The White House is authorizing the Department of Energy to boost manufacturing of some clean energy technologies.
President Joe Biden is using the Defense Production Act to increase American manufacturing of clean energy technologies, the Department of Energy said on Monday. The move is intended to increase production of solar panels, heat pumps, insulation, electric grid components and fuel cells, all products that can increase efficiency or replace fossil fuels. The increased production of solar should be "enough to enable more than 3.3 million homes to switch to clean solar energy each year," the White House said. This use of the Defense Production Act gives the Department of Energy greater leeway in increasing production of technologies from electricity generation to conservation. Solar panels and fuel cells can generate electricity with a much lower carbon footprint than oil, gas or coal.…