President Joe Biden may invoke the Defense Production Act as soon as this week to spur domestic production of critical minerals needed to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles and long-term storage, according to a source familiar with the discussions.
Doing so would add critical minerals such as lithium, nickel, graphite, cobalt, and manganese to the list of items covered by the 1950 Defense Production Act, a law enacted amid the Korean War that allows the president to use emergency authority to make large orders of a certain type of product or expand productive capacity and supply.
The White House will work closely with the departments of Energy and the Interior to implement the presidential determination under the Defense Production Act, the source said, adding that a presidential determination signed by Biden would “in no way” bypass or supersede permitting or environmental review processes for mining these minerals.
The source also said that the actions being considered aren’t loans or direct purchases for critical minerals; instead, they would fund feasibility studies, co-product and by-product production at current operations, as well as productivity and safety modernization.
Both Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act during the Covid-19 crisis. A decision by Biden to use this authority for the domestic production of critical minerals would come as Russia’s war on Ukraine and the resulting energy shocks have impacted supply chains for nickel — and caused nickel prices to spike.
