Hickenlooper Announces Bipartisan Effort to Secure American Critical Minerals Leadership

Hickenlooper: "We need to secure energy independence for America. We can't do that and we can't ethically address climate change without taking the lead on these critical minerals"

Hickenlooper, Tillis introduce bills to take back reins on critical minerals production, critical for our clean energy future

GOLDEN, COLO. - Today, in a speech at the Colorado School of Mines, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper announced the introduction of two bipartisan bills with U.S. Senator Thom Tillis to guide a national strategy on a clean, responsible, and innovative approach to critical mineral sourcing. The bills kickstart an effort to establish American dominance in critical minerals.

"Climate change is rapidly changing our Earth. We can't ignore that, and we're running out of time to stop it," said Hickenlooper in the speech."Stopping it is demanding a massive and comprehensive transition to clean energy. That transition is going to require a massive amount. Critical minerals, as they're mined today… can cause great harm to the very Earth we're talking about saving. And whether or not we solve that paradox is going to make the difference between solving climate change or succumbing to it."

Hickenlooper continued: "What we need is a Project Mercury for critical minerals… In less than five years, Project Mercury mobilized more than 2 billion people from major government agencies, from the aerospace industry, to combine their skills, their initiative, their experience, into a single, coordinated effort.… That's exactly what we need with critical minerals, and indeed, what we need in all aspects of this Great Transition. We're behind, and we need to rapidly build a foundation that will be able to launch American dominance in critical minerals."

Hickenlooper introduced the bipartisan National Critical Minerals Council Act, which would establish a National Critical Minerals Council to develop and implement a national critical mineral strategy and coordinate our federal investments and research. The bill would appoint the Vice President as the chair of the Council and establish a Chief Minerals Advisor, appointed by the President, to oversee the operations.

Specifically, the National Critical Minerals Council would:

• Develop a national critical minerals strategy to reduce our reliance on foreign adversaries for critical minerals

• Coordinate U.S. mining and mineral research, development, and funding opportunities across federal agencies

• Work with allied nations and private entities to develop the U.S. as a preferred partner for critical mineral projects

• Track foreign investments in global critical mineral projects

• Prioritize five critical minerals and identify the top challenges and necessary interventions to securing stable supply chains for those minerals

A one-pager explanation of the bill can be found HERE.

Hickenlooper's second bill, the bipartisan Unearth Innovation Act, would establish a Mining and Mineral Innovation Program within the Department of Energy (DOE) to drive the responsible production of domestic critical minerals, with a focus on minimizing the environmental impact of mining.

Specifically, the Unearth Innovation Act would:

• Support research and development of technologies for identifying, mining, recycling, and processing minerals and to reclaim, remediate, and reuse existing mines
  
• Promote responsible mining practices that minimize human and environmental impact

• Engage with communities and consult with tribal nations to support strategies to increase the prosperity of mining communities
  
• Allow DOE to coordinate with federal agencies on mining safety innovations
  
• Partner with academic institutions and the mining industry to accelerate new mining technologies and create a pipeline into the critical minerals workforce

A one-pager explanation of the bill can be found HERE.

Hickenlooper announced the two bills in the keynote address at the Payne Institute Critical Minerals Symposium at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, where hundreds of industry, academic, and government leaders gathered to address a broad range of complex challenges associated with critical minerals.

The two bills are supported by Colorado School of Mines, SAFE's Center for Critical Minerals Strategy, American Critical Minerals Association, South32 Hermosa, Albemarle, National Wildlife Federation, BPC Action, Advanced Energy United, ClearPath Action, Key Minerals Forum, and Zero Emissions Transportation Association. For their statements of support, click HERE.

Full text of Hickenlooper's speech is below:

"I want to talk today about the critical mineral conundrum. It's the thorniest of issues.

"Climate change is rapidly changing our Earth.

"We can't ignore that, and we're running out of time to stop it.

"I think stopping it is demanding a massive and comprehensive transition to clean energy.

"That transition is going to require a massive amount of critical minerals.

"Critical minerals as they're mined today, and you've been hearing about this the last couple days, can cause great harm to the very earth we're talking about saving.

"And whether or not we solve that paradox is going to make the difference between solving climate change or succumbing to it.

"I'm here to announce two bills today that we're hopeful will be a first step in addressing and ultimately solving that paradox.

"One is to help us innovate our way out of this problem, and the other is to elevate the issue to the very highest levels of federal government.

"I'll start with the obvious. I said this: climate change is here. It's real. Clearly getting worse by pretty much any measure. It's accelerating.

"This past summer, we saw record breaking temperatures all around the globe, with extremes continuing to heighten year after year.

"Colorado is on the frontlines this battle. Wildfires are worse and worse. As our state gets hotter, drier, many Coloradans are struggling to find insurance for their homes.

"Later snowfall or less snowfall, later snowfall that melts fast or less snowfall altogether, are shrinking the water going into the Colorado River, not to mention harming our ski industry.

"That limitation and diminishing of a critical resource like water, not just threatens the water we live on, but also the water we use for agriculture. I mentioned and alluded to skiing, but all the outdoor recreation industries.

"And so these days, it's almost impossible to keep the list of the 10 largest wildfires, because there are new fires constantly topping that list when you look at a national list.

"Now, as Rick mentioned, I got my Masters in, it was a geology degree originally, but the year before I got there they changed it to Earth and Environmental Science, way back in 1980.

"And even then, we were calling it the greenhouse effect, but we were talking about climate change.

"We saw that the greenhouse effect would have severe impacts on our environment.

"We also saw we're not helpless, and I feel that way today, despite the relative inaction that we've seen over the past couple decades.

"We all recognize that we need what I've been calling a 'Great Transition.' A transition from an over-reliance on fossil fuels to a reliable clean energy economy.

"And we are moving that way.

"Our Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 which, while easy to criticize, was the largest investment in climate rescue in the history of the world, really. And I think this is hopefully kickstarting that great transition into gear.

"Today we're talking about manufacturing more solar panels, building out the EV network, expanding wind energy, and massively expanding our clean energy production everywhere from solar to geothermal.

"So if that's true, then what's the limiting factor on how fast and how big we can go? And I would say that's critical minerals. From cobalt to graphite, batteries to rare earth elements and driving wind turbines to nickel and other elements, electric vehicles - these elements are the building block of the clean energy future.

"And for some of these we don't have enough. Others, the processing options are limited, or the supply chains are too concentrated and therefore unreliable.

"For a large portion of this industry, our rival countries like China control key elements like lithium or like cobalt or rare earth minerals.

"But even worse than that, they're taking calculated steps to take control of of these minerals permanently, for the foreseeable future.

"That domination comes with little regard to the environment or the rights of workers. The people they send down in these mine shafts to do the hard, dangerous work of getting the minerals out of the ground.

"Mines across Africa use child labor, others, degrade local drinking water supplies, and, for generations, contaminate vast swaths of land.

"Countries like Indonesia are realizing the value of their deposits, like nickel, and are making moves to ban the export of the raw materials so they can control finding and processing those raw materials at all costs, even if it means using forced labor or child labor.

"Now, the paradox only grows when we look closer to home. And the United States is blessed, you've been hearing this as well, and we're blessed with large mineral deposits of the kinds we need, but the incredibly lengthy permitting processes and some of the questionable mining histories have kept these minerals locked up.

"This is all compounded by a lack of coordination between the United States and our international allies.

"Bottom line is: we need to secure energy independence for America. We can't do that and we can't ethically address climate change without taking the lead on these critical minerals.

"You know, I didn't run for office to get into this position, just to point out the problems.

"And so we are working on a plan to really address this.

"What we need is a Project Mercury for critical minerals.

"Project Mercury was the American response to Sputnik and the space race.

"We found ourselves radically behind Russia and our adversaries, and we set out to reorient our industry, our workforce and our research institutions to catch up, and to catch up fast.

"And we sometimes forget, but in less than five years, Project Mercury mobilized more than 2 billion people from major government agencies, from the aerospace industry, to combine their skills, their initiative, their experience, into a single, coordinated effort. The result: six manned space flights, including putting the first Americans into space, as well as the first Americans into orbit in a less than seven year period of time.

"What it also accomplished was to build a foundation that led straight to moon landings later on. Crucially, it put in place the infrastructure for rapid advancements in innovation, thanks to a literally, unprecedented collaboration across industry, government and society. Just as crucially, it brought together the workforce that made it possible and was going to be essential and necessary later on.

"That's exactly what we need with critical minerals, and indeed, what we need in all aspects of this Great Transition.

"We're behind, and we need to rapidly build a foundation that will be able to launch American dominance in critical minerals.

"Specifically, the goals of this Project Mercury would be 1) establishing domestic supply chains for the minerals we do have, 2) building supply chains with allies for the minerals we don't, and 3) building the modern workforce that would allow us to achieve these goals.

"Now, first domestic supply chains. Our first priority is to get a reliable supply of the clean energy tools that we need.

"And to do that, we have to build a reliable domestic supply chain of critical minerals.

"Many of these minerals are abundant here in the United States. If we're worried, as we should be, about the environmental harm of mining projects, this is the opportunity to take the reins and chart a better path forward for the mines of the future.

"We can establish higher environmental standards, even as we invest in technologies and ultimately eliminate many inherent environmental hazards.

"And we need to ensure labor standards that respect the health, safety, and dignity of workers.

"A big part of building this domestic supply chain will be reforming the permitting process. And you have no idea how difficult that's going to be.

"Whether it's new mines or building out our energy grid to run on clean energy, energy projects in the United States are and will continue to get bogged down in the bureaucracy and red tape of permitting. In many cases, 10 years or 15 years of red tape.

"And I'm not saying we shouldn't have full transparency and we shouldn't have full interaction with the affected communities, but 10 or 15 years, and sometimes even 20 years, just to get the permits, it's not going to help us address climate change at the rate that we need to.

"It's not fast enough for our rising seas or raging wildfires, or for our worsening drought in the West.

"I'm working with Senators Manchin, Barrasso, and Heinrich to get our bipartisan permitting agreement, a deal, a bill. Now it is going to get negotiated a little bit more, but it is in final form. We need to get that across the finish line so we going to really begin to address and solve the energy needs and the demands that we need to get to.

"Second, international alliances. We need to take seriously the threat of China controlling our future with critical minerals, and we need to build stronger international alliances, and build in those relationships some resilience.

"America cannot take a back seat when foreign adversaries are leveraging and dominating supply chains that have a direct impact on our economy and our security.

"We've introduced bipartisan legislation with Senators Warner and Rubio to allow our intelligence community to share more of the information that they gather with the private sector about our foreign adversaries' attempts to undermine U.S. critical minerals.

"Too long we kept that intelligence segregated from our private sector when indeed some of the malfeasance that is being created by our adversaries is going to have direct impact on our national security. And our private sector partners could play a significant role in mitigating that.

"We don't allow our private sector to see what's out there. We can't manage what we can't see. So we're also currently working on new legislation to address these things, but also issues around processing, especially in China.

"In the meantime, we need to prioritize critical minerals in our foreign relations and do a better job of coordinating them within the other goals of our foreign relationships.

"Agencies across our government are tackling the critical mineral issue, but they're doing it in silos too often. It's well past the time to elevate this out of the silos into the higher levels of government, where there is instant collaboration.

"What we need is a national strategy - business plan, if you will - to consolidate information and enhance research, as well as to get public opinion and industry on the same page and on board.

"And that's why in one of the bills we're introducing today, we're proposing the appointment of a chief minerals advisor to oversee a national critical minerals strategy.

"And key to Project Mercury's success was a single entity that was leading and coordinating.

"Critical minerals should be no different. There's no other way for the US to develop a comprehensive strategy based on expertise and collaboration. How else is America going to set the international standards and preside over the highest quality environment, environmental and labor standards, the extraction of these minerals?

"Third, and lastly: we need to invest in our workforce at a level we haven't seen.

"It's estimated that the critical minerals workforce will need to double over the next five years to meet our clean energy needs, and that's a bare minimum.

"But instead of that workforce growing, we see it shrinking.

"Right now, these are staggering statistics, there are only about 600 students in the United States that are enrolled in undergraduate and graduate level mining-related programs. And obviously right here in Colorado, School of Mines, we've got a bunch of them.

"You compare that to China's 1.4 million students in current enrollment.

"Again, 600 versus 1.4 million. Talk about a Sputnik moment.

"We'll need to expand existing programs as soon as possible.

"I like to think Colorado School of Mines is going to lead the way, but they can't do it alone.

"We need to be training engineers and chemical processors and, Lord knows, geologists.

"According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we're going to need about 70,000 more craftsmen to build out these work sites. Not just the geologists and engineers, we'll also need surveying and mapping technicians, other professionals, to help us find and be able to utilize these critical mineral deposits.

"Unions like the United Steelworkers and the International Union of Operating Engineers are offering apprenticeships, other training opportunities. It's at record scale. Industry partners are just waiting for the opportunity, eager to get involved. And just like the aerospace industry was ready to deliver Project Mercury, our industry is ready to step up to the plate now.

"But we have to show them that way forward. America can and will demonstrate our immense capacity to deliver world class projects and at the same time collaborate with our allies to secure supply chains globally.

"Well, how do we start? Where do we go from here?

"Well, two bills I want to make sure I specifically touch on here, are bipartisan bills we're introducing today with Senator Thom Tillis from North Carolina, a Republican, that I think will kick start us on the way forward.

"The first, as I mentioned earlier, establishes the national mineral council to coordinate our national critical mineral strategy and will be led by a chief minerals advisor. I think it's long overdue that a single entity coordinates our urgent endeavor into clear, achievable goals.

"The second creates a mineral and mining innovation program within the Department of Energy to drive new mining processing and recycling technologies with an emphasis on reducing environmental and community impact.

"In short, a program to help us innovate our way out of the critical mineral paradox, and in so doing, building public sentiment.

"Need to always remember Lincoln's famous adage: 'With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.'

"And if you look around the room, if you're in here today, you probably understand the significance of critical minerals to the future of our country and indeed the future of the world.

"And you as a group all represent a significant part of the expertise and groundwork on this issue. And therefore you're going to be, whether you like it or not, instrumental as we move through this Great Transition and build the future of critical minerals.

"Thank you for your attention. Let's get to work."

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