Arkansas Delegation Presses Biden Energy Department on $200M Federal Grant Awarded to CCP-Linked Company
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/...linked-company/
Kristina Wong
10 Feb 2023

The Republican Arkansas delegation is demanding answers from the Department of Energy as to why it awarded a $200 million grant to a company linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) using American taxpayer money that was supposed to be used to make America less reliant on China for battery production.

In a letter sent this week, Sens. Tom Cotton, John Boozman, and Reps. Rick Crawford, French Hill, Steve Womack, and Bruce Westerman asked DOE Secretary Jennifer Granholm why a federal grant was awarded to the company Microvast despite the company having documented ties to the CCP and operating primarily out of China.

“While American companies were denied funding opportunities, the DOE supported a company that admits the Chinese government ‘exerts substantial influence over the manner in which we must conduct our business activities and may intervene, at any time and with no notice.’ DOE’s vetting and oversight process is deficient,” they said in the February 7, 2023, letter.

The grant was part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which aimed to help secure America’s domestic supply chains by being less reliant on China for materials such as lithium-ion battery cells or critical minerals. According to Reuters, over 200 companies competed for grants under the IIJA last year, but only 20 companies were awarded.
GOROMONZI, ZIMBABWE - JANUARY 11: A grinding mill installed at the Arcadia Lithium mine on January 11, 2022 in Goromonzi, Zimbabwe. Last month, the Chinese firm Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt said it would pay over $400 million for the hard-rock lithium mine, whose product is a key ingredient in rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles. The world's transition to "clean energy" may strain global mining capacity to produces these minerals. (Photo by Tafadzwa Ufumeli/Getty Images)

One of the grinding mills installed at the mine on January 11, 2022, in Goromonzi, Zimbabwe. ​China’s Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt has agreed to acquire a 100% stake in the Arcadia hard-rock lithium mine in Zimbabwe from Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe for $422m. (Photo by Tafadzwa Ufumeli/Getty Images)

The DOE announced the grant to Microvast in October, with Granholm saying in a statement, “This is truly a remarkable time for manufacturing in America, as President Biden’s Agenda and historic investments supercharge the private sector to ensure our clean energy future is American-made.”

Microvast claimed it was “majority U.S.-owned” and touted its status as a publicly-traded company listed on NASDAQ. The grant to the company was for building a lithium-ion battery separator facility next to its battery plant in Clarksville, Tennessee, as a joint project with General Motors.-- excerpt, rest at link above --