One of the biggest supply-chain challenges we face today is getting more semiconductors, which are essential to products like automobiles, computers, solar panels and weapons systems. Despite this challenge, it has been almost two years since Congress first passed the CHIPS Act—by wide bipartisan margins. Now, it is time to get this essential legislation over […]
Photo: Anthony Souffle/AP President Biden recently invoked the Defense Production Act to boost supplies of the minerals needed to power electric vehicles and reduce America’s oil dependency. Yet, even with this welcome executive action, the U.S. can’t produce enough of some minerals, such as nickel. America must rely on undependable, often hostile foreign-controlled sources for these key materials. There […]
Spiking gas prices have exposed, once again, the risk posed by America’s continued overdependence on oil for automobile transportation. The current crisis is a reminder that, irrespective of domestic production levels, oil prices are set in a global market – a market vulnerable to geo-political shocks and, in particular, manipulation by the Organization of Petroleum […]
The ongoing crisis in Ukraine presents another reminder of America’s reliance on problematic sources for essential products and materials. We already are experiencing price hikes stemming from sanctions on many Russian companies and commodities. From passenger airplanes to kitchen appliances, aluminum is one of those foundational industrial materials that a modern society needs to function—in addition […]
Yesterday’s see-no-evil, hear-no-evil strategy of using energy resources from countries with poor environmental standards, weak regulatory oversight and divergent interests and values is hypocritical. Doing so while refusing to optimize our own domestic energy resources during the energy transition is self-defeating; so is refusing to embrace the coming shift away from fossil fuels as our […]
