Source: Blog – Alliance for American Manufacturing
“If you go back to 1965, 85% of rare earth elements were provided by the United States. Look what has has happened today,” said R. Scott Forney III, president of Electromagnetic Systems Group at General Atomics. Getty Images
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee met for the second time in two weeks to study ways to ramp up domestic production of minerals, which will play a major role in the transition to clean energy.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) kicked off Thursday’s Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on critical mineral supply chains by talking about comics.
No, really.
“In the 1940s, in the wake of World War 2 and as the Cold War started, Kryptonite made its first appearance in a Superman comic. A rare mineral found only on the fictional planet of Krypton, Kryptonite is the only thing that can render the seemingly invulnerable ‘Man of Steel’ powerless,” said Manchin, who chairs the committee.
“As tensions grew during the Cold War, our demand for critical minerals was nowhere close to where it is today. But it turns out DC Comics was onto something. The more we dive into this topic of critical minerals, the more I’m convinced that Superman isn’t the only one who can be brought to his knees by rare minerals.”
Indeed, there’s growing recognition that America’s reliance on foreign imports for critical minerals is an economic and natural security issue. The hearing on Thursday was the second time in two weeks that the energy and natural resources committee has met to discuss the issue, and comes on the heels of President Biden’s decision to invoke the Defense Production Act to secure some critical minerals.
Critical minerals are needed to make all sorts of things we rely on every day, from cell phones to car batteries. They will play a major role in the transition to clean energy, needed to build everything from electric vehicles to wind turbines.
But the sad reality is that the United States will not be in control of its own destiny so long as it remains dependent on imports for critical minerals.
As we noted last week, the Congressional Research Service found that the United States is “100% import reliant on 14 minerals on the critical minerals list,” including rare earths, which are a critical input for clean energy technology and also a sector dominated by China. The U.S. is 75% import reliant on 10 other critical minerals.
Meanwhile, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made the issue even more pressing. Ukraine is a major global supplier of neon, a mineral needed to make semiconductors, already are in short supply. Russia is also a producer of critical minerals.
“For our national and economic security, we cannot afford to rely on countries such as Russia and China for our mineral mining and processing needs. Cutting Russia and China out of global mineral supply chains won’t be easy,” said Ranking Member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), adding: “China controls over 90% of the rare earth global energy market, including refining and processing.”
The full committee was joined by a handful of experts, all of whom agreed that the United States was woefully unprepared for the kind of commitments necessary to reach its clean energy goals – unless it is prepared to make it and mine it here.
“If you go back to 1965, 85% of rare earth elements were provided by the United States. Look what has happened today,” said R. Scott Forney III, president of Electromagnetic Systems Group at General Atomics.
Dr. Duncan Robert Wood, vice president of Strategy & New Initiative at the Wilson Center, highlighted the scope of the task ahead.
“The growth in demand for critical minerals is already impressive but will become increasingly daunting as the energy transition advances,” he said, later adding, “How is that the Chinese, that Asia, is so far ahead of us? It’s because they took the long term view many years ago.”
Our readers know all too well how short-sighted gains can leave long term, devastating impacts on communities all across America. It doesn’t take an academic to see how trade deals and outsourcing ripped the engine of innovation out of America.
J.B. Straubel, founder and CEO of Redwood Materials, said it will take American ingenuity to get us going again.
“One thing I’d like to highlight is just that having a manufacturing base of how to refine and convert these critical minerals into the battery components gives us flexibility. Right now, if we’re buying the manufactured subcomponent from China, for instance, we don’t have much flexibility — that determines the flexibility of the battery,” he said. “So, I would argue that perhaps investing in that manufacturing base… is as critical if not more critical than increasing the supply of just the raw materials.”
Citing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Manchin pressed witnesses on ways to meet current and future goals, noting that more action is going to be needed to move supply chains away from countries like China, which the State Department found is using forced labor to make many of its products.
“I repeat the word ‘ethically’ because we know where a lot of its coming and the pain and hardships on people,” Manchin said. “Every company involved in the downstream manufacturing of products that contain critical minerals has a responsibility to know where their parts and materials are coming from.”
When it comes to EVs, Joe Britton, executive director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association, offered an optimistic look at the ways in which clean energy could benefit America’s working families.
“Ultimately, I believe EVs will be an American success story, leading not only to emissions reduction but a rejuvenated manufacturing base where everyone is better off, even those who may never get behind the wheel of an EV,” Britton said. “If we get this right… more Americans will benefit from a stable career, breathe cleaner air, or whose small business benefits from a new manufacturing plant opening in their hometown.”
Invoking the legacy of former President John F. Kennedy’s “moonshot,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) called Americans to action to lead the 21st century clean, Made in USA economy.
“We are the innovators, we are the entrepreneurs, we are the ones who can do it,” she said. “To me, this is a moment for all of us to marshal behind this and figure out how to get this done… We should be competitive internationally, and this is our moment to do it.”
If you’d like to watch an archive of Thursday’s hearing, click here.
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