Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who oversees major federal energy and land management decisions, acknowledged Tuesday that China benefits from the global green energy push.
acknowledged Tuesday that the Biden administration's climate agenda, which is reliant on global critical mineral supply chains, is strengthening China.
During a House Appropriations Committee hearing on her agency's proposed 2024 budget, Haaland was repeatedly grilled about the administration's environmental policies blocking further domestic production of critical minerals and opening the door to further. In one exchange with Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., Haaland affirmed that green energy sources"deepen" reliance on Chinese imports.
"I'm telling you right now that 63% of rare earth mining [occurs in China]," Reschenthaler stated."By deductive reasoning, that would mean that electric vehicles and renewables deepen our reliance on China. Correct?"Interior Secretary Deb Haaland visits Granada, Colorado, on Feb. 19, 2022., solar panels and wind turbines require a massive expansion of cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel, graphite, zinc and other mineral production.
The vast majority of mining and processing of such materials, though, takes place outside the U.S., making the nation more reliant on foreign minerals despite its large domestic resources. A White House report published in 2021 concluded that China alone controls more than half of all global rare earth mining capacity and a staggering 85% of rare earth refining capacity.
However, the Department of the Interior, led by Haaland, has taken a number of actions to curb critical mineral production nationwide.Earlier this year, Haaland finalized a 20-year ban on mining across 225,504 acres in a northern Minnesota forest area that contains vast critical mineral reserves, one year after revoking leases given to a mining firm in the region.
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