The Biden administration today announced new and updated funding opportunities aimed at supporting a domestic supply chain for the clean vehicles of the future and ensuring that the jobs building these vehicles provide community-sustaining wages and benefits in workplaces where workers have the free and fair choice to join a union. The package of announcements focuses on three U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) programs that provide grants and loans to automakers building clean vehicles and their components here in the United States, the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan Program, the Battery Material Processing and Battery Manufacturing and Recycling Grants Programs, and the new Domestic Manufacturing Conversion Grant Program. The announcements include:

• $15.5 billion in total funding in grants and loan guarantees across three DOE programs;
• The opening of the first-ever round of funding for the Domestic Manufacturing Conversion Grant Program, which will invest in existing auto manufacturing facilities in the internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle supply chain to retool their production lines to build clean and electric vehicles, and prioritize funding for legacy auto manufacturing communities and projects that meet the President’s Justice40 goals;
• The second funding round for the Battery Material Processing and Battery Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Programs, with updated selection criteria explicitly prioritizing union facilities, employers that have committed to union neutrality, and projects in deindustrialized communities; and
• Additional loan authority and new selection criteria for the ATVM loan program to prioritize funding for facilities abiding by strong labor standards and retaining high-quality jobs, particularly in the case of facility replacement projects.

In response to the announcements, the BlueGreen Alliance released the following statement from Executive Director Jason Walsh:

“As we enter Labor Day weekend, we are reminded that unionization is the best tool to ensure that the clean economy creates a better future for working people and communities. The worker-centered announcements released by the Biden administration today illustrate that they know union jobs are good jobs.”