EV and their batteries don’t only create huge environmental, health, and environmental justice problems in the mining process— they also create problems in the factories that make the batteries. This story describe harmful working conditions in the Ultium Cells plant in Ohio, but the same problems are found in other plants as well. Like other ‘clean energy’ plants, they have received massive loans from Department of Energy and also will be subsidized with tax credits.
As we’ve seen with Amazon, Tesla, and other big companies, management’s response to the problems is often to ignore them, trivialize them, and cover them up — and evade responsibility for harm to the workers.
- ‘Will the Clean Energy Auto Economy Be Built on Factory Floors Riddled With Toxic Chemicals and Safety Hazards?‘ | In These Times
If the government is going to subsidize this sort of profit-making venture with our money, they should require the highest standards for workers, health, and safety. We should not build the ‘clean energy’ future, with EV and other devices for the middle and upper classes, on the backs of workers.
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