Republicans prepare for energy ‘cold war’ with China

Republicans are sharpening a new prong in their anti-China policies: They want to break U.S. reliance on the country for critical minerals, used in everything from military equipment to renewable power to cellphone batteries.

The United States has been losing ground for years, while other countries, and especially China, have rapidly scaled up mining for lithium, cobalt, graphite, rare earth elements, and other critical minerals. Once home to the world’s largest critical minerals mine, the U.S. is now wholly reliant on foreign imports for 14 of the 35 minerals the Interior Department listed as critical in 2018, including graphite and rare earths.