Charles Johnson, president & CEO of the Aluminum Association, issued the following statement calling for action on the bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act:

“America needs aluminium. As demand for this essential material continues to grow, we need common sense permitting reform to ensure that we can responsibly build out American both primary and recycled aluminium production. The bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act represents an important opportunity to modernise our outdated permitting system, accelerate critical energy and infrastructure projects, and provide the certainty businesses need to invest in America.

We applaud Senators Lee, Heinrich, Capito and Whitehouse for their leadership in advancing this commonsense legislation. Through our “America Needs Aluminum” campaign, we’ve made clear that meeting our nation’s growing demand for aluminium requires an all-of-the-above approach — expanding domestic primary production, investing in recycling and strengthening our energy infrastructure. Congress must seize this bipartisan opportunity and enact meaningful permitting reform in this Congress. America cannot afford to wait.”

In September, the Aluminum Association launched “America Needs Aluminum,” a new public awareness and advocacy campaign highlighting aluminium’s essential role in the U.S. economy and calling for policies that help America make, recycle and build more with this critical material.

With global aluminium demand projected to grow roughly 80% by 2050, the United States currently produces less than 20% of the primary aluminium it uses each year. Meeting that demand domestically would require building 5 to 6 new greenfield aluminium smelters. At the same time, recycled aluminium is a growing part of the domestic supply picture, accounting for around 85% of American aluminium production today. The U.S. aluminium industry has invested more than $11 billion – largely in mid-and-downstream production and recycling – over the past decade.