House lawmakers are inching toward what could be the first federal frameworks for recovering minerals and recycling batteries.
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on the Environment reviewed legislation Wednesday outlining schemes on the widely agreed upon goal of bolstering the U.S. supply of critical minerals.
Bipartisan optimism converged around the three new discussion drafts that would put EPA in charge of recovering critical minerals from waste streams.
The Battery Recycling for America’s Competitive Economy (BRACE) Act, which would direct EPA to establish universal lithium-ion battery waste standards; the Coordinating and Harnessing America’s Recovery of Minerals (CHARM) Act, which would put EPA in charge of coordinating a national critical mineral recovery strategy within two years; and the Environmental Monitoring and Remediation Technology Assessment Initiative Authorization (EMRTAI) Act, which would puts $10 million toward an EPA pilot program on methods for reclaiming discarded mining materials.
