Legal Insurrection by by Leslie Eastman Wednesday, April 6, 2022
Why is the potentially environmentally harmful production of heavy metals approved, but fossil fuel resource development stifled? Legal Insurrection has regularly posted our concerns about the availability of rare earth minerals, which are critical to electronic devices we rely heavily on for our homes, businesses, and the defense of this country.
After the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, I noted that China was stepping in to exploit the region’s rare earth supply to pair with the near-monopoly the Chinese already have.
How serious is the development? Likely, more problematic than we realize.
As evidence, consider that Biden recently invoked a Cold War statute to support the development of heavy metal and rare earth resources for components used for electric vehicle batteries and other advanced technologies.
Mr. Biden invoked the Defense Production Act, a move that will give the government more avenues to provide support for the mining, processing and recycling of critical materials, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and manganese. Those are used to make large-capacity batteries for electric cars and clean-energy storage systems. Yet except for a handful of mines and facilities, they are almost exclusively produced outside the United States.
“We need to end our long-term reliance on China and other countries for inputs that will power the future,” Mr. Biden said during remarks at the White House, where he also announced the release of one million barrels of oil per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The Defense Production Act is a Cold War-era statute that gives the president access to funding and other enhanced powers to shore up the American industrial base and ensure the private sector has the necessary resources to defend national security and face emergencies.
More:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/04/biden-invokes-defense-production-act-to-support-ev-battery-component-production/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN6K0FTXKow
