A wealth of bills to address the shortage of rare earth materials are piling up in the United States Congress this session. The most recent, introduced by Representative Mike Coffman of Colorado, seeks to rebuild a domestic rare earth mining industry in response to the supply shortage caused by China’s increased export regulations. Three other bills have already been introduced, and two others are expected. Rare earth elements are increasingly used in common electronics like cell phones and televisions, but their greatest potential may lie in renewable energy, especially wind turbines and electric vehicle batteries. Coffman says his legislation aims to end the U.S. reliance on China for national security resources, but some experts question whether the U.S. can have a viable domestic market. Jack Lifton, the founding principal of Technology Metals Research, while in favor of U.S. rare earth mining, says the U.S. will never mine rare earth metals at a cheaper price than China. “The Chinese have an extremely well-developed mining, refining and fabricating industry. They’re currently the world’s lowest-cost providers\u2026.If we’re going to bring this industry back [in the United States], it’s going to have to be subsidized, or it’s going to have to be subsumed into the balance sheet of a much larger corporation that doesn’t care about losing money at the mine,” said Lifton. Other legislation introduced this session aims to secure a steady domestic supply of rare earths, call for more research into locating domestic rare earth reserves, and seeks to update a resource assessment of rare earths. The article can be viewed online at the link below.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.eenews.net\/climatewire\/rss\/2011\/04\/11\/4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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