| by ConservAmerica President Jeff Kupfer A year ago, the Aspen Institute’s Energy & Environment program asked me to participate in a high-level roundtable series aimed at developing a consensus statement of a “Critical Minerals Policy for the United States.” As a top issue for ConservAmerica, which has only increased in importance with the implementation of the Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, I was pleased to participate. Along with other former government officials as well as leaders from business, non-profits, and academia, and under the leadership of co-chairs Jason Bordoff and Meghan O’Sullivan, we participated in multiple roundtables - hearing from experts, sharing information, and discussing recommendations. We all recognized the strategic importance of reliable and resilient access to critical minerals, which are essential to a wide range of applications, including clean energy technologies and defense systems. Even more importantly, we agreed on the need for policymakers to develop a coordinated strategy. That strategy should have two major components: to responsibly increase domestic and global production and processing of critical minerals at the scale and timeline needed to limit global temperature increases and to secure responsible and resilient critical mineral supply chains that minimize vulnerability to external risks. Eventually, we agreed on a set of findings and 11 recommendations for the U.S. Congress. Like the other signatories, I did not endorse every concept and sentence in the report, but I agree on the overarching concept and the broad outcomes. I encourage you to read the final report released last month. Besides containing much useful information, it makes the following recommendations, which can be divided into two major buckets: Develop the domestic foundation for more responsible and resilient supply chains.
1. Permitting: Congress should streamline permitting by using a place-based approach and setting strict timelines on adjudication.
2. Free, Prior, and Informed Consent: Congress should clarify and endorse the concept of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, making clear that it should be received from Tribal Nations directly impacted by critical minerals development.
3. Project Equity: Congress should endorse and further facilitate the ability of Tribal Nations to obtain equity in critical mineral projects.
4. Strategic Stockpile: Congress should continue to increase funding for the National Defense Stockpile, enabling it to effectively fulfill its mandate for defense and security.
5. Innovation: Congress should expand funding for R&D and undertake regulatory reform to promote the substitution of alternatives, demand reduction, and recycling of critical minerals.
6. Workforce: Congress should implement a grant program for accredited mining programs in the United States and should earmark a certain proportion of funds for recruitment initiatives.
Maximize connections with strategic exporting and importing countries. 7. Collaboration: Congress should resist reliance on Buy America provisions when crafting legislation related to critical minerals and seek to develop alternative international agreements to meet domestic needs.
8. Standards: Congress should work with federal agencies and international allies to establish clear standards for foreign mining projects that qualify for support.
9 Finance: Congress should work with federal agencies and international allies to establish clear standards for foreign mining projects that qualify for support. Congress should increase funding for the Development Finance Corporation and provide it with an expanded authority, and priority, to invest in critical mineral projects abroad that meet—or can, with U.S. support, meet—approved standards.
10. Trade: Congress should facilitate bilateral and multilateral frameworks that increase coordination of critical mineral supply chains and support the negotiation and passage of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements among countries that meet approved standards.
11. Information: Congress should help establish and fund a structure to improve demand projections and increase price transparency. ConservAmerica is a nonprofit organization that advocates for market-based solutions to conservation, environmental, and energy challenges. Visit us at ConservAmerica and follow us on Twitter @ConservAmerica and Facebook. CONTACT: [email protected]. |
