Your Daily Dose of Climate Hope: August 1, 2024
Pass the Global Strategy for Securing Critical Minerals Act of 2024
A new bill before Congress would coordinate U.S. efforts to acquire consistent supplies of a wide array of critical minerals vital for the global clean energy transition.
Tell your Senators and Representative to pass the Global Strategy for Securing Critical Minerals Act of 2024!
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Reasons For Hope
Congress is considering the Global Strategy for Securing Critical Minerals Act of 2024 (text here), a medley of measures to secure U.S. supply of minerals critical to a range of clean energy technologies. The bill would establish new diplomatic and financial tools for U.S. investments in critical mineral projects, streamline information sharing across government agencies and the private sector, and plan for critical minerals-related workforce training programs.
For context, here’s the official USGS list of critical minerals, which is a technological/economic classification, not a geological one. Minerals that the USA considers critical include lithium, nickel, cobalt, and the broader group of “rare earth elements,” like neodymium and europium.
This would build on and coordinate several existing U.S. critical minerals efforts and encourage cooperation with the private sector. Already, U.S. Under Secretary of State Jose Fernandez has been traveling the world from Papua New Guinea to Mongolia to connect with new sources of rare earth elements and other critical minerals1. The Biden-Harris Administration has also spearheaded the Minerals Security Partnership2, a multilateral team including the USA, UK, European Union, India, and many others, dedicated to sourcing critical minerals in environmentally, economically, and ethically sound manner.
“The global demand for critical minerals continues to grow at exponential rates, and it is crucial that the U.S. identify secure sources of these minerals so that we can count on them for national security and critical infrastructure applications…
Currently, China dominates the critical mineral industry and is actively working to ensure that the U.S. does not catch up. The U.S. must, alongside allies, take meaningful steps to protect and expand our production and procurement of these critical minerals. This legislation will serve as a roadmap for the U.S. to counter China’s dominance in this sector.”
-Senator Mark Warner, D-VA
Keep in mind that mining for all the critical minerals we need for the renewables revolution still adds up to much less mining than is currently needed to keep the economy running on fossil fuels: check out Dr. Hannah Ritchie’s definitive writings on the subject. Ready availability of critical minerals is vital to keep the solar, wind, and battery revolutions on track, cleaning our air and stabilizing our climate as fast as we can!
You can help: tell your Senators and Representative to help pass the Global Strategy for Securing Critical Minerals Act of 2024!
More context: “rare earths” refers to a group of 17 very similar elements, from dysprosium to neodymium to praseodymium, that aren’t actually particularly rare in Earth’s crust but are very difficult to extract because they’re mixed in with other metals. They all have strong magnetic fields, making them critical ingredients for the industrial magnets used in wind turbines, EV motors, drones, tanks, aircraft, advanced lasers, and a bunch of other valuable stuff. Lithium is not a rare earth (it’s much more common, much less magnetic, and much easier to mine), but it’s also critical for a lot of battery technologies. Copper and cobalt aren’t rare earths either, but lithium, copper, and cobalt are all “critical minerals” as designated by the US Geological Survey. Almost all rare earths are critical minerals, but not all critical minerals are rare earths. These are the metals we need more of for the clean energy transition to work.
Essentially, the “Don’t Let China Run The Show on Critical Minerals” club.
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