The Biden administration was reported to have allowed the acquisition of American intellectual properties related to battery technology. This technology was reported to have been funded by the American taxpayer.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) gave his initial thoughts in a tweet while also sending a letter with an elongated response to the Department of Energy director and the Under Secretary for Science and Innovation.
The Dept. of @Energy should prioritize Americans' best interests, not those of Communist China.
I'm demanding answers as to why @JoeBiden is giving American businesses a cold shoulder while giving taxpayer-funded technology to companies in Communist China.https://t.co/LHVF3rchpx
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) October 20, 2022
“The Dept. of Energy should prioritize Americans' best interests, not those of Communist China. I'm demanding answers as to why Joe Biden is giving American businesses a cold shoulder while giving taxpayer-funded technology to companies in Communist China,” tweeted Scott.
Within the letter, Scott wrote, “After millions of our federal dollars were spent to support the work of U.S. scientists, researchers, and engineers in developing the vanadium redox flow battery, your agency permitted the sub-licensure and subsequent license transfer of that technology to a Chinese company based in Dalian, China.”
Scott would go on to mention that “Even worse, the Department of Energy apparently allowed this license transfer to the foreign company while several U.S.-based companies have been unable to receive authorization from your agency to manufacture the batteries domestically. This is not only an unconscionable waste of U.S. resources and innovation that will now benefit a foreign adversary, it is apparently a violation of the Department of Energy’s own licensing rules.”
Later, Scott requests the total amount of federal government money that was put toward the Department of Energy to “support the research, development, and testing” of the innovative battery technology, along with the DoE’s “specific process for reviewing sub-licensing requests.” And finally, Scott looks to find who is going to be held responsible for this event’s occurrence.
