The debate in the House centered on how to strike a balance between pushing more EV ownership and blocking Chinese entities from receiving U.S. tax credits.
WASHINGTON—The House has passed a bill to block consumer tax credits for electric vehicles (EV) with batteries that involve Chinese entities in the supply chain.
The debate on the House floor centered on how to strike a balance in pushing more EV ownership to help protect the environment, reducing supply chain reliance on China, and ensuring that U.S. taxpayer-funded credits don’t go to Chinese entities.
Some Democrats took a similar stance to that of the White House on the legislation.
“The bottom line is this bill will hurt our transition to clean vehicles,” Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) said during the debate.
Rep. Carol Miller (R-W.Va.) defended her legislation on the House floor. She said her bill would “ensure the Chinese companies can no longer be the ultimate beneficiary of the luxury electric vehicle tax credits.”
“The Biden administration has been more concerned about bowing to radical environmentalists than in actually helping develop these technologies right here in America,” she said, speaking about the EV-related technology.
In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times after the bill’s passage, Miller said that the bill was meant to “stop Chinese influence in our supply chain.”
“The Biden–Harris administration has put out regulations on the electric vehicle tax credit that have excluded some of the inputs used to make EVs, giving China unlimited access to the U.S. supply chain. This is devastating for American manufacturers and our national security,” the lawmaker said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) praised the bill.
The Chinese Communist Party has provided tens of billions of dollars in subsidies to the EV industry after identifying the sector as strategic in its “Made in China 2025” industrial policy. The CCP also doubled down at its annual plenary meeting, which concluded in March, calling EVs one of the “new productive forces.”
EVs are seen as one of the products that China is dumping onto the rest of the world.
“China’s using the same playbook it has before to power its own growth at the expense of others by continuing to invest despite excess Chinese capacity and flooding global markets with exports that are underpriced due to unfair practices,” Lael Brainard, director of the National Economic Council, told reporters at a call ahead of the tariff announcement.
As the Biden administration pushes for more EV sales as part of the transition to renewable energy, Congress and the general public become more aware of China’s monopoly in the industry and wary of China benefiting indirectly from IRA incentives funded by American taxpayers.
Ford’s deal to license EV technology from Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL) was one of the high-profile cases.
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