The Department of Energy is readying efforts to support President Joe Biden's ambitious climate and energy goals by focusing on electric vehicles and ensuring the U.S. maintains global competitiveness, newly confirmed Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Tuesday.
"President Biden is demanding that we get America to that net-zero [carbon emissions] by 2050. The transportation sector is the largest source of those emissions," Granholm said during a virtual event organized by Securing America's Future Energy, a nonpartisan group committed to reducing the country's reliance on oil.
"We need to jam on the accelerator here," the former Michigan governor said.
To aid the administration's clean-energy agenda, Granholm said the department is going to invest billions over the next few years in technologies that will speed the adoption of EVs.
"We're going to double down on our R&D in the technologies that will make EVs easier to manufacture, easier to deploy, easier for the American people to access," Granholm explained.
That includes further reducing the cost of lithium ion battery packs, making EVs and charging stations more accessible to the public and reducing charging times, while also ensuring that products related to reducing carbon emissions are made in the U.S.
"Beyond minerals, we've got to scale up our domestic battery production itself to compete globally," said Granholm, adding that the U.S will need more than 100 battery-cell manufacturing locations in the U.S. by 2035.
She added: "Today, we've got five. China has 96."