Regulatory and judicial reforms adopted by the House in HR 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, and being proposed in other bills, are urgently needed to unshackle America’s mining industry before the nation faces significant economic and national security challenges, Republicans warned during a Congressional field hearing on critical mineral development in Goodyear, Arizona, on July 21.
But these regulatory revamps are being resisted in the Democrat-controlled Senate and by the Biden administration, which ironically is fueling skyrocketing demand for critical minerals with its “green energy” inducements for electric vehicles and renewable energy-generating capacity, they said.
“We only control the House of Representatives. We pass a lot of good bills, but they’re falling into a black hole over there in the Senate because they won’t take it up,” Rep Mike Collins (R-Ga.) said. “This ‘Green New Deal’ that they’ve got, you know, it’s a $1.7 trillion infrastructure bill where they only put $600 billion to fix the roads and bridges—and it really ain’t doing that. The rest went so that they can push EVs on you.”…