SAFE SUMMIT: The 2025 SAFE Summit is kicking off today in D.C., featuring key lawmakers, leaders in the private sector, investors, and others within the energy and national security industries.
Today’s conference began with a talk from Colorado Democrat Sen. John Hickenlooper, in which he discussed China’s dominance over critical minerals.
“A national rival at a very high level, is a terrible thing to waste, and it has proven to be a very useful tool to get Republicans and Democrats to sit down together and say, ‘Yeah, we all agree that China is out ahead of us, that they have already established, not just controlling the access to the minerals in terms of extraction, but processing,” Hickenlooper said.
“They are so far ahead of us in terms of processing that we just got a lot of work to do to make sure that we can create supply chains that we can depend upon,” he added.
Michigan Rep. John Moolenaar, chairman of the Select Committee on the CCP, also raised concerns about national security when it comes to China controlling rare earth and critical mineral supply and processing.
“Our military has become dependent on our foremost adversary. Our manufacturing has become dependent, and they are willing to cut off access to these metal minerals,” Moolenaar said. “It’s important that we rely on our own ingenuity, our own manufacturing capabilities, to develop more mining and extraction and processing and then work with allies, like minded allies, that we can trust and work with that give us the economies of scale that we might need.”
Read the full article: “Daily on Energy: EPA’s DC footprint, SAFE Summit begins, and deep-sea mining news“
