Two senior Republicans in Congress, Rep. Frank D. Lucas of Oklahoma and Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, criticized the Energy Department in December after it awarded $200 million in grant funding to Microvast, a Texas-based lithium battery company with links to China, to build a new battery manufacturing plant in Tennessee.
And this month, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, said he nixed a potential Ford Motor Co. electric-battery plant in the state over worries about national security due to the automaker’s manufacturing ties with China.
As Americans snap up electric cars, some Republicans are adopting a tough-on-China stance even for projects that would create jobs for Americans and perhaps advance U.S. battery-manufacturing prowess.
