Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., said he’s willing to sue the Treasury Department if it doesn’t implement electric vehicle battery tax credits in the way he intended when he wrote them. The Treasury’s guidelines are expected Friday, March 31.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 included electric vehicle tax credits of $7,500. But to qualify, the vehicle’s final assembly needs to be in North America.
“I’m gonna see whatever option I have to stop them from throwing more money out that doesn’t achieve what we want. We want manufacturing of our batteries here in the United States of America,” Sen. Manchin said.
The Treasury Department is about to come out with new rules about where the batteries’ minerals and components are produced. They either need to be from the U.S., or a country with which the United States has a free trade agreement.
The concern is that the Treasury Department will expand the definition of free trade agreement so the batteries can be sourced from other countries and still qualify.
“Shouldn’t we make the product here? Do we have to depend on China? I said, I’m old enough to remember standing in line 1974 to buy gas during the oil embargo. I’m not going to stand in line waiting to get a battery to run my vehicle,” Manchin said.
Manchin also wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal urging the White House and Republicans to come together and make a deal on spending and the debt limit. He called the debt ceiling a needless emergency created by inaction. He wants to raise the debt ceiling and lower spending.
“Talking about how we can all agree on a pathway forward to start the trajectory down on debt, you cannot continue to go what we’re doing, we’ve accumulated more debt in a shorter period of time than any time in history,” Manchin said.
The U.S. hit the debt ceiling in January 2023 and can’t borrow any more money to pay its bills. The Treasury Department is taking extraordinary measures to avoid a default but that will only last until June or July. Congress must make a deal by then.
