A small group of bipartisan House members crafting legislation to counter China’s dominance over critical minerals heard calls for more funding and federal support this week from companies eager to plumb the deep seas, recycle old electric vehicle batteries and build new processing projects.
The requests could shape legislation members of the Critical Minerals Policy Working Group have been tasked with writing to boost domestic mining, processing and recycling of materials like graphite and nickel. As it stands, the U.S. is reliant on countries like China for producing such materials needed for EVs, renewable energy technology and defense.
“We’re trying to get people to innovate,” said Republican Rep. Rob Wittman of Virginia, who co-leads the group under the umbrella of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.
Wittman told POLITICO’s E&E News in an email he’s confident the working group can produce “substantive legislation” before the year’s end to secure U.S. critical mineral supply chains.
