US seeks to boost jobs, security, and green energy with Central American investment

Katherine Doyle

December 07, 07:51 PM December 07, 07:51 PM

The Biden administration’s top diplomat overseeing energy policy said broadening critical mineral supply chains away from China is a concern for the United States amid the green energy transition it hopes to spearhead.

Diversifying the critical mineral supply chain will prove “hugely important” to the success of a green energy transition and U.S. national interests and security, Geoffrey Pyatt, the assistant secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources, said in an interview with the Washington Examiner.

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China dominates the supply chain for critical minerals, many of which are essential to green technologies. This reliance on Beijing draws worries.

“We do not want to replace an era in which Russia was able to manipulate its fossil fuel assets to intimidate and coerce our allies and partners with one in which China is able to manipulate its critical minerals supply chain monopolies,” Pyatt said.

Demand for minerals is expected to grow exponentially as the administration’s climate bill goes into effect and other countries ramp up their deployment of green efforts. For instance, lithium demand is forecast to grow more than 40 times, he added.

“So we don’t have a lot of time to work on these issues,” he added. "But this is solvable.”

Pyatt spoke with the Washington Examiner exclusively before his remarks at a conference last month organized by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration in Washington, D.C.

Dante Mossi, executive president of CABEI, said he had brought together U.S. and Central American officials and private sector representatives to foster ties that could speed new investments. The idea is to steer U.S. electric vehicle, grid technology, and other green companies toward Central American businesses as they accelerate their green energy transition.

Another factor is jobs, Pyatt said.

“We have a special interest in the CABEI region in Central America because of the nexus with the question of migration,” he explained.

Mossi described how investments during the pandemic helped create about 100,000 new jobs. In a subsequent survey, he said the results showed that people said, “We didn’t migrate to the U.S. because we had an opportunity to stay here in Central America.”

Said Pyatt, “[The] same exact thing applies to this clean energy technology transition.”

At the same time, the bank and U.S. have cast a wary eye toward China, which has invested billions of dollars in regional energy sectors, including renewables and raw materials essential to the technology.

“We have Chinese companies looming,” Mossi said. “We are asking for market access. Sell us cars because if the U.S. doesn’t sell cars to us, China will.”

The topic surfaced in discussion with President Joe Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, during the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles this year, Mossi said, with the former secretary of state interested to learn that the bank channels 40% of its financing toward sustainable energy projects.

Mossi said that because CABEI counts Taiwan as a nonregional member, the bank is unable to finance projects from Beijing. “When I mentioned this, he said, ‘Dante, you are even friendlier than I expected.’”

One of the world’s largest economies, China has long resisted U.S. efforts to meaningfully rein in its greenhouse gas emissions. The toll is staggering, totaling more than the entire world combined, according to a report by the Rhodium Group.

In Bali, Indonesia, last month, Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to resume international climate talks that had been frozen for months amid tensions over trade, Taiwan, and other issues.

White Dwelling downplays Mexico's absence from Summit of the Americas

Katherine Doyle

June 06, 08:31 PM June 06, 08:31 PM

As President Joe Biden prepares to host Latin American leaders in Los Angeles, the White Property is downplaying Mexico’s boycott and pointing to the president’s monitor history of diplomacy in the region as the bedrock for cooperation on urgent financial, migration, and local climate troubles.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s preference to forgo the Summit of the Americas is “a sovereign decision” that “we just disagree with,” a senior administration formal instructed reporters on a get in touch with Monday. Lopez Obrador created the decision after Biden made a decision not to invite Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, countries whose leaders the White Dwelling slammed as “dictators.”

“We believe that the best use of this summit is to deliver jointly nations that share a established of democratic principles,” the official argued.

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The shift by one particular of America’s closest regional allies is a blow to the Biden administration as it prepares to host the weeklong function for the very first time considering that 1994. Twenty-a few heads of governing administration are set to show up at, but crucial regional associates are abstaining, which include individuals from Honduras and El Salvador, each international locations from in which the United States has sought to stem the move of migration.

Biden is anticipated to make various bulletins, commencing with a coverage speech Wednesday to introduce the Americas Partnership for Financial Prosperity, a approach to enhance regional expenditure and trade, reinforce governments, and battle weather improve. He will also commit additional than $300 million in food support. The president will also preview a conference with other leaders later on in the week to introduce a migration prepare. Termed the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration, the initiative is closely tied to other financial initiatives presented during the week.

“This summit is about creating and strengthening our foundation with our important associates on these concerns that are most consequential for the countries and folks of the region,” the official reported.

Biden has for a long time “worked to understand his vision of the [Western] hemisphere that is middle course, protected, democratic,” the formal said. As vice president underneath Barack Obama, Biden was the administration’s level man or woman for diplomacy in the location, exactly where he visited far more than 16 occasions.

Whilst Biden will not be assembly with important regional companions this sort of as Lopez Obrador, he is expected to sit down with some others, like Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Venezuelan politician Juan Guaido. There is “a very good chance” the president may fulfill with Guaido, whom the U.S. recognizes as the country’s interim president, the White Home reported.

Biden’s closest advisers will host gatherings all through the 7 days, such as his secretary of state, vice president, secretary of commerce, trade ambassador, and a lot more, aiming to boost America’s commitment to a area intently tied to the U.S. via trade, migration, and other issues.

“There’s no other aspect of the earth that impacts the security and prosperity of the United States far more straight than the Western Hemisphere,” the official claimed.

The U.S. proceeds to confront supply chain shortages as very well as a surge in the selection of migrants arriving at the southern border, each political concerns for Biden heading into the midterm elections.