Kamala Harris doesn’t just want to build more factories in the United States if elected president. She also wants to help ensure a stable supply of fuel materials.
Recent pledges embodying this approach include creating “national reserves” for critical minerals such as cobalt, lithium, and nickel, which are critical building blocks in everything from electric car batteries to jet engines to medical devices. This is what she is proposing to establish.
These new reserves would join existing government reserves, such as the Department of Energy’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and the Harris administration would compete with Chinese companies that have long dominated the mining and refining jobs for these metals. There is a possibility that it will happen.
The idea, which surfaced last week in a Harris campaign paper, is part of the Democratic candidate’s larger reindustrialization strategy, which differs from the president’s approach but would rethink the U.S. government’s relationship with manufacturers. It incorporates efforts led by Joe Biden. In terms of tactics, incentives and focus.
She described her overall vision in a recent speech as one that “recommits the nation to global leadership in areas that will define the next century.”
Some Democratic policymakers say the shift is necessary after the Biden administration saw a surge in new factory construction but lingered concerns about the supply chains that feed it.
“I liken the re-adoption of industrial policy to a three-act play,” said Jennifer Harris, a top figure who helped lead industrial policy in the early days of the Biden administration.
She is hopeful that Harris’ inauguration will begin a new chapter, especially with regard to these minerals. “There’s going to be more rocks coming out of the ground in building AI technology,” she says.
Of course, this vision could take a radically different turn if Donald Trump wins in November.
Republican candidates have recently laid out their own plans for manufacturing, focusing on a radically different approach that would gradually increase tariffs and then limit government involvement in the sector itself through tax cuts and regulatory cuts. Ta.
Read more: Trump vs. Harris: 4 ways the next president could affect your bank account
Trump has also rejected Biden’s efforts to revive sectors such as semiconductors.
“Chips, we’re really starting to (shrink) chips,” President Trump said in a recent speech, adding about $280 billion in new funding to the field implemented through the Chips and Science Act of 2022 under the Biden administration. I completely ignored investment.
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Critical minerals and supply chains
There’s no question that President Biden has overhauled the U.S. government’s relationship with manufacturers, with the government spending billions of dollars in recent years to chip makers, green energy companies and others to spur new factory construction. .
The Harris-Waltz white paper released last week touted Biden’s efforts, hinting at expansion in fields ranging from biomanufacturing to aerospace to quantum computing and more, as well as increasing the amount needed for those fuels. We also have a section dedicated to important minerals.
The Harris-Waltz administration will “build domestic processing capacity for critical minerals needed for our economy and national security, including by initiating a national stockpile of these resources,” the plan promises.
The Defense Logistics Agency, an arm of the U.S. government, currently collects and stores some of these metals. Harris suggested that these efforts could expand and have a broader focus than just national security concerns.
Jennifer Harris says this is part of a necessary second act for governments in industry to “fix massive demand-supply mismatches at each point in the supply chain that have typically been depressed for quite some time. , we focus on menial tasks,” he added. New policy tools will be needed. ”
U.S. efforts to expand extraction of critical minerals have also encountered local opposition, including Dalanda Hinkie of the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone tribe, who protested a lithium mine near her home in Nevada in 2023. . (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) (Related) Press)
This week, Hurricane Helen disrupted mining of quartz, the main ingredient in silicon needed for semiconductor manufacturing, in North Carolina, perhaps highlighting the potential need for reserves.
Extensive damage to the area could affect mine access and transportation capacity for several months, the report said.
Much of the way Harris said she will achieve these goals is through a new wave of tax credits called “America Forward Tax Credits.” The Harris campaign estimates the credits would cost about $100 billion, to be paid for through international tax reform.
There are a lot of strings attached
These tax credits would also be designed with significant strings attached, as the Harris campaign promised.
This is similar to the Biden administration’s efforts to link subsidies for industries such as semiconductors to corporate actions such as unionizing, investing in local communities, and prioritizing made-in-America products. are.
On this front, Harris signals a continuation of the Biden administration’s practices. One area of particular focus in the development of the semiconductor-focused CHIPS and Science Act was the government’s interest in corporate practices, down to the level of child care provided.
Jennifer Harris added, “If I had a leader, I would make sure that companies that are receiving grants and loans from the U.S. government to do part of this turnaround do not exceed a certain level of stock buybacks.” I will do that,” he added.
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on September 25th. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
And in a recent speech, Harris also outlined an important carrot for not only extractors of critical minerals but also manufacturers: enabling reforms to get projects off the ground faster.
“Projects are taking too long to go from concept to reality,” he said in a speech. “Let me just say this: China is not moving slowly, and neither can we.” he added.
Ben Werschkul is Yahoo Finance’s Washington correspondent.
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