As Ford CEO Jim Farley recently mentioned, batteries remain the biggest obstacle to EV adoption, as automakers are scrambling to secure enough of those units to expand production by a signifiant amount in the coming years. With the bulk of the raw materials needed for EV battery production coming from other countries – chiefly, China – FoMoCo has also called on the U.S. government to speed up the mining permit process and released autonomous vehicle federal policy framework, while the Ford-backed lobby group Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AAI) has asked for improvements to existing charging infrastructure, proposed new EPA standards, and recently released an EV battery recycling framework. Now, AAI is also calling on Congress to reform its mine permitting process, as first reported by Automotive News.
AAI – along with roughly 350 other groups and companies – has sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to reform the current permitting process, as it currently takes upwards of seven years to a decade for a mine to to receive the approval it needs to operate in the U.S. – far longer than it does in other parts of the world, where that same process can be completed in two to three years.
“Public and private sector infrastructure projects will improve our economy and the lives of millions of Americans,” AAI wrote in the letter. “Investing in highways, bridges, transit systems, and ports will move people and goods more quickly and efficiently. Building new energy production, transmission, and distribution projects promises to improve energy reliability and reduce emissions. Expanding access to broadband can close the digital divide, and rebuilding failing water systems will ensure safe drinking water. And we can strengthen our national security by expanding domestic production of critical technologies and the raw materials they require. But America cannot accomplish any of this if the outdated, inefficient, and unpredictable permitting process is not improved.”
AAI didn’t provide any specific piece of legislation to address this issue, but did note that it should be based on four principles – predictability, efficiency, transparency, and stakeholder input. The idea here is to speed up the permitting process in an effort to kickstart the raw material mining needed to significantly ramp up the production of EVs, though it remains to be seen how or if Congress will react.
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Comments
In other words, allow lithium mining to pollute the environment faster and in a greater amount. But, we have to save the planet from CO2. What a crock!
Nonsense.
They are asking for the process to run quicker.
Process efficiency is not the same as cutting regulations.
That doesn’t sound good for the environment.
This would be a great skit for SNL… Brandon refuses to allow oil production supposedly because it is not “green,” but strip mining for rare earth minerals is perfectly fine. Maybe we should also relax our laws forbidding child labor and slavery so that we can produce these batteries as cheap as our good friends over in China do?
Arkansass is one step ahead of you
There you go. Nothing like more strip mining for toxic chemicals in America to feed the green party need for battery vehicles. That is really greener than oil.
Nonsense.
And if you know it’s nonsense and still say it then really shame on you.
If you don’t know it then still shame on you for being so ignorant.