IRA rule comments support domestic cobalt and trackingOrganizations that have submitted IRA notice of proposed rulemaking comments to the U.S. Department of the Treasury are clearly varied. What's encouraging is that there is good support for the intent of the IRA's critical mineral sourcing and refining requirements. e.g. The Battery Materials & Technology Coalition urged Treasury in a final rule not to exempt cobalt, graphite, lithium, manganese and nickel from having to meet the foreign entities of concern requirements. The coalition is made up of companies that mine, extract, process, manufacture and recycle battery materials, as well as those that develop battery technologies in North America.
“These five minerals are critical to the battery industry and have high-risk supply chains,” the coalition wrote. “They are also included in all critical minerals and materials lists by the administration, including those managed by the 3 Departments of Interior, Energy, and Defense.”
Even if the critical minerals are in low-value constituent materials like electrolyte salts, electrode binders and electrolyte additives, or battery components, the coalition said it wants assurances that the five minerals would “not be included in the list of ‘non-traceable’ materials.”
“These important minerals should be held fully accountable to the [foreign entities of concern] rules throughout the full life of the credit,” the coalition wrote.
and, Environmental groups have a more positive view of the requirements and are pushing to connect any tracing system to stronger environmental and social standards governing how materials are mined and processed. They say that creating a system to track materials of lesser value, for example, is ambitious but achievable, and point out that Europe will require the same system by 2026.
“We want to adopt what the European Union has done for that reason, we want American competitiveness,” said Aaron Mintzes, senior policy counsel at Earthworks. “Otherwise, how would we be able to sell our cars and batteries in Europe?”
Mintzes signed onto comments that a large coalition of environmental groups sent to Treasury, including the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, Earthworks, the League of Conservation Voters, Public Citizen, the Sierra Club and the Union of Concerned Scientists.
In the letter, the groups said that until the tracing of EV battery metals is fully developed, voluntary standards that tap into multi-stakeholder governance with “independent, publicly available, third-party auditing” can help.
The groups called on Treasury to adopt the definition of “due diligence” and guidelines developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development — which are required by the European Union’s battery law — as well as standards that the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance is developing.
“These tracing and due diligence options will facilitate the responsible use of American tax dollars, the protection of public interest, and regulatory certainty for companies,” they wrote.
https://www.eenews.net/articles/ev-makers-fret-over-pace-of-treasurys-plan-to-block-china/