Bloomberg News | September 25, 2024 |
US Vice-President Kamala Harris. (Image by Gage Skidmore, Flickr.)
Vice President Kamala Harris vowed to create a national stockpile of critical minerals, saying a cache of the materials used in everything from batteries to defense systems is needed for economic and national security.
The plan, part of a broader $100 billion industrial policy vision Harris’ campaign laid out Wednesday, also called for new incentives and the use of emergency government powers under the Cold War-era Defense Production Act to increase domestic processing of critical minerals.
“Increased domestic production will be paired with innovative and sustainable steps to build stronger critical mineral supply chains alongside our allies and partners, including by incentivizing investments that expand U.S. and allied production of these resources,” the Harris campaign said in a statement. “These efforts will reduce our dependence on China, which leads production on many critical minerals.”
Critical minerals — which include dozens of materials including antimony, lithium, and cobalt — are those are considered essential to the economy and at risk of supply disruption. The House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the US and the Chinese Communist Party in December recommended creating a reserve of critical minerals “to insulate American producers from price volatility” and protect against China’s “weaponization of its dominance in critical mineral supply chains.”
The committee also recommended spending $1 billion to expand an existing National Defense Stockpile, an inventory of critical minerals managed by the Defense Department that is used to provide emergency access to domestic manufacturers for defense purposes.
(By Ari Natter)
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