President Joe Biden has pledged to cut domestic greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent over the next decade. The Biden administration has proposed massive public investments in renewables and other clean energy technologies to achieve that ambitious goal. But many clean energy technologies, including solar and batteries, require critical minerals as their basic building blocks – minerals that the United States must primarily import because of regulatory hurdles to developing new domestic mines.

In a report released in March, ConservAmerica recommended a series of steps the federal government should take to increase the domestic production of minerals and rare earth elements essential to national security and reverse our dependence on foreign suppliers. Click on the link below to read the full report: Strengthening America’s Mineral Security: Net Import Dependence, Supply Chain Vulnerability, and the Case for Critical Minerals.

ConservAmerica President Jeff Kupfer followed the report – Strengthening America’s Mineral Security – with a letter to leaders of Congress stressing the need for policies supportive of developing reliable and secure sources of critical minerals in the United States.

“The data makes clear that America has a deep, persistent, and dangerous reliance on overseas production and processing. This is largely a problem of our own making – one that can be addressed by reforming our national policy framework in support of mineral and energy resource development,” Kupfer wrote in the letter. “A shift in federal policy is essential and long overdue to solve America’s deepening dependence on foreign countries, particularly China, for minerals that are essential to our energy, economic, and national security interests.”

The letter and copies of the report were sent to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in the Senate, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in the House.

ConservAmerica and 44 other members of the Hunt Fish 30x30 Coalition submitted formal comments to the Federal Register encouraging the Biden administration to select lands and waters for its American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas based on conservation outcomes rather than arbitrary criteria, and to engage in a meaningful consultation process with local entities and private land owners. The Atlas program is a central component of Biden’s America the Beautiful initiative, and is being done in conjunction with the global 30x30 initiative that seeks to protect at least 30 percent of the world’s lands and waters by 2030.

The federal permitting process can be burdensome and costly, with major infrastructure projects often taking a decade or more to fully permit. As Congress looks to invest billions of taxpayer dollars in improving the nation’s infrastructure, it needs to first overcome inefficiencies and uncertainties within the permitting process. That was the takeaway from a recent online discussion hosted by ConservAmerica’s Todd Johnston on the federal permitting process. Johnston was joined by a panel of experts, including former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Neil Chatterjee, Tom Vinson of American Clean Power, Charlie Riedl of NGSA and the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas, and Alex Herrgott of the Permitting Institute. Check out the webinar on demand at the link below.

ConservAmerica President Jeff Kupfer spoke with Jigar Shah, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, and Rob Hanson, CEO of Monolith, on the increasing role DOE’s Loan Programs Office is playing in meeting the Biden administration’s goal of transitioning the U.S. economy to clean energy. After a decade in which it closed on loans for only one new project, the Loan Programs Office under Director Shah is aggressively seeking large energy infrastructure projects and commercially deployable projects to support through loans and debt financing opportunities. With over $40 billion in loan authority and a broad mandate to provide guarantees and loans across multiple energy sectors, the Loan Programs Office has become a centerpiece of Biden’s efforts to transition to a zero-carbon future. Check out the webinar on demand at the link below.

ConservAmerica President Jeff Kupfer spoke to Fox Business at CERAWeek in Houston about President Biden’s decision to ban Russian oil imports, saying it was the right move even if the administration appears to have been forced into it by events.

"I think it was the right move. They ultimately in some way got pushed into it," Kupfer said. "With the bipartisan pressure from the Hill, it sort of left them no choice but to do it."

Kupfer, a former Acting Deputy Energy Secretary under President George W. Bush, also noted that we need to be realistic about the energy transition. “We can’t wave a magic wand and transition to a new system that does away with fossil fuels."

“There is a general recognition that we can't turn on a switch and change prices in the short term, but there are things we can be doing that will impact the long term,” ConservAmerica President Jeff Kupfer told Fox News when asked at the start of CERAWeek in Houston about the current state of U.S. oil production.

“In addition to permitting reform and additional drilling, we need to make sure the infrastructure is in place to get the product out of the ground to consumers,” Kupfer added. “We need transportation and export facilities to be built. We need to take a step back and look at the complete picture and be willing to focus on long-term benefits rather than the short-term political ‘wins. Only then can we lower gas prices.”