Legislation will cut reliance on China for critical minerals essential to our national security, energy, and emerging tech
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators John Hickenlooper, Lindsey Graham, Chris Coons, and Todd Young introduced the bipartisan Critical Materials Future Act to establish a pilot program for the Department of Energy to financially support domestic critical mineral processing projects.
“China is rivaling American dominance by controlling the critical minerals market,” said Hickenlooper. “Boosting our domestic processing is how we’ll maintain American leadership in the world.”
“China maintains dominant control over critical mineral processing, which poses significant risks to our national security. It’s important for us to work with our allies to build better and more resilient processing capabilities,”said Graham.
“I’ve been hearing for years from national security and private sector leaders about the need for more capacity to process and recycle critical minerals here at home,” said Coons. “The Biden-Harris Administration and the newly formed Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains is already implementing ambitious programs to strengthen our energy security, and this additional funding and new authorities will support more of this urgent work.”
“Our reliance on global supply chains for critical materials poses a significant national security threat, especially as the Chinese Communist Party continues to manipulate this market,” said Young. “Our bill will take innovative steps to identify opportunities for American leadership and investment in critical material projects, strengthening domestic supply chains and boosting our economic and global competitiveness.”
The U.S. critical minerals list contains 50 minerals – including graphite, nickel, and cobalt – that are essential to our economy, infrastructure, and military capability. Critical minerals are used in smartphones, electric vehicle batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, and more.
China currently controls 90% of the global processing capacity for rare earth elements and over 80% of the processing for other critical minerals like cobalt, gallium, and graphite. Experts have become increasingly concerned with U.S. dependence on China for critical materials, arguing it poses a significant risk to national security. In August 2023, China announced export controls on gallium and germanium, critical minerals used in semiconductor manufacturing. In October 2023, China introduced export license requirements for graphite, essential for battery anodes. And in June 2023, a cobalt mine in Idaho was forced to shutter its operations before it opened and lay off hundreds of workers as China flooded the market with cheap cobalt.
Specifically, the Critical Materials Future Act grants the Secretary of Energy the authority and funding to deploy innovative financial mechanisms, such as contracts for differences and advanced market commitments, to support critical material processing projects in the United States. The bill also requires the Secretary of Energy to conduct a comprehensive study on the impact of these financial tools on market dynamics and processing projects within the critical materials sector, and to provide recommendations for expanding their use to strengthen America’s processing capabilities.
The Critical Materials Future Act is supported by BPC Action, American Critical Minerals Association, Colorado Schools of Mines, and Employ America. For their statements of support, click HERE.
In a speech at the Colorado School of Mines earlier this month, Hickenlooper called for a ‘Project Mercury’ for critical materials, arguing that America needs to take back the reins on critical minerals production to secure energy independence.
“What we need is a Project Mercury for critical minerals… In less than five years, Project Mercury mobilized more than 2 billion people from major government agencies, from the aerospace industry, to combine their skills, their initiative, their experience, into a single, coordinated effort.… That’s exactly what we need with critical minerals, and indeed, what we need in all aspects of this Great Transition. We’re behind, and we need to rapidly build a foundation that will be able to launch American dominance in critical minerals,” Hickenlooper said in the speech.
Hickenlooper also announced the introduction of two bipartisan bills with U.S. Senator Thom Tillis in his speech, which will guide a national strategy on a clean, responsible, and innovative approach to critical mineral sourcing.
Hickenlooper recently chaired a Senate hearing to explore strategies to urgently expand a diverse critical minerals workforce as the U.S. builds toward energy independence. Hickenlooper also recently joined a group of his Senate colleagues to introduce the bipartisan Global Strategy for Securing Critical Minerals Act, which works to ensure that the U.S., its allies, and global partners can count on a diverse and secure end-to-end supply of critical minerals. Hickenlooper also joined a group of his Senate colleagues earlier this year to introduce the bipartisan Enhancing Public-Private Sharing on Manipulate Adversary Practices in Critical Minerals Projects Act to protect American critical mineral projects abroad, as well as the bipartisan Critical Minerals Security Act to evaluate the global supply and ownership of critical minerals, and make it easier for the U.S. to establish stable supply chains with our allies and partners.
Full text of the Critical Materials Future Act is available HERE. A one-pager explanation on this bill is available HERE.
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