"EV chargers require iron and steel for some of their most crucial parts, including the internal structural frame, heating and cooling fans and the power transformer. Chargers with cabinets that house the product require even more steel, making up to 50% of the total cost of the chargers in some cases.
U.S. states and companies warned global demand for EV chargers is straining the supply chain, making it difficult, if not impossible, to meet made-in-America standards and expedite construction of new chargers."
Can you believe a shortage of steel in the USA? Incredible!!
The Biden administration and the Senate are in conflict over the rule that requires domestic content to be funded by the govt under the Inflation Reduction Act. Steel shortages will delay installation.
Biden wants to waive the requirement until next June to speed construction. The Senate overruled that to encourage more jobs in the US. Biden threatens to veto the bill.
You wonder if the steel shortage is part of the “supply chain issues” that impede installation of wind farms.
And does this imply the US steel industry has become overly dependent on imported steel. Must EVs be made with domestic steel? Is there enough capacity to cover our needs?
The federal government has set a goal of installing 500,000 new fast chargers by 2030. But, the nation lacks the workforce to build and maintain them, says Automotive News. “The U.S. will need at least 142,000 more certified electricians by 2030 to support the country’s electrification push, which includes EV charging, solar panels, battery storage, smart panels, and more, according to Qmerit, a company that provides installation services for EV charging and other electrification technologies for homes and businesses.”
They say that blast furnaces are the dirty part of steel making. That’s where iron ore reacts with carbon from coke to make pig iron. The oxygen in the iron ore becomes carbon monoxide.
Companies have been shutting down their blast furnaces and buying imported pig iron. Some came from Russia. I wonder if that is part of the domestic content problem.
They are working on carbon free technology. That is part of the Midwestern hydrogen hub project but years from completion.
But internal memos from the Department of Transportation obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, as well as interviews with those who are responsible for overseeing the implementation of the electric vehicle charging station project, say the delay is in large part a result of the White House’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives… Shortly after taking office, the president signed an executive order mandating that the beneficiaries of 40% of all federal climate and environmental programs should come from “underserved communities.”…
In order to qualify for a grant, applicants must “demonstrate how meaningful public involvement, inclusive of disadvantaged communities, will occur throughout a project’s life cycle.” What “public involvement” means is unclear. But the Department of Transportation notes it should involve “intentional outreach to underserved communities.”
That outreach, the Department of Transportation states, can take the form of “games and contests,” “visual preference surveys,” or “neighborhood block parties” so long as the grant recipient provides “multilingual staff or interpreters to interact with community members who use languages other than English.”.
You might suspect each project requires local politicians to agree on what is needed and where. Then a project design that gives a cost figure. Then permits. And finally bidding and construction. Lots of bureacracy. Three year lead time looks typical.
Well, it’s really simple. They call it “broadband expansion”, or “bullet trains”, or “charging stations”, but those are only names for the legislation so the money can be allocated. The real purpose is dole out money to congressional districts to get the vote of a member of the house, and to states to get the vote of a senator. It’s what we call “bringing home the bacon” to your constituents. These large, well funded, projects spawn all sorts of great jobs that can be doled out to supporters. The CA fast train project is a great example. That one even spawned entire consultant industries to study anything and everything related to the project. As an example, there are tens of environmental groups that have been funded to determine what the train will do to various things, to water flow, to the arthoeopsic reticulated ant, to the California caladrius birds nesting grounds, etc. These studies are consuming quite a lot of the money allocated (over $10B so far) and they are an excellent conduit to flow government supplied money to supporters or potential supporters (they can often guess who might be a potential supporter without any explicit action) in a legal manner. You could say that the main goal of these projects isn’t so much chargers, trains, or broadband, but rather political patronage funds. That’s how the world works, if not for this stuff, nothing important would pass the house, and few things would pass the senate.
I have a potential solution to this problem, but it will never be passed into law. If I were drafting a constitutional amendment to alleviate this problem I would simply say that every year, a default “continuing resolution” will take over funding at a level of previous year funding plus 80% or 90% of inflation level unless a complete budget is passed (not an alternate CR, but a complete agreed upon budget). Yes, this means that if Congress can’t act (can’t agree on a budget), the budget goes down ever so slightly in real terms each year. So this takes away the incentive for last minute CR wrangling and negotiations over patronage money. Congress would actually have to do their main job of deciding on an actual full budget.
Another potential amendment could be that all non-core legislation (anything outside social security and defense, for example, maybe others too) comes with an expiration date, and if not re-passed by Congress disappears into the ether. I haven’t thought this one fully through though.