The aluminum industry’s decline is risks hobbling Kentucky’s clean energy supply chain as the electric vehicle industry should be taking off. Electric cars, above, charged at a public charging station in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Since Ford Motor Co. announced a series of major electric vehicle battery plants, anchored in Kentucky and Tennessee, regional leaders have touted Western Kentucky as fertile ground for a clean energy supply chain. Yet a critical material essential to battery production and electric vehicles — aluminum — is slipping away and is at risk of hobbling Kentucky’s clean energy supply chain at the exact moment the industry should be taking off.
In 30 years, America has fallen from being the global leader in primary aluminum production to now representing just 1.2% of annual production. From a peak of roughly 30 smelters across the U.S. in 1980, Kentucky is home to two of the five remaining plants, Century Aluminum’s Hawesville and Sebree plants. The Hawesville smelter was idled in June 2022 and hasn’t re-started. Magnitude 7 Metals announced last week it was curtailing its smelter in Missouri.