1.This Act may be cited as the
Energy Critical Elements Advancement
Act of 2011
.
2.Information Gathering,
Analysis, and Dissemination
(a)The Secretary of the Interior, acting
through the Director of the USGS, and the Secretary of Energy, acting through
the Administrator of the Energy Information Administration, shall collaborate
to improve assessments of energy critical elements that includes—
(1)discovered and
potential resources;
(2)production;
(3)use;
(4)trade;
(5)disposal;
and
(6)recycling.
(b)The entity within the USGS that gathers the
information for the assessments under
subsection (a) shall—
(1)regularly survey
emerging energy technologies and the supply chain for elements throughout the
periodic table necessary for those technologies in order to forecast potential
supply disruptions; and
(2)make available such information in the
aggregate, with appropriate protection of proprietary information, to the
United States scientific community, including industry, institutions of higher
education, and the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories and
Technology Centers.
(c)The
Director of the USGS shall designate the entity within the USGS that gathers
the information for the assessments under
subsection (a) as a Principal
Statistical Agency
.
3.
(a)The Secretary of Energy, in coordination
with the Secretary of the Interior, shall establish a research program to
advance basic knowledge and enable expanded availability of energy critical
elements, including research on basic materials science, chemistry, physics,
and engineering associated with energy critical elements, including materials
characterization and substitution, recycling, and life-cycle analysis.
(b)In consultation with the
Critical and Strategic Mineral Supply Chain Subcommittee of the National
Science and Technology Council, the Secretary shall develop and update
biennially an integrated research plan to guide program activities.
(c)Research
under
subsection (a) shall be limited to areas
that industry is not likely to undertake due to technical and financial
uncertainty.
4.Within 1 year after the date of enactment of
this Act, the Critical and Strategic Mineral Supply Chain Subcommittee of the
National Science and Technology Council shall submit to the Committee on
Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives and the
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate a report on
the recycling of energy critical elements, including—
(1)the logistics,
economic viability, and research and development needs for completing the
recycling process;
(2)options for both
the Federal Government and industry, including an assessment of the strengths
and weaknesses of such options, for improving the rates of collection of
post-consumer products containing energy critical elements; and
(3)an analysis of the
methods explored and implemented in various states and countries, such as Japan
and South Korea.
5.In this Act, the following definitions
apply:
(1)The term energy
critical element means each of the following:
(A)Helium.
(B)Lithium.
(C)Scandium.
(D)Cobalt.
(E)Gallium.
(F)Germanium.
(G)Selenium.
(H)Yttrium.
(I)Ruthenium.
(J)Rhodium.
(K)Palladium.
(L)Silver.
(M)Indium.
(N)Tellurium.
(O)Lanthanum.
(P)Rhenium.
(Q)Osmium.
(R)Iridium.
(S)Platinum.
(T)Cerium.
(U)Praseodymium.
(V)Neodymium.
(W)Samarium.
(X)Europium.
(Y)Gadolinium.
(Z)Terbium.
(AA)Dysprosium.
(BB)Ytterbium.
(CC)Lutetium.
(DD)Any other element designated as an energy
critical element by the Critical and Strategic Mineral Supply Chain
Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council.
(2)The
term USGS means the United States Geological Survey.