Headline : Joe Manchin and mining officials slam EV tax credit rule change, calling it a “blank check” to China

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New Biden administration rules loosening looming restrictions on federal electric-vehicle tax credits are drawing the ire of China hawks and mining representatives, who claim the “outrageous and illegal” policy amounts to giving a “blank check” to China.

The battle is all about graphite, an essential material for EV batteries. The federal government sent carmakers scrambling in 2022 when it released rules that would disqualify any EVs containing Chinese graphite from federal tax credits starting in 2025. China produces around 97% of the refined graphite used in EV production, leading some observers to question if it was even possible for any carmakers to source non-Chinese graphite.

The tax credit policy is a key driver for the $61 billion EV industry, which analysts expect will continue to grow between 20% and 30% this year even as demand cools. It’s been popular with consumers, who benefit from lower prices, and for automakers and car dealers, who have gained from lower sticker prices through the policy without having to trim down their margins. But Chinese-sourced battery materials have emerged as a flashpoint for a small group of American graphite miners and for West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, who singlehandedly pushed through restrictions on Chinese materials when the tax credit was originally passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. Ongoing political battles to tweak the EV tax credit policy pit the Biden administration’s environmental agenda against its industrial policy, and contrast calls to onshore battery technology away from China with the meager investment and slow progress of domestic firms.

“I would want to know how any automaker, based on the supply chain they’re working with today, meets these standards in 2025,” Jay Turner, a Wellesley College environmental studies professor and the author of Charged: A History of Batteries and Lessons for a Clean Energy Future, told the Wall Street Journal in December.

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