WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is losing the race to extract and refine minerals used to make electric vehicles and should do more to spur domestic production, a bipartisan group of senators said on Tuesday.
The push comes as China has grown to dominate the market for lithium, rare earths, cobalt and other so-called strategic minerals used to make a plethora of consumer products, a dominance that politicians have said poses a strategic threat to the United States.
The Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a Tuesday hearing in part to keep the topic fresh in the national dialogue even as attention begins to lurch toward the 2020 presidential campaign.
“China is consolidating control of the entire supply chain for clean technologies,” Senator Lisa Murkowski, the Alaskan Republican who is the chair of the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said. “The United States is falling behind … and allowing that to happening is a strategic mistake.”
The comments have become a kind of refrain for Murkowski, who so far this year has used her position as chair of the powerful committee to clamor for more attention to the topic.
For the rest of this article: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-mining-strategicminerals-idUSKBN1W21U6