Andrew Draper talked to Susan Bernard of trade association Battery Council International (BCI) to find out her plans for dealing with a new president and congress in the US, state administrations, and women in the battery industry.
The new director of government relations at BCI will be pouncing on government engagement opportunities, from the presidency to state-level administrations.
Bernard has a lot to watch with the new presidency of Donald Trump and a Congress in which the Republicans are now in control. And the deregulation that Trump has warned of may switch her focus.
She told BEST her new role – Vice President, Government Relations and Sustainability – is a continuation of her previous work to best represent the industry “regardless of who’s in charge”.
Ahead of the new presidency, she said: “So the president-elect and Congress really have talked about deregulatory action, which tends to move things to the states. And so we’ll be keeping an eye on states as far as whether state OSHA activity picks up.” OSHA is the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Bernard said there is a state-level legislative trend requiring the collection of all size batteries and all chemistries that BCI is keeping a close eye on too, as it may disrupt current business practices – as well as creating opportunities for new business.
Incentive programmes
How the new administration deals with the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is important, Bernard said. “Obviously we’re going to be watching how both Congress and the president-elect deal with important incentive programmes. Programmes we felt were important over the past recent years.
“For example, battery manufacturing tax incentives through the 45X credits are crucial to supporting our industry. And obviously we’re always looking to strengthen US manufacturing.”
The IRA established a collection of tax credits and incentives supporting domestic clean and renewable energy production. A crucial aspect of that legislation – the Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit under Section 45X – supports the domestic production of equipment and components. They include batteries and inverters, and critical minerals.
BCI’s position that Bernard will be pushing is that it is necessary to keep some of those incentives in place – for battery manufacturers, recyclers and component suppliers.
Trump has said he wants to gut the IRA and its tax breaks. Bernard sees a “definite risk” of that happening, so will be paying close attention. Taking back money already committed will be more difficult than clawing back awards for the current fiscal year, she said.
BCI has been in discussions with current and incoming Congress members, several of whom have emphasised the need for Congress to hear from companies benefitting from IRA programmes to try to keep them in place, she added.
BCI sent a briefing document to Trump’s transition team on the industry’s major priorities. Another is in the pipeline for Congress and will be sent once committee assignments are finalised.
The question of trade tariffs is also on Bernard’s radar, but she stresses BCI has not, ahead of the new presidency, taken a position. She expects that any introduction of tariffs would happen quickly and so she has been in contact with association members on a possible position.
The sustainability committee within BCI currently focuses on environmental sustainability as opposed to ESG more widely. It plans to work on battery carbon analysis and the contribution batteries make to reducing energy demand.
Women in batteries
Another of Bernard’s strings to her bow is as director of the Women in the Global Battery Industry association, WGBI. It is an exciting time, she said, with a new chapter in Latin America being launched in January. She is also in discussions with members in Asia and Europe and about starting chapters there too in the next year. At present WGBI has a single umbrella organisation.
“We have members from all over the world,” she said. “But when it comes to our programmes and events and things of that nature, it’s important for us to provide programming both in the right time zone and also topics that are relevant to women around the globe.”
The association will be at the Fenibat event this year for the first time. She is in bullish mood with a membership increase of about 25% in 2024, to 285 members. “And people are excited,” she said.
Asked if membership went up because of more women in the industry or WGBI’s recruitment, she pauses for thought and said: “In the past two years we’ve really focused on providing learning opportunities for the women involved. So we focus on both professional development, but also industry education. We have women in the membership who work in all divisions of the businesses. So anything from HR to engineering and sales.”
The focus will be on industry education that not everyone gets in their day-to-day job because, for example, they work in HR. She said companies have been setting up more women’s groups within their companies. “And so WGBI is talking about how we can shift some of our focus to also become a support for those groups within the individual companies, rather than just all individual women.”
Bernard joined BCI in August 2022 as director of regulatory and technical affairs. This involved advocating at federal and state level on legislation and regulatory matters affecting the battery industry. BCI’s technical programme also came under her remit.
