Biden Vetoed The Charging Station Is Purely Made in The United States Resolution

U.S. President Joe Biden vetoed a resolution sponsored by Republicans. The resolution is intended to overturn new rules issued by the Biden administration last year that allow some of the components needed to build charging stations in the short term to be non-"American," a move Republicans claim would allow American money to be subsidized for Chinese-made products. And Biden believes that the resolution will hurt manufacturing and jobs in the United States.

According to ABC and The New York Times, the U.S. government had earlier planned to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations across the U.S. by 2030 and invest $7.5 billion in federal funding for the charging facility under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed in 2021. The bill's "Buy American" requirement requires the construction of federally funded EV charging stations using raw materials such as steel produced in the United States. In February last year, the Biden administration waived the requirement that U.S. materials must be used, as long as the charging equipment itself is assembled domestically.

Republicans in the United States are opposed to this. Senator Marco Rubio introduced a joint resolution last year that seeks to repeal the waiver. Rubio said EV charging stations "should be made in the U.S. by Americans, using U.S. products." "This hurts American businesses and gives foreign adversaries like China control of our energy infrastructure," he said in July, adding, "We should never use dollars to subsidize Chinese-made products." In November and January, the resolution narrowly passed the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, respectively, and was finally submitted to Biden for signature. But Biden vetoed the resolution on the 24th. The White House said it would implement a "buy American" domestic requirement for EV charging equipment in phases next year, which "provides the necessary time to ramp up production [of EV charging equipment parts in the U.S.]." In his veto statement, Biden said that "the Republican resolution would hurt domestic manufacturing and jobs," as well as the clean energy transition, resulting in federal funds being used to directly purchase charging stations made in rival countries such as China.

According to the New York Times, the incident comes at a time when political divisions in the United States are widening over electric vehicles. The Biden administration is aggressively promoting electric vehicles as an important part of the fight to slow global warming. Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have slammed electric vehicles as unreliable and inconvenient, claiming that the promotion of electric vehicles is a way to cede U.S. auto manufacturing to China, which dominates the field of electric vehicles. ABC commented that the debate around the waiver measures highlights the challenges facing President Biden: the need for cleaner energy on the one hand, and the growing dependence on China on the other. To meet the Biden administration's goal of ensuring that electric vehicles account for half of all new car sales by 2030, widespread access to charging equipment is critical. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on the 24th that Chinese automakers are the most competitive car companies in the world, and they will achieve great success outside their home countries.

Reuters also mentioned that on the same day that Biden exercised his veto, he received public support from the United Auto Workers (UAW). According to the report, UAW is a politically influential union in the United States that seeks government protection during the transition to electric vehicles in the auto industry. According to Bloomberg, the votes in the hands of auto workers could directly determine the fate of several key swing states.

Song Guoyou, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, told the "Global Times" reporter on the 25th that the two parties in the United States are similar in the general direction of restricting the production and sales of Chinese products in the United States, protecting the domestic manufacturing industry, and cracking down on China's advantageous industries. And Biden's veto of the congressional resolution this time is first of all to defend his authority, because this resolution is an opposition to the Biden administration's policies, especially now that we are at an important juncture of the election, we must show toughness. In addition, Biden also has economic interests, and in the process of promoting the clean energy transition, he must safeguard the interests of the American manufacturing industry, protect jobs, and win the support of relevant interest groups. But at the same time, as the analysis of the American media said, Biden is facing a dilemma, on the one hand, due to the relatively weak manufacturing capacity of his own green industry, he needs to import finished products or raw materials from China; On the other hand, it is necessary to suppress and contain China's advantageous industries to avoid a political backlash at home. This dilemma will delay the green transition in the United States and intensify the domestic political game.