President Joe Biden expressed his desire to double America's production in wind, solar and other clean energy sources during the March 1 State of the Union address, but some have reportedly taken issue with Biden's intent, claiming a push toward clean energy would increase the nation's reliance on China.
According to a report from the 2018 International Association of Exhibitions and Events' Energy Forum, many renewable energy sources such as solar panels, wind turbines and EV batteries require the use of rare earth materials. Sustainalytics reported that in 2018, China supplied 70 percent of the demand for rare earth materials. The 2020 U.S. Geological Survey reported China supplied the U.S. with 80 percent of its rare Earth imports in 2019.
"The Chinese industrial policy has delivered the Chinese Communist party absolute competitive advantage in the rare earth field," said Nate Picarsic, senior fellow at Foundation for Defense of Democracies with a focus on China policy, in a November 2020 interview with Full Measure. "The Chinese Communist party develops and deploys a consolidated industrial plan to capture key sectors of the future economy."
Full Measure described Picarsic as an expert on China shortly after former President Donald Trump claimed reliance on China for rare earth materials constituted a national emergency.
Co-founder of Horizon Advisory Emily de La Bruyère said in a November 2020 interview with Mining Technology, "Chinese sources discuss leveraging rare earth dominance against the U.S. for coercive ends. Beijing would do so as, or within the context of, an escalatory measure in response to geopolitical dispute. More broadly, People’s Republic of China sources frame rare earths dominance as a strategic input in today’s great power contest."
