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The United States and Japan reached a trade agreement for critical minerals used in batteries–a deal aimed at allowing Japan to meet sourcing requirements for new electric-vehicle subsidies in the United States and beginning to shift energy supply chains away from China. Under the deal, the United States and Japan agreed not to levy export duties on critical minerals they trade and coordinate labor standards in producing minerals, among other steps. The Biden administration has started ...

Senator Joe Manchin, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is not happy about how his wording in the Inflation Reduction Act is being interpreted by President Biden’s Department of the Treasury.  Treasury’s proposal allows a much wider claim on the electric vehicle tax credit than he says he intended. The Treasury Department is offering U.S. automakers leniency  in being able to use more foreign-sourced minerals and battery parts without losing the tax break and...

New York will become the first state to pass a law banning natural-gas and other fossil-fuel hookups in new buildings on its way to meeting President Biden’s net zero carbon goals and the state’s own targets for greenhouse-gas reduction. The New York State Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, passed in 2019, calls for a reduction in economy-wide greenhouse-gas emissions of 40 percent by 2030 and 85 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels.

The ban  is to be added to the state’s...

Expensive electricity rates are making home battery charging a headache and outside of the home , inconsistent and sometimes high pricing policies, frequently broken equipment, and a lack of battery chargers in key locations for all but Tesla drivers is frustrating electric vehicle owners. Inflation and intermittent renewable energy (wind and solar power) are escalating electricity rates, making EV home charging a frustrating experience for some drivers, particularly those in blue states...

Minor damage to an electric vehicle battery pack can lead to the entire car being totaled, leaving the expensive battery packs piling up in the scrapyard and causing higher insurance premiums. With no way to repair or assess slightly damaged battery packs after accidents, electric vehicles can lose up to 50 percent of their price, rendering it uneconomical to replace them, as batteries are the most expensive component of electric vehicles costing many tens of thousands of dollars.

In...

China’s efforts to ramp up lithium extraction could see it accounting for nearly a third of the world’s supply by the middle of the decade. Chinese-controlled lithium mines, including those in Africa, are expected to increase output to 705,000 tons by 2025, from 194,000 tons in 2022—almost quadrupling  the amount of its global supply and lifting China’s share of the critical mineral to 32 percent of the world’s supply, up from 24 percent last year. Further, over the next two years,...

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal, “The Energy Industry Prepares for Upheaval at the Gas Station,” points toward a big problem ahead regarding electric vehicle (EV) recharging. 

“Electric vehicles are a small but growing share of cars on the road,” Carol Ryan begins her article. “Energy companies already need to prepare for how they will change the gas station.” Why the upheaval?

"A customer refueling a conventional car spends five to six minutes on average near...

The U.S. House of Representatives released its energy bill, H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act  which will increase the production and export of American energy and reduce the regulatory burdens that make it harder to build major infrastructure in the United States through comprehensive permitting reform. The Lower Energy Costs Act will also expedite critical mineral mining, streamline manufacturing, and make it easier to transport and export American natural gas by repealing the natural gas...

President Biden is planning to harm the domestic oil and gas industry and make them less globally competitive despite asking them to produce more energy. Biden’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2024 is for the astounding amount of $6.9 trillion  and includes withdrawing tax deductions from oil and gas businesses that other manufacturing entities receive and would harm the small mom-and-pop companies whose production is critical for meeting demand. Biden’s proposal claims that eliminating...

The Biden administration announced major restrictions on offshore oil leasing in the Arctic Ocean and across Alaska’s North Slope supposedly to temper criticism from environmentalists over a pending decision on an oil drilling project in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve known as Willow and to form a “firewall” to limit future oil leases in the region. The Interior Department said it would issue new rules to block oil and gas leases on more than 55 percent of the 23 million acres...