• The Biden administration’s policies limiting domestic mining of key minerals are hindering its effort to transition the U.S. economy to green technologies while increasing America’s dependence on China, industry experts and lawmakers told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
• The administration has taken steps to block major mining projects in Arizona, Alaska and Minnesota, and has been increasingly securing supplies for critical minerals from foreign partners, according to Axios.
• “I cannot understand why this administration wants to lock in Chinese dominance of mineral supplies instead of investing in a secure, domestic supply chain,” Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia told the DCNF.

President Joe Biden’s mining policies run counter to his efforts to transition the U.S. economy to green technologies while increasing the industry’s dependence on China, industry experts and lawmakers told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Although the White House in 2022 called for “responsible mining” in the U.S. to reduce reliance on Chinese minerals, the administration has taken steps to block major mining projects in Arizona, Alaska and Minnesota, often citing environmental impacts. China currently dominates the supply chain for most minerals necessary for electric vehicles and other green technologies like solar panels, holding a near-monopoly on processing of cobalt, lithium, graphite, manganese and nickel, according to a report by the Institute for Energy Research (IER), an energy think tank.

Despite pressure from a bipartisan group of senators, the U.S. Geological Survey recently declined to name copper a critical mineral — a designation that would prioritize permits for mining projects — a move that Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said would have significant negative consequences for national security and run counter to the administration’s interests, in a statement to the DCNF. (RELATED: ‘We’re Not Expecting Anything Good’: Oil Drillers Brace For Biden’s New Rules)

“I cannot understand why this Administration wants to lock in Chinese dominance of mineral supplies instead of investing in a secure, domestic supply chain,” Manchin — a frequent sparring partner with the administration over climate issues — said. “Copper remains vital to our energy security and economic growth, and the United States cannot remain the superpower of the world without a strong domestic supply chain. … If a mineral isn’t listed until after we are already dependent on foreign suppliers, it will be too late — as illustrated by our current dependence on China for many of the minerals in electric vehicles.”

President Joe Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, will support the green manufacturing and energy industries with an estimated $1.2 trillion in government funding — more than three times the government’s initial estimates — and incentivize some $3 trillion in private investments, according to analysts from Goldman Sachs. To support this massive spending spree, the Biden administration has secured deals with more than a half dozen foreign countries to develop a mineral supply chain, a strategy that the National Mining Association — a trade group representing U.S. mining companies — criticized for using “short-term band-aids” while ignoring “long-term, systemic supply chain problems,” in a statement to the DCNF.

The Biden Administration continues to stop U.S. mining and U.S. jobs. Instead, Biden wants more reliance on Chinese critical minerals and materials. This is un-American.https://t.co/7OaONq2ePY

— Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (@RepDLesko) May 23, 2023

“Unfortunately, we are hearing more about U.S. deals to source minerals overseas than we are about mining projects being approved here at home,” NMA spokeswoman Ashley Burke told the DCNF. “America’s growing domestic mineral needs have led us to the highest mineral reliance in our country’s history, yet the administration seems to be doubling down on this glaring and growing vulnerability and placing obstacles in the way of domestic production instead of removing them.”

Dan Kish, a senior fellow at the IER, described the administration as having a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde approach” to mining, simultaneously pushing to “electrify everything … driving demand up” while making it “harder and harder” to develop minerals in the U.S., in a statement to the DCNF. He estimated that electric vehicles require roughly six times as much critical minerals compared to their traditional gas-powered counterparts, and anticipates that the increased demand amid limited supply would likely push up mineral prices.

“As mineral demand is skyrocketing, the Biden Administration has banned mining in my northern Minnesota district as well as in Alaska and Arizona,” said Republican Rep. Pete Stauber of Minnesota, referencing the administration’s efforts to effectively kill  the Twin Metals mine in the state. “Meanwhile, the Biden Administration is insistent on making America reliant on global supply chains controlled by unfriendly actors and continues to look abroad for minerals which threatens our national security. This Administration signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Congo where child slave labor is used and the Chinese Communist Party controls 15 of 19 major mines. This is immoral and insulting.”

Chinese Communist Party-linked Ganfeng Lithium is the largest shareholder of the Canadian firm Lithium Americas, which received approval by the Trump administration to operate the Thacker Pass mine, the largest known source of lithium in the U.S. and third largest in the world. The company began construction on the Nevada mine in March after its approval was upheld by a federal judge in February, pending a final environmental review by the Biden administration.

In an early May Senate hearing, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland defended the administration’s efforts to block domestic mining projects because it was protecting “valuable” ecological resources and appeared to be on the verge of tears over climate change in late April when defending the administration’s push for green energy. Haaland had previously refused to say whether she believed it was better for the U.S. to produce oil domestically, or import it from foreign sources.

Beyond supply chain concerns, President Biden’s push to transition the nation to primarily use green manufacturing and energy sources is running headlong into real estate concerns, as states hurry to prepare the massive sites necessary to sustain such projects. Despite this, the Environmental Protection Agency in recent months has proposed a series of aggressive emissions standards that will push the electrification of America’s passenger car and trucking fleets and lead to the shutdown of noncompliant coal and gas-fired power plants by 2040.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan at the time praised the administration’s vehicle standards for being “readily achievable” thanks to the president’s “Investing in America agenda” that will “secure America’s global competitiveness.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a DCNF request for comment.

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