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The headline President Obama wants uppermost in the minds of American voters today is that the stimulus bill is translating into real jobs, after all. For this purpose, he travels to Holland, Michigan to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new battery manufacturing facility there made possible by an infusion of $89 million in funds from the Economic Recovery Act.
The plant is being built by Compact Power Inc., a subsidiary of the South Korean conglomerate LG Chem to produce lithium-ion cells for the Chevy Volt and other electric or hybrid-electric vehicles. (There is a certain irony to the President applauding LG for its leadership, since – as my colleague, Chris Holton, points out in a very important piece at the Center for Security Policy’s website, http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/p18459.xml – that company is providing economic life-support to the Iranian regime. After all, Mr. Obama just signed into law U.S. unilateral sanctions that are intended to discourage precisely the sort of investment companies like LG make in Iran to the benefit our enemies.)
Now, I happen to be an enthusiastic supporter of freeing our automotive fleet from its present, nearly complete dependency on oil-based fuels. I am happy to have what will, hopefully, prove to be safe, durable, efficient and cost-effective batteries manufactured in this country. I look forward to the advent of the Volt and the sorts of vehicles that it may usher in that could allow most consumers to drive around on trivial amounts of gasoline.
The new facility and the 450 jobs it will ultimately offer to bolster Michigan’s depressed economy have an inherent problem: There will be no batteries coming off its production line once it gets going – unless there are supplies of lithium and other rare earth minerals (REMs) from which they can be made. And it’s not just our batteries that are at risk. Such minerals are also essential to a host of other high-tech applications, including in many modern weapon systems.
