Notice of Request for Information (RFI) on Risks in the High-Capacity Batteries, Including Electric Vehicle Batteries Supply Chain

Treena V. Garrett
Department of Energy
29 March 2021

[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 58 (Monday, March 29, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16343-16344]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-06337]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Notice of Request for Information (RFI) on Risks in the High-
Capacity Batteries, Including Electric Vehicle Batteries Supply Chain

AGENCY: Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of 
Energy (DOE).

ACTION: Request for information (RFI).

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SUMMARY: On February 24, 2021, President Biden issued an Executive 
order directing several Federal agency actions to secure and strengthen 
America's supply chains. One of these directions is for the Secretary 
of Energy to submit, within 100 days, a report to the President 
identifying risks in the high-capacity batteries, including electric-
vehicle batteries, supply chain and policy recommendations to address 
these risks. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE or Department) invites 
public comment on its Request for Information (RFI) number DE-FOA-
0002502 regarding the Risks in the High-Capacity Batteries, including 
Electric Vehicle Batteries Supply Chain.

DATES: Responses to the RFI must be received by April 14, 2021.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties are to submit comments electronically to 
VTO@ee.doe.gov. Include ``High-Capacity Batteries Supply Chain RFI'' in 
the subject line of the email. Responses must be provided as 
attachments to an email. Only electronic responses will be accepted. 
The complete RFI document is located at https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions may be addressed to 
VTO@ee.doe.gov or to Samuel Gillard at 202-287-5849.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    On February 24, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14017, 
``America's Supply Chains'' (86 FR 11849). E.O. 14017 focuses on the 
need for resilient, diverse, and secure supply chains to ensure U.S. 
economic prosperity and national security. Such supply chains are 
needed to address conditions that can reduce critical manufacturing 
capacity and the availability and integrity of critical goods, 
products, and services. In relevant part, E.O. 14017 directs that 
within 100 days, the Secretary shall submit a report to the President, 
through the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs 
(APNSA) and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy (APEP), 
identifying the risks in the supply chain for high-capacity batteries, 
including electric vehicle batteries, and policy recommendations to 
address these risks.

Written Comments

    The Department is particularly interested in information directed 
to the policy objectives listed in E.O. 14017 as they affect the supply 
chain for high-capacity batteries, including electric vehicle 
batteries, including but not limited to the following elements:
    (i) Critical materials including battery grade nickel, cobalt and 
lithium, underlying the supply chain for high-capacity batteries, 
including electric vehicle batteries;
    (ii) Manufacturing and other capabilities necessary to produce 
high-capacity batteries, including extraction of raw materials, 
refining, production of advanced cathode and anode powders, separators, 
electrolytes, current collectors and advanced recycling technologies 
for high-capacity batteries;
    (iii) The availability of the key skill sets and personnel 
necessary to sustain a competitive U.S. high-capacity batteries 
ecosystem, including the domestic education and manufacturing workforce 
skills needed for high-capacity battery manufacturing; the skills gaps 
therein, and any opportunities to meet future workforce needs;
    (iv) Risks or contingencies that may disrupt the high-capacity 
batteries supply chain (including defense, intelligence, cyber, 
homeland security, health, climate, environmental, natural, market, 
economic, geopolitical, human-rights or forced labor risks):
    (a) Risks resulting from lack of or failure to develop domestic 
manufacturing capabilities, including emerging capabilities;
    (v) The resilience and capacity of the high-capacity battery supply 
chain to support national and economic security and emergency 
preparedness, including:
    (a) Manufacturing, recycling, or other needed capacities (including 
ability to modernize to meet future needs);
    (b) Gaps in manufacturing capabilities, including nonexistent, 
threatened, or single-point-of-failure capabilities, or single or dual 
suppliers;

[[Page 16344]]

    (c) Location of key manufacturing and production assets, and risks 
posed by these assets' physical location;
    (d) Exclusive or dominant supply of critical or essential goods and 
materials by or through nations that are, or may become, unfriendly or 
unstable;
    (e) Availability of substitutes or alternative sources for critical 
or essential goods and materials;
    (f) Need for research and development capacity to sustain 
leadership in the development of goods and materials critical or 
essential to high-capacity battery manufacturing;
    (g) Current domestic education and manufacturing workforce skills 
and any identified gaps, opportunities and potential best practices;
    (h) Role of transportation systems in supporting the high-capacity 
battery supply chain and risks associated with these transportation 
systems;
    (i) Risks posed by climate change to the availability, production, 
or transportation of goods and materials critical to high-capacity 
manufacturing;
    (vi) Potential impact of the failure to sustain or develop elements 
of the high-capacity supply chain in the United States on other key 
downstream capabilities. Also, the potential impact of purchases of 
high-capacity batteries products by downstream customers, including 
volume and price, product generation and alternate inputs.
    (vii) Policy recommendations or suggested executive, legislative, 
regulatory changes, or actions to ensure a resilient supply chain for 
high-capacity batteries (e.g., reshoring, nearshoring, or developing 
domestic suppliers, cooperation with allies to identify or develop 
alternative supply chains, building redundancy into supply chains, ways 
to address risks due to vulnerabilities in digital products or climate 
change).
    (viii) Any additional comments relevant to the assessment of the 
high-capacity batteries manufacturing and advanced packing supply 
chains required by E.O. 14017.
    DOE encourages commenters, when addressing the elements above, to 
structure their comments using the same text as identifiers for the 
areas of inquiry to which their comments respond to assist DOE in more 
easily reviewing and summarizing the comments received in response to 
these specific comment areas. For example, a commenter submitting 
comments responsive to (i) critical and essential goods and materials 
underlying the high-capacity battery supply chain, would use that same 
text as a heading in the public comment followed by the commenter's 
specific comments in this area. The RFI (DE-FOA-0002502) is available 
at: https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/.
    Confidential Business Information: Pursuant to 10 CFR 1004.11, any 
person submitting information that he or she believes to be 
confidential and exempt by law from public disclosure should submit via 
email two well-marked copies: One copy of the document marked 
``confidential'' including all the information believed to be 
confidential, and one copy of the document marked ``non-confidential'' 
with the information believed to be confidential deleted. Submit these 
documents via email. DOE will make its own determination about the 
confidential status of the information and treat it according to its 
determination.
    Signing Authority: This document of the Department of Energy was 
signed on March 23, 2021, by David Howell, Acting Director, Vehicle 
Technologies Office, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, 
pursuant to delegated authority from the Secretary of Energy. That 
document with the original signature and date is maintained by DOE. For 
administrative purposes only, and in compliance with requirements of 
the Office of the Federal Register, the undersigned DOE Federal 
Register Liaison Officer has been authorized to sign and submit the 
document in electronic format for publication, as an official document 
of the Department of Energy. This administrative process in no way 
alters the legal effect of this document upon publication in the 
Federal Register.

    Signed in Washington, DC, on March 23, 2021.
Treena V. Garrett,
Federal Register Liaison Officer, U.S. Department of Energy.
[FR Doc. 2021-06337 Filed 3-26-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P