should be alarmed by that.” Mining “There is a danger with this labeling that it demonizes the EV industry, the battery industry,” Dummett said. That means allies of the fossil fuel industry may now say the Biden administration is confident that “clean energy” relies on child labor but is doing little to deal with the problem. government list exists primarily for informational purposes and is “not intended to be punitive,” according to the department. Unlike the full ban against solar panels from Xinjiang, the U.S. to take greater steps in advocating for better treatment of mine workers.īut Mark Dummett, a researcher at Amnesty International who helped expose that children were mining cobalt in Congo, was horrified by the Labor Department’s action.ĭummett said his concern lies in what he views as a toothless approach from the department. On paper, the department’s targeting of batteries would seem to be reason for applause from advocates for improving the situation in Congo who want the U.S. But cobalt batteries may still make up some percentage of vehicles sold in the global market in the near term because of its unique properties, such as a higher energy density that can enable faster traveling speeds. In 2016, Amnesty International, a human rights organization, published an investigation that found tens of thousands of Congolese children were working up to 12 hours a day at small cobalt mining sites across the country.Įight years later, a large percentage of the cobalt mined in the DRC comes from mines “where thousands of children work in hazardous conditions,” the Labor Department said.Īuto companies are increasingly making EVs with lithium-iron phosphate batteries, which use no cobalt. There are no cobalt processing plants in the United States. The Democratic Republic of Congo supplies more than 70 percent of the world’s mined cobalt, a metal used in batteries that provide power to anything from consumer laptops and cellphones to electric vehicles and energy storage facilities for power grids.Ĭhina, meanwhile, owns some of the largest cobalt mines in Congo and is the largest processor of the metal. The criticisms aired by the department were similar to those levied by Republicans and allies of the fossil fuel industry against the Biden administration’s support for electric vehicles, centering on China’s dominance in the battery industry. Yet, that clean energy future cannot - and will not - be built on the backs of forced laborers,” the Labor Department said in its report. “Clean energy is a central pillar of the Biden-Harris Administration’s policy goals. Solar ingots - the term used for blocks of processed polysilicon - as well as wafers, cells and modules were also added to the list of goods made with forced or child labor, since many of those goods are made using Xinjiang polysilicon. About half the world’s polysilicon comes from Xinjiang but is banned from the United States due to concerns that it is produced by Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim groups through forced labor.
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