Your Daily Dose of Climate Hope: December 23, 2024
StarPlus: manufacturing electric vehicles in America!
The Biden-Harris Administration recently announced further strategic investments in domestic American EV manufacturing, which will kickstart the building of two new factories in Kokomo, Indiana.
Tell Congress to sustain U.S. strategic investments in domestic EV manufacturing!
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Reasons For Hope
On December 2, 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office announced a conditional commitment to loan up to $7.54 billion to StarPlus Energy (a Stellantis and Samsung joint venture) to build two new lithium-ion EV battery factories in Kokomo, Indiana. This project will create over 2,800 operations jobs, reduce emissions, reduce reliance on China, and produce enough batteries to supply 670,000 vehicles per year!
“At full capacity, the StarPlus project will produce about 67 GWh of batteries, enough to supply approximately 670,000 vehicles annually.
DOE estimates the EVs produced using StarPlus batteries will displace the usage of 260.3 million gallons of petroleum per year—helping to slash harmful pollutants that jeopardize public health and pollute local ecosystems.
The project will greatly expand EV battery manufacturing capacity in North America and reduce America’s reliance on adversarial foreign nations like China, as well as other foreign sourcing of EV batteries.”
— U.S. Department of Energy
The StarPlus project is a clear win-win-win for American manufacturing jobs, national security, and reducing air pollution. But as with other LPO loans, it’s up to Congress to determine whether vital funding like this will be sustained in upcoming budget cycles. And in an uncertain political environment, enlisting vocal Congressional champions to defend specific clean energy projects is likely to be increasingly important. Your voice can help show that American voters care about sustaining strategic cleantech investments.