President Joe Biden prioritizes fossil fuel extraction in foreign dictatorships rather than on American shores. Unfortunately, this energy NIMBY-ism isn’t limited to the oil and gas industries. Recently released data reveals how the president’s opposition to domestic mining maintains China’s supply chain domination of the critical minerals needed for renewable energy technology.
Critical minerals are a group of 50 elements that are used in manufacturing and are necessary for American economic and national security, but that also have supply chains liable to disruption. Many of these minerals play an integral role in low-carbon technology, such as graphite in electric vehicle batteries or arsenic in solar power semiconductors. However, according to new data from the U.S. Geological Survey, the United States remains 100 percent import reliant upon 12 critical minerals, coupled with an import reliance greater than 50 percent for an additional 31 minerals.
Published in its entirety in The Hill.