U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) wants Congress to start cutting government red tape that inhibits the country’s key minerals supply chain.

Palmer, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment, led a hearing Wednesday titled Help or Hindrance? The Impact of U.S. Environmental Laws on Critical Material Supply Chains, National Security, and Economic Growth. 

“Our country has a rich bounty of natural resources and, for most of the 20th Century, the United States was the leader in producing and refining critical minerals,” Palmer said. “However, in the past several decades, China has aggressively sought to dominate the global market for critical minerals – with dire consequences for our national security.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it became obvious to many Americans on how reliant the nation is on countries like China for critical minerals, medicines, and other needs.

“China is now responsible for almost exclusively producing about two dozen critical minerals that our national security and defense depend on,” Palmer continued, “and most of the so called black mass that is recovered from lithium ion batteries is shipped back to China for recycling.”

The hearing was held on April 22nd, Earth Day, which Palmer thought was appropriate timing.

“Today, April 22 is recognized as Earth Day,” he said. “It is fitting that we are discussing how the move of critical supply chains to China has coincided with the enactment of multiple environmental laws in the US, where we have seen improvements in our environment, but at what cost to our manufacturing economy and national security.”

The congressman praised actions from the Trump administration on the issue, but said more needs to be done, especially from Congress.

“President Trump has issued several executive orders to focus the federal government’s attention on these risks and to have all departments and agencies working together to re shore the domestic critical mineral mining and processing supply chains,” he said. “My bill, HR 4370, the securing America’s Mineral Supply Act, would codify these policies to support domestic critical minerals mining and processing, as we on the energy commerce committee consider legislative reforms to the Toxic Substance Control Act, the resource conservation Recovery Act and other environmental laws.”

“We should work together to find solutions to support the reshoring of the entire critical mineral supply chain,” he added. “It will make little sense for us to support increased critical mineral mining in the US if we are not also supporting the other parts of the supply chain, from the manufacture of the chemicals and energy needed to process critical minerals to the facilities needed to recover and recycle these valuable commodities on the black end. Given our broad jurisdiction, the Energy Commerce Committee is well positioned to advance common sense legislative reforms to ensure that the United States has the tools it needs to both produce and process critical minerals in this country.”

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee