No modern economy, especially a (cough-cough) green one, can long survive without critical minerals like lithium. But until recently US resources have gone undeveloped or underdeveloped. Most of our lithium comes from South America or Australia via China. That means strategic enemies. The Green President didn’t do much if anything to change that. Mr. Trump, however, has.
In December he issued an order asking relevant agencies to examine critical mineral commodities and any security threat that our dependence on foreign sources might present.
The Secretary of the Interior, in coordination with the Secretary of Defense and in consultation with the heads of other relevant executive departments and agencies (agencies), shall publish a list of critical minerals in the Federal Register not later than 60 days after the date of this order, and disseminate such list to the appropriate agencies.
Sec. 3. Policy. It shall be the policy of the Federal Government to reduce the Nation’s vulnerability to disruptions in the supply of critical minerals, which constitutes a strategic vulnerability for the security and prosperity of the United States. The United States will further this policy for the benefit of the American people and in a safe and environmentally responsible manner,
Identifying critical minerals, domestic resources, and requesting a technology plan for ensuring we have access to these resources makes a lot of sense.
The United States is heavily reliant on imports of certain mineral commodities that are vital to the Nation’s security and economic prosperity. This dependency of the United States on foreign sources creates a strategic vulnerability for both its economy and military to adverse foreign government action, natural disaster, and other events that can disrupt supply of these key minerals.
For more than a decade some have cried about dependence on foreign oil. Mr. Trump has done a lot to address that. We are now a world leader in production. But over that ten-year span, where green energy and battery technology are considered the next step in energy freedom no one seriously addressed our dependence on foreign sources for critical minerals like lithium.
But wait! There’s More!
Mr. Trump is on it. And he’s all about the positive side effects.
An increase in private‑sector domestic exploration, production, recycling, and reprocessing of critical minerals, and support for efforts to identify more commonly available technological alternatives to these minerals, will reduce our dependence on imports, preserve our leadership in technological innovation, support job creation, improve our national security and balance of trade, and enhance the technological superiority and readiness of our Armed Forces, which are among the Nation’s most significant consumers of critical minerals.
Encouraging domestic free market exploration, mining, processing, research, and delivery for both commercial and national security purposes creates more jobs, more commerce, and even tax revenues in the United States.
It makes American Even Greater.
