Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming blasted the Biden administration Thursday for allowing China to be “a big player” in American energy.
“If we follow President Biden’s agenda, Americans will become even more dependent on China and Russia,” Barrasso said during a hearing on President Joe Biden’s budget request for the Energy Department in fiscal year 2024. “These countries control the complete supply in so many ways of the minerals used in the renewable and battery technologies President Biden favors. We have many of these minerals right here in the United States. But this administration has actually blocked access to them.”
Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in August, which included a tax credit for electric battery production and tax credits for various energy-efficient appliances and electric cars.
Despite Biden’s push for electric vehicles, the Environmental Protection Agency made a determination Jan. 31 that would block the mining of 1.4 billion tons of copper, gold, molybdenum, silver and rhenium in Alaska in order to protect salmon.
“President Biden would rather get these minerals from China than mine and process them here at home,” Barrasso added.
Barrasso also noted that a Chinese company, Microvast, was slated to receive $200 million from the Department of Energy despite its reported ties to the Chinese Communist Party, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
“I think many Americans are asking themselves the question: Why is Joe Biden rewarding a country that contributed to the deaths of more than 1.1 million Americans and nearly seven million people worldwide, and why is the White House saying that China is a big player in our energy policy?” Barrasso asked Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.
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