Plan will require an unprecedented increase in REE and result in more reliance on China – it has regulatory advantages over the U.S.

The rare earth industry is also crucial to the United States’ clean energy future. As Manish Negam, an analyst at Credit Suisse, emphasizes clean technologies such as solar panels and wind turbines, as well as electric vehicles, would be the worst hit by any supply chain disruptions. If the U.S. is serious about transitioning to a low-carbon economy, as it should be, then we must realize that doing so without a reliable supply chain of rare earth minerals is literally impossible. Mark Mills of the Manhattan Institute recently published a study outlining the material requirements of the clean energy transition; he found that any major expansion of clean energy technologies will require an unprecedented increase in rare earth mining, yet the U.S. is 100 percent reliant on imports for some 17 critical minerals, and 50 percent reliant for a further 29.

Aside from the recent relief package proposal, there are other encouraging signs of a political evolution on this matter. For example, the bipartisan Reclaiming American Rare Earths (RARE) Act, introduced in the House on Sept. 1, offers a comprehensive framework of tax incentives to stimulate more investment into the U.S.-based rare earth reserves and mineral production, as well as a series of grants for mining and mineral recovery projects. Similarly, Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska.) American Mineral Security Act is another step in the right direction, and is likely what the Senate Energy Committee relief package is referring to. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs are also playing an important role. From Alaska to Texas, companies and startups are advancing mining development, and a site in Colorado will be the first non-China facility for refining rare earth ores, a crucial process that has been outsourced to China for decades. The latter in particular, a joint venture between Japan, Australia and the U.S., also shows the potential for international collaboration with like-minded countries on rare earth exploration. Moreover, a mountain in Wyoming called Bear Lodge is America’s largest known deposit of rare earth minerals, with approximately 18 million tons that could supply the U.S. for years to come, although extraction has proven a challenge.

Ultimately, however, more can and must be done. As Mills reports, the permitting process in the U.S. is ridiculously long, taking up to three decades where Australia and Canada only require two years. A regulatory minefield of labyrinthine local, state and federal rules precludes much-needed investment from taking place, stifling mining companies compared to their Chinese competitors. Meanwhile, mineral exploration and development on federal lands have been all-but-banned.

These rules and regulations are absurd not only from an economic perspective, but also from environmental and geopolitical ones. The current situation forces the U.S. to rely on countries like China for our long-term economic development, clean energy transition and military innovation. If we are to stand up to China, recover the American economy and play our role in combating climate change, the U.S. must rapidly find a way to become rare earth independent — or, at least, non-China dependent.