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A U.S. power developer mentioned it shuttered a battery storage facility linked to its photo voltaic panel array situated on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, citing nationwide safety issues.
North Carolina-based Duke Power confirmed to Fox Information Digital Wednesday the ability, which started operations in April, was disconnected late final week after Republican lawmakers in each the Home and Senate raised issues concerning the venture.
The storage facility was constructed with batteries manufactured by Up to date Amperex Know-how, Restricted (CATL), a Chinese language firm with ties to the Chinese language Communist Celebration (CCP) equipment.
“However, some issues about this venture have been raised, and, consequently, Duke Power disconnected these batteries as we work to deal with these questions,” Duke Power spokesperson Kaitlin Kirshner instructed Fox Information Digital in a press release. “As an American power firm, we welcome the power to make use of American-manufactured batteries.
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U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Andrew M. Niebel, the commanding normal of Marine Corps Installations East-Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune (fourth from the left) cuts a ribbon throughout an April 13 ceremony opening Duke Power’s battery storage facility. The ability was constructed with CATL batteries, seen behind the officers in the course of the ceremony. (U.S. Marine Corps picture by Lance Cpl. Loriann Dauscher)
“Given the quickly growing demand for electrical energy, we help extra home manufacturing to assist develop power sources in the USA and speed up the power transition.”
Kirshner added that Duke Power designs its initiatives with “safety in thoughts.” She additional famous the battery storage facility was linked to Duke Power’s system with a “sturdy community safety and safeguards absolutely in place,” to not Camp Lejeune’s inner community or different methods.
Duke Power’s motion to disconnect the brand new facility was taken nearly instantly after greater than two dozen lawmakers led by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the vice chairman of the Senate Choose Committee on Intelligence, and Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., the chairman of the Home Choose Committee on the CCP, despatched a letter to Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin Friday expressing concern concerning the venture and its ties to CATL.
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“In safeguarding our nationwide safety, decisive actions should be taken to remove potential threats,” Rubio instructed Fox Information Digital in a press release. “Disconnecting methods supported by the Chinese language Communist Celebration is frequent sense, particularly in the case of securing our navy bases. It is crucial that we as a nation take proactive, not reactive, measures to guard ourselves from our adversaries.”
Of their letter Friday, Rubio, Gallagher and the opposite lawmakers mentioned the Camp Lejeune venture ought to be fully reversed and that the Division of Protection ought to assessment whether or not CATL methods have been put in at different U.S. navy bases.
Signage on the most important gate to Camp Lejeune Marine Base outdoors Jacksonville, N.C., April 29, 2022. (AP Picture/Allen G. Breed, File)
The letter notes Fujian, China-based CATL is intently linked to the very best ranges of the CCP, and Chinese language President Xi Jinping even praised the corporate earlier this yr. And the letter cites a latest report printed by the nonpartisan Basis for Protection of Democracies (FDD), which raises the alarm on CATL’s speedy enlargement within the U.S. inexperienced power market.
“CATL and different corporations concerned within the Chinese language Communist Celebration’s human rights abuses, together with the Uyghur genocide, shouldn’t be allowed to construct important infrastructure for U.S. navy bases like Camp Lejeune,” Gallagher instructed Fox Information Digital.
“FDD’s new report illustrates the U.S. important infrastructure vulnerabilities created by introducing battery electrical storage methods from overseas entities of concern — like these put in at Camp Lejeune — into a few of the most crucial components of the U.S. energy grid,” he mentioned. “Our service members have to be able to defend our nation at a second’s discover; we can’t permit their readiness to rely on our nation’s foremost adversary, the Chinese language Communist Celebration.”
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Though it’s not state-owned, Chinese language traders tied to the CCP have held monetary stakes in CATL, in keeping with a New York Occasions assessment. The Chinese language authorities has additionally taken strategic steps over the past decade to bolster CATL and different electrical automobile corporations primarily based in China.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., vice chairman of the Senate Choose Committee on Intelligence, and Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., chairman of the Home Choose Committee on the CCP, raised alarm about Camp Lejeune’s battery facility final week. (Getty Photos)
As well as, Zeng Yuqun, who based CATL in 2012 and stays its prime government, was recognized final yr as a member of the Chinese language Folks’s Political Consultative Convention (CPPCC) Nationwide Committee. In keeping with a U.S. authorities report printed in 2018, the CPPCC is a “important coordinating physique” that brings collectively representatives of Chinese language curiosity teams and is led by the CCP’s Politburo Standing Committee.
In March 2022, the CPPCC highlighted Yuqun’s work with CATL fortifying China’s lithium provide chains, that are essential for electrical automobile manufacturing and different inexperienced power improvement.
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“Legislators from each political events are slowly waking as much as the truth that China is in search of to strategically place itself to dominate our electrical future,” Craig Singleton, the creator of the report cited by Gallagher and deputy director of FDD’s China Program, instructed Fox Information Digital in an interview Wednesday.
“It is very clear that policymaker stress may end up in significant modifications, even when the Biden administration has been lax in absolutely vetting these battery methods, all in pursuit of decarbonization or a transition away from fossil fuels.”
CATL CEO Robin Zeng presents plans for the development of a manufacturing facility. (Paul Zinken/image alliance through Getty Photos)
“Whereas Duke Power ought to be applauded for proactively discontinuing this battery system and turning it off, it raises numerous questions on the place else these batteries have been deployed throughout the USA, probably on delicate U.S. navy services,” Singleton added.
“I worry that we’re actually simply at the start line of what needs to be a a lot deeper dialog about China’s entry to our electrical grids and our important infrastructure and the shortage of stringent oversight which may be very clearly a looming nationwide safety blind spot.”
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Ford Motor Firm introduced earlier this yr it might construct an electrical automobile battery plant in Marshall, Michigan. As a part of the announcement, the U.S. automaker mentioned it had reached an settlement with CATL to fabricate the battery cells on the plant utilizing providers offered by the Chinese language firm.
For the reason that announcement, which was applauded by Michigan state Democrats, Ford has confronted rising stress to cancel its take care of CATL. The corporate introduced it might scale the venture down final month.
The U.S. Marine Corps didn’t reply to a request for remark. The Division of Protection declined to remark.
Thomas Catenacci is a politics author for Fox Information Digital.
Chinese language batteries touted by Democrats taken offline on Marine Corps base
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