At the cusp of the new age of batteries and electric vehicles, China starts with a potent strategic advantage: It possesses some 80% of the global battery metals supply chain. For the entirety of the 2020s, the rest of the world—U.S., Asian and European startup and establishment auto companies alike—will have to buy and import most of their cell supplies from China, which will have the power of a sort of battery OPEC.

But, a little over a decade after we heard similar assertions from a prior American president, the Biden Administration has declared that the U.S. will build a local electric manufacturing infrastructure. Congress has allocated $7 billion to do so. Is that enough funding? Will the U.S., against the steep odds, really take control of its own battery fate?

For its next Live Chat, The Electric is delighted to welcome Venkat Srinivasan, a leading battery scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, who is coordinating the joint U.S. government-private effort to build a U.S. battery supply chain.