E&E NEWS: BIDEN MINING ORDER WON’T CHANGE BIGGEST HURDLE: PERMITS

Friday April 8, 2022

E&E News
Jael Holzman, Hannah Northey
April 8, 2022
https://www.eenews.net/articles/biden-mining-order-wont-change-biggest-hurdle-permits/

President Joe Biden might want to see more domestic mining for clean energy minerals, but industry insiders and experts say his deployment of the Defense Production Act won’t speed up what they see as the biggest impediment: federal environmental permitting.

Last week, Biden invoked the 1950 law to liberate funding for fledgling mining projects across the country that one day could produce five minerals crucial in the manufacturing of electric car batteries — lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite and manganese.

Biden’s stated goal was to invigorate the U.S. mining industry in order for the country to become independent from mineral supply lines controlled by China and Russia. As White House senior officials explained, the order was part of a “push to achieve real American energy independence.”

Read the full article here.