LANSING, Mich. — The Trump administration has made clear its disdain for electric vehicles and clean energy. Yet at the grand opening of South Korea–based LG Energy Solution’s latest battery manufacturing facility, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum cheered the factory as a fulfillment of the president’s agenda.
“That’s the American energy dominance in action, which is more jobs, strong allies, secure supply chains — and right here, that’s happening,” Burgum said Tuesday during the Lansing factory’s opening ceremony.
LG executives have framed the plant’s opening in similar terms, echoing the administration’s focus on energy security and the importance of making the tech in the U.S., given that China produces most of the world’s batteries.
And like many of its peers in the industry, LG has adapted wide swaths of its Lansing site, originally meant only for EV batteries, to make what is proving to be a more politically palatable technology: energy storage systems for power grids.
“No matter which side of the aisle you’re on, there’s a desire to have energy independence and to meet load growth,” said Devon Wilson, vice president of sales and marketing for LG’s U.S. energy storage division.
