DeSantis blasts Biden for aiming to boost electric car industry with wartime measure

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis blasted President Joe Biden on Sunday night after learning he was invoking a decades old emergency war power known as the Defense Production Act as part of an executive order “to produce batteries for the 1% that drive electric cars.”

The Republican governor took to Twitter to claim that Biden had started “begging for oil from dictators” (referencing the Biden administration’s recent trip to Caracas) before warning that Biden was using the Defense Production Act to promote an industry that most Americans can’t financially access.

“After begging for oil from dictators, Biden is now using emergency war powers to produce batteries for the 1% that drive electric cars. Most Americans suffering due to high gas prices don’t have the luxury of spending $50k+ on an electric car. Unleash American energy today!”

After begging for oil from dictators, Biden is now using emergency war powers to produce batteries for the 1% that drive electric cars.

Most Americans suffering due to high gas prices don’t have the luxury of spending $50k+ on an electric car.

Unleash American energy today!

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) March 27, 2022

The Defense Production Act was signed into law by President Harry S. Truman in 1950 “amid concerns about supplies and equipment during the war” and was meant to promote wartime production in the private sector although it has been utilized by presidents during other crises.

“Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden both invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cold War–era law gives the president significant emergency authority to control domestic industries. Trump used the law to crack down on hoarding, limit exports of medical goods, and increase production of critical supplies. Biden has used it to speed up vaccination and testing efforts,” according to a Dec. 21 report from the Council of Foreign Affairs.  

June Rhee, the director of Master of Management Studies in Systemic Risk at Yale University and senior editor for the Yale Program on Financial Stability (YPFS) and Aidan Lawson, a former YPFS research associate, noted, “The DPA gives the president the authority to compel the private sector to work with the government to provide essential material goods needed for the national defense.” 

Still, Biden’s plan has been criticized by taxpayers and lawmakers alike since it appears to have little to do with national defense or offer an actual, direct solution to an ongoing crisis. 

A report from The Intercept published on Thursday explains, “the Biden administration is drafting an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act to alleviate shortages of key minerals needed for the technology to store clean energy. The act … would bolster the manufacturing capacity of electric vehicle producers in particular.”

Biden was trying to “bolster the manufacturing capacity of electric vehicle producers in particular,” wrote the Daily Wire.

Democrats, however, have backed the administration and even pushed for the new approach to the wartime production measure. On Wednesday, several hard-left Democratic senators – including Elizabeth Warren, Martin Heinrich, Cory Booker and Jeff Merkley – wrote a letter to Biden asking him to utilize the Defense Production act to “support and increase manufacturing capacity and supply chain security for technologies that reduce fossil fuel demand and fuel costs, such as electric heat pumps, efficient electric appliances, renewable energy generation and storage, and other clean technologies.”

The Democratic senators further used Russian President Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine as an excuse for their request, writing, “We encourage you to examine all possible routes to support and deploy clean energy and energy-efficient electric technologies as part of our near- term domestic and international response to the economic upheaval caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine.”