The Biden administration invoked the Defense Production Act last week as a new approach to combat high gas prices, despite the act concerning electric vehicles, not American energy production.
In a press release on April 7, the Functional Government Initiative reported that the Biden administration invoked the Defense Production Act, an order that funds projects for studies surrounding the extraction of resources needed for electric vehicle batteries such as lithium, cobalt, graphite, nickel, and manganese as a way of moving Americans away from gas pumps to combat rising gas prices.
"Exploring the expansion of domestic extraction of minerals is a good step because it may create jobs for the next generation of American workers, but it does not tackle the current fuel crisis," said Peter McGinnis, spokesman for FGI, said in a press release. "We are on month two of ‘we will do everything we can to lower gas prices,’” yet nothing of substance has been done to accomplish that – as you can see every time you fill up your tank."
While America struggles with the highest gas prices in history for the second month in a row and inflation at a 40-year high, the new move to funding electric energy could reduce America’s reliance on China, but it remains uncertain how this move would ease any inflation concerns or alleviate energy prices in the short-term, according to FGI.
"Either the Administration is hoping the problem will fix itself or that Americans will surrender to astronomically high gas prices," McGinnis said. "Neither scenario appears plausible. Along with inflation in general, energy prices are crushing the American dream. FGI will continue its investigation of which special interests are dictating the government’s handling of this energy crisis.”
In December 2021, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg created a Joint Office of Energy and Transportation designed to support the deployment of $7.5 billion from the president's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to build a national electric vehicle charging network, according to the Department of Transportation. As well, Reuters reported that in February, the Biden administration unveiled a plan to award nearly $5 billion over the next five years to be put toward building thousands of electric vehicle charging stations.
FGI has raised the question as to which special interests are influencing the government’s anti-fossil fuel policy amid an energy crisis, which is now the focus of several nonpartisan organizations' ongoing investigations and requests for government records. FGI is a nonpartisan organization that strives to demand transparency and integrity from government agencies and elected officials.
