NEMA Leads Discussion on Electrifying the Supply Chain

Apr 24, 2024, 17:12 PM

By Spencer Pederson, Senior Vice President, Public Affairs

As implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) continue to take shape and Congress prepares to negotiate a permitting bill, nearly 100 industry leaders and policymakers converged in Washington, DC for a timely event hosted by NEMA in collaboration with Axios.

Photo Credit: Hector Emanuel. Axios Publisher Nicholas Johnston interviewing NEMA President and CEO Debra Phillips and Southwire CEO and NEMA Board Chair Rich Stinson during at this month’s ‘Electrifying the Supply Chain’ event in Washington, D.C.

The event, “Electrifying the Supply Chain,” brought together a diverse array of voices to discuss critical issues and potential solutions in advancing the nation's transition to a cleaner, more sustainable energy future – specifically, exploring how funds can be used to shore up supply chains and help electrical manufacturers facilitate the country’s energy transition. NEMA President and CEO Debra Phillips and Southwire President and CEO and NEMA Board Chair Rich Stinson provided the view from the top, diving into policy and regulatory challenges facing the supply chain.

Together, they delved into the intricate policy and regulatory challenges facing the supply chain, particularly concerning critical minerals. These challenges include limited domestic production and processing, reliance on foreign adversarial sources, and lengthy permitting processes.

Phillips highlighted the role critical minerals are playing in the energy transition, saying: “This clean energy future and economy relies heavily on critical minerals. Take an electric vehicle, an EV uses six times more critical minerals than traditional combustion engine cars. That’s just one example. If you think about solar panels and wind turbines, there are critical minerals packed into this clean energy economy. We are very reliant on foreign sources for those materials (lithium, cobalt, nickel, aluminum, copper) today.”

Stinson explored the landscape for critical minerals and outlined some of the challenges. “As Debra mentioned, demand side is going to go up, very, very quickly,” Stinson said. “We’re starting to see that right now. The challenges are the labor to install the equipment, the labor to build new factories and the amount of investment it’s going to take to increase the capacity for transformers or switch gears, wire and cable. We just invested $1.5 billion over the last five years and we’re looking to spend another $1.5 billion to get ourselves ready for this new economy.”

Another highlight of the event was a conversation between Giulia Siccardo, Director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC), and Axios Pro Climate and Energy Reporter Jael Holzman. They explored the implementation of the IRA and the Biden Administration's collaborative efforts with industry to drive electrification initiatives across the nation via tools like the Defense Production Act.

“We were authorized by Congress to be able to activate the Defense Production Act across five different technologies: heat pumps, insulation, solar, grid components and electrolyzers,” said Siccardo. “We were given funding for heat pumps, so that's where we started. We were able to put out over $100 million of funding going to U.S. manufacturers of heat pumps across heat pump supply chains that are going to fill in critical needs.”

Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) also joined the conversation with Holzman, sharing his insights on the IRA and its role in bolstering Georgia's position as a leader in the electrification of its economy. “We've got the single largest economic development project in the history of our state in my district … a $5.5 billion investment by Hyundai to build electric vehicles. It's going to create 8,100 jobs,” said Carter.

The conversation continued post-event with Axios reporters Emily Hamilton and Jael Holzman providing detailed summaries of the discussions and offering insights into the electroindustry's future trajectory.

Hamilton’s article highlighted funding initiatives from the IRA and the Defense Production Act aimed at bolstering domestic clean energy industries. Holzman’s piece focused on the positive aspects of the IRA , as highlighted by Rep. Carter.

NEMA is grateful to Axios for helping tell a compelling story about the need to secure and bolster our domestic supply chains as well as to all who attended the event.

NEMA was thrilled to provide a platform for industry leaders and policymakers to come together, discuss key challenges, and chart a course towards a more sustainable, electrified future.