DEAR EDITOR:

Seventy-five percent of battery manufacturing is done in China. To change that, the Biden administration is awarding $2.8 billion in grants to a dozen states to have production here.

See, these EV batteries require critical minerals like nickel. One such place is Tamarack, Minn., and the people of this city are concerned about mining on local farmlands because of the toxic inpact on their water. The sulfuric acid runoff from the mines would work its way into their pristine waterways.

Talon Metals Corp. received $114 million from last year’s infrastructure bill to develop a processing facility for the nickel mine. Unknown to many people is the fact that people in Africa are mining in subhuman conditions for cobalt, an important component for these lithium batteries; where is the United Nations to monitor this?

President Joe Biden shut down the Keystone Pipeline because of “environmental concerns.” Isn’t it bad enough we are still cleaning up water from the steel mills and various companies dumping into our waterways over the last century? It’s like asking the fox to take care of the chicken coop.

So, now we have the “inconvenient truth” and “secrets” about these electric vehicles. I won’t buy one; I can’t afford one anyway.

You can’t park it in the garage; it might catch on fire. There goes your car and house, not to mention, who will insure these vehicles? Now we find out if they catch on fire, the fire departments will have to let them burn because they are not equipped to put the fire out because of the lithium batteries. Safe? I don’t think so.

So much for the environment, climate change and the safety of electric vehicles. America is not ready yet!

RUTH LILLEY

Niles