Real Clear Energy
Mark Compton, Pete Stauber
September 6, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/09/06/bring_more_reality_and_less_rhetoric_to_bidens_domestic_clean-energy_mandate_852033.html

The United States is in a mineral supply chain crisis. We need taconite, copper, nickel, cobalt, platinum-group elements, and many more for our national security, modern energy technology, and virtually every part of our modern world. While we have vast mineral wealth throughout our great country, we still are dangerously import-reliant, according to the Administration’s own U.S. Geological Survey, putting our economy, our national security, and our citizens at risk.

President Biden recently signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, which among several other provisions, increases domestic sourcing requirements for energy mandates, particularly for electric vehicle manufacturers. He also invoked the Defense Production Act for the same purpose, but with little clarity on how it benefits American mining, while holding a webinar that outlines spending American taxpayer dollars to develop mines in Canada. However, we know the only path forward to achieving the President’s goals is to lead the way in fostering responsible, sustainable domestic mining to acquire the critical minerals needed for modern energy technology. The greatest hurdle for the President in carrying out his climate agenda, ironically, is his own opposition to domestic extraction.   

We consistently hear about the need for domestic mineral production, but at every turn we see regulatory roadblocks that at best slow, or at worst halt entirely, the rigorous process established in law for mining projects. These actions ignore the reality that all modern energy technologies are mining intensive.

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