Vice President Kamala Harris has publicly backed building a U.S. stockpile of critical minerals and incentivizing the processing of those raw materials tied to economic and national security — drawing approval from a key trade association that has at times soured on Biden mining policies.
Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s campaign focused on boosting raw materials tied to the energy transition as part of a broader industrial policy vision shared Wednesdsay. The campaign also called for leveraging resources within the Energy Department and under the Defense Production Act — a Cold War-era law that grants the government emergency powers — to boost the processing of critical minerals, a part of the supply chain that China currently dominates for many 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 campaign stated. “These efforts will reduce our dependence on China, which leads production on many critical minerals.”
The nation’s push to bolster domestic control over critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite tied to the buildout of electric vehicles has emerged as a growing point of contention on the campaign trail. Former President Donald Trump recently vowed to roll back environmental protections to boost production of rare earths and open areas like Minnesota’s Iron Range to more mining.
