Dan Crenshaw Asks Experts About 'Untapped' Critical Mineral Deposits In The United States

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During a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing last week, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) spoke about the deposits of critical minerals that are untapped in the United States.

Transcript

00:00I recognize the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Crenshaw, for five minutes for his questions.

00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to all our witnesses for being here.

00:07Critical minerals are the backbone of a modern economy and a modern military,

00:12from semiconductors to advanced weapons systems.

00:15But today, the U.S. imports between 50% and 82% of the critical minerals we need.

00:19So where are they coming from?

00:21It's been mentioned plenty of times here. They're coming from China.

00:25That's not good.

00:25Our national security, our national industrial base, our economic future,

00:29dependent on supply chains we don't control from regimes we cannot trust.

00:35Why? Well, mostly because our laws and regulations have made it virtually impossible

00:39to open up new mines in this country.

00:41And even when we do mine, we still have to ship the raw materials overseas

00:45just to get them refined because we've offshored our processing capabilities.

00:50I want to commend the Trump administration for taking some meaningful steps

00:53to address this with executive action.

00:55The executive order on critical minerals was a step in the right direction by cutting red tape.

00:59But we need to codify this.

01:02This is Congress's responsibility, and we're behind.

01:05You know, China didn't dominate this space by accident.

01:08It's a long game.

01:09Decades of strategic investments in resource-rich nations across Africa, Asia, Latin America.

01:13In 2023, China was the top supplier for 29 out of the 50 critical minerals identified

01:18by the U.S. Geological Survey.

01:21So that's what it looks like when a global adversary plays chess,

01:23and we're still playing checkers.

01:24And I think it's time we act serious about this, start securing our supply chains,

01:28rebuilding our refining capacity, and cutting the red tape that's left us dependent and vulnerable.

01:33I might add, I think this is becoming more of a bipartisan issue.

01:36I think everybody starts to realize we need these critical minerals.

01:39My question, my first question for Mr. Hammond, can you explain how one of the problems we have is

01:46there's a lot of radical environmental groups holding up critical mineral mining

01:52and related infrastructure projects throughout the court system?

01:57I mean, it's not just critical mining.

01:58Sometimes it's an off-ramp of a highway.

02:00How could we address that?

02:04So that's an incredible issue that you brought up, and it's a huge problem.

02:10I spoke earlier about judicial reform.

02:13What happens is you can go through, as we've talked about earlier,

02:16decades-long process to get a mine off the ground.

02:20It could be approved by an agency, but an unfriendly environmental group can drop in,

02:26file litigation, and tie that same project up for additional years or kill it all together.

02:33Capital only has, you know, can wait around for only so long before it goes to another place,

02:38so that's just one way that they have in their toolbox to kill our progress on mining.

02:44Yeah, well, I'm not sure it would be in our jurisdiction for judicial review,

02:48but is there any particular bills that come to mind that seek to fix this problem that we should be aware of?

02:53So over the years, I think likely a judiciary, but also a natural resources,

02:59they've looked at what's called EJA reform.

03:02Basically, under EJA, you can file litigation, then go to the judge,

03:07and he can award you attorney's fees at the end.

03:10So we're basically, as a federal government, financing litigation against ourselves.

03:15Huh. That doesn't make sense.

03:17What about unworkable environmental regulations that affect investment decisions for companies

03:22looking to develop domestic critical mining production or mineral production?

03:27Sure. So if you are a company that's looking to get involved in this business

03:31or expand operations in this country,

03:34it's fairly intimidating to look down the barrel of the regulations that we've set forth.

03:39So what I think the solution is giving consistent and early guidance to companies

03:48what the federal government is going to require to get through a permitting process.

03:54An investor recently told me that if you want to unleash hundreds or billions of dollars in mining

04:00in the near future, tell the company that you're going to do an EIS in a year and not four years,

04:05and then they'll get really interested and money will start to flow.

04:09Yeah. As a general question, I mean, do we have those resources here in the United States

04:15that are just untapped?

04:17Yes. I think we spoke about that a little sooner, but yes,

04:22we have abundant critical minerals in this country.

04:25I think in the state of Utah alone, we have 40 out of 50 critical minerals.

04:29So now look at California, Arizona, and so on and so on.

04:32We have the potential here.

04:34Yep. I think it's important to keep in mind that we can't have a piecemeal segmented process.

04:37We need to have the mineral extraction, the processing, and the energy all at the same time,

04:42or else we're not doing what we actually need to do to create the integrated supply chain.

04:46That kind of gets to my next question.

04:48In my limited time for Ms. Sweeney, China actively pursuing all these projects around the world.

04:54They have the full supply chain that you just mentioned.

04:56Is there any example in the United States where we have a full supply chain for any critical mineral?

05:02Beryllium comes to mind, mined in Utah, processed in various facilities that are all under materion, natural resources.

05:14Perhaps that case study requires more of our attention, how we did that, and maybe we can be replicated.

05:21I'm out of time.

05:22I yield back.

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