WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden plans Thursday to invoke Cold War powers to encourage domestic production of critical minerals for electric vehicle and other types of batteries, according to people familiar with the matter.
The White House is poised to add battery materials to the list of items covered by the 1950 Defense Production Act — the same authority wielded by Harry Truman to make steel for the Korean War and Donald Trump to spur mask production to tackle the coronavirus pandemic — the people said. They asked not to be identified because the details are not yet public.
Shares of MP Materials Corp., the sole U.S. company that produces rare earth metals needed for electric vehicles, rose 4.7% on Wednesday. Lithium Americas Corp., which runs a project in Nevada, headed for its biggest gain in more than 11 weeks, while Piedmont Lithium Inc., which runs a project in North Carolina, erased losses, rising as much as 8.7%.
