Pruitt Opens Conference Evaluating BCI Strengths, Challenges and Successes

< Continued from page 1 greater than 165 gigawatt hours per year, (206 GWh across North America) still the largest battery manufacturing industry in the USA.

“We have shown resilience in how we handled supply chain disruptions and our strong domestic supply chain has helped us weather these challenges.”

Changing his focus to that of the challenges and achievements of BCI he said BCI had been incredibly busy this past year, “working hard to represent the industry with multiple governmental efforts.

“BCI is taking the lead on significant regulatory proposals that have been on the horizon for the past few years and are now having their moment.”

Three of the most significant regulatory regimes at EPA and OSHA for the lead battery are under active review, and BCI is playing a highly active role in representing BCI’s members’ interests. “Any one of these programs could have a significant impact on our industry and BCI is working hard to ensure that any new rules are based on sound science and are updated in a rational way to ensure industry can meet them while ensuring our workers and communities are properly protected from harmful exposures,” he said.

Pruitt welcomed the advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill saying that a strong lobbying team was in place to ensure, “ the nation invest properly in supporting and growing strong domestic manufacturing industries – like the lead battery industry. While the nation is rightly focused on catching up with our foreign adversaries in manufacturing capacity for lithium batteries, it cannot leave the incumbent manufacturers high and dry.”

BCI successfully worked to support the introduction of the USA Batteries Act to eliminate the Superfund excise taxes on lead oxide, antimony and sulfuric acid — a tax that places an American industry at a competitive disadvantage to foreign imports.

Pruitt praised the way that the Women in the Global Battery Industry initiative had developed and was pleased to see it had already grown into 200 members.

“WGBI has made a remarkable impact with its popular mentor program, active participation at international events, and the availability of various professional development opportunities. We are excited to see WGBI grow and look forward to continuing our support of women in the battery industry,” he said.

< Continued from page 1 not going to be banished from the face of the planet any time soon.

According to Bryce, energy realism is energy humanism and part of that realism is the fact that ICE vehicles, complete with their tried and trusted cargoes of lead batteries, are here for a long, long time to come.

Even a cursory look at the headlines from Norway to Nebraska shows that the general public are not as enamoured with the push for renewables as government’s and others pushing clean energy agendas would have us believe.

Bryce cited data from BP to show that US hydrocarbon use grew 55% faster than wind and solar in 2022.

And despite in excess of $500 billion being spent on wind and solar, the hydrocarbons share of US primary energy supply was still 81% in 2021, compared to 90% in 1985.

Even with the prospect of increasing numbers of shiny EVs crowding on to the roads, where is the increase in electricity demand to charge them going to come from and who will pay for grid upgrades to cater for the inevitable surge in demand?

According to the Boston Consulting Group, a model utility will need to invest between $1,700 and $5,800 in grid upgrades per EV through 2030 alone, Bryce said.

He also took Tesla wunderkind Elon Musk to task over his master plan for converting the global economy to renewables, which would require 240 TWh of batteries.

But as Bryce points out, manufacturing that much storage would require the output of all of Tesla’s gigafactories including the one in Nevada for the next 960 years.

Even if Tesla could expand its output 10-fold, to 50 gigafactories, achieving the desired result would still be nearly 100 years down the road.

Then there is the question of who will handle all the billions of waste lithium ion batteries. Bryce estimates overall current recycling rates to be around 5%, compared to more than 30% for glass bottles and near 99% for lead batteries.

“We need more coherent thinking,” Bryce said. The enthusiastic clapping from the audience echoed their appreciation of the coherence of his presentation.

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