Supporting the production of critical minerals—including lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese, graphite, and rare earth minerals—in the United States is key to addressing the growing demand for electric vehicles (EVs). This report addresses the state of the U.S. critical mineral industry and strategy.
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The public and private sectors have already taken significant steps to incentivize critical minerals development and advanced manufacturing, and their actions have placed the U.S. on a trajectory toward building a robust, stable, sustainable, and reliable supply chain. However, international competitors have a head start building these supply chains, and some groups operate with minimal public oversight.
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Critical minerals are indispensable to a clean energy economy, and the demand for critical minerals will continue to increase regardless of whether or not a single new EV is manufactured. As critical mineral mining and processing accelerates around the world, the U.S. must continue to invest in a domestic supply chain that can set a new global standard for sourcing the materials that will fuel the clean energy transition responsibly and sustainably.
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Policymakers must continue modernizing the permitting process to make additional and necessary improvements to domestic production, processing, and recycling operations. Federal leadership must act to allow the domestic supply chain to scale with haste, or risk falling further behind global competitors or foreign adversaries.