[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 17 (Thursday, January 28, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S332-S334]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    ENERGY POLICY MODERNIZATION BILL

  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, we are winding down the day here. We 
have had a good opportunity for good discussion and debate about the 
Energy Policy Modernization Act. We took votes on three amendments, and 
we just concluded voice votes on six additional ones on top of the two 
voice votes that we had. So we are moving through some of the 
amendments, and I think that bodes well for us.
  As I mentioned earlier, we will hopefully have an opportunity to line 
up a series of votes in advance so that when Members come back next 
week we all know where we will be going and the direction. I wish to 
take just a few minutes tonight, before we wrap things up, to talk 
about a section in the bill that I believe is very important--not only 
important to the Energy Policy Modernization Act but really very 
important to our Nation as a whole.
  The Presiding Officer and I hail from a State that has been an oil 
producer for decades now. It is oil that sustains us, fills our 
coffers, and allows for us to have an economy that is thriving and 
strong. It is struggling right now as we look at low production 
combined with low cost, but we also are a State that enjoys great 
resources when it comes to our minerals.
  We have long talked in this body over the course of years about the 
vulnerability that we have as a nation when we have to rely on others 
for our energy resources. We talk about energy independence, we talk 
about energy security, and, I think we recognize that when we can 
produce more on our own without others, it makes us less vulnerable.
  Energy security translates to national security. I think we pretty 
much got that message around here, and we are doing more within this 
Energy Policy Modernization Act to make sure that we are less reliant 
on others for our energy sources, whether it is what we are doing to 
produce more fossil fuels or being able to leverage technologies that 
will allow us to access our renewable resources in a way that is 
stronger and more robust, again to ensure we have greater energy 
security.
  When we think about energy security, we should not forget mineral 
security--the minerals that also help to make us a great nation, and a 
nation that is less vulnerable when we are able to produce more of our 
own.
  For several Congresses--this is actually the third consecutive 
Congress--I have introduced legislation on this subject. It is a bill 
that I have titled the ``American Mineral Security Act.'' What we have 
done within the energy bill is take much of that legislation and 
include it as part of a subtitle on critical minerals. Maybe it is 
because I authored it, but I feel pretty strongly that this is a pretty 
good version. This is a pretty good title that is contained in the 
EPMA, and I think that passage of not only the critical minerals piece 
as part of EPMA is key for our economic security, energy security, and 
our national security. It is just the right thing for us to be doing.
  We take for granted that our minerals and metals that we have 
available to us are going to continue to be available. Unfortunately, 
most of us do not really pay attention to the fact that so many of the 
things that we rely on for so much of what we need in our everyday 
world come from minerals. We just do not think about it. We assume that 
stuff just gets here. We do not think about where it comes from. We 
should not ever take for granted our mineral security. We should not 
ever take for granted what it is that we need.
  People talk about rare earth elements, rare earth minerals. When we 
think ``rare,'' what is ``rare''? What exactly does that mean? Why do 
we need them? What do we use them in? Rare earth elements make many 
aspects of our modern life possible.
  We talk a lot about how we are going to move to more renewable energy 
sources. You are going to need rare earth elements for wind turbines. 
You are going to need it for your solar panels. You are going to need 
it for your rechargeable batteries. You are going to need it for your 
hard drives, your smartphones, and the screens on your computer. You 
are going to need it for your digital cameras, for your defense 
applications, for audio amplification. That is just what we put on this 
particular chart.

  It is important to recognize that so much of what allows us to do the 
good things that we do--to communicate, to help defend, to help power 
our country--comes to us because we have access to certain minerals.
  According to the National Research Council, more than 25,000 pounds 
of new minerals are needed per person per year in the United States to 
make the items that we use for basic human needs, infrastructure, 
energy, transportation, communication, and defense. You might say: 
Whoa, 25,000 pounds per person per year--I cannot possibly need all 
that stuff.
  But, Mr. President, you and I fly back and forth to Alaska. Those 
airplanes we fly on need these minerals. Every one of these young 
people, as well as us sitting in here, all have a smartphone or some 
way we are communicating, and we all need this. All of the staff who 
are working on their computers need that screen to look at, and we all 
need this.
  When you think about it, it is like OK, maybe that number is right. 
Bill Gates put it quite memorably last year. He wrote a blog post 
entitled: ``Have You Hugged a Concrete Pillar Today?'' It is really a 
very interesting read, and it reminds us that you take for granted the 
things that we need, the things that we use on a daily basis, the 
things that are under our feet as we are walking here to work.
  Minerals and metals are really the foundation of our modern society. 
Our access to them enables a range of products and technologies that 
greatly add to our quality of life. Yet many of the

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trends are going in the wrong direction, which creates vulnerabilities 
for our country.
  We have a real problem on our hands right now as a result of this 
reliance on minerals and the fact that so many of our minerals that we 
need today we must import. You are thinking: 25,000 pounds per person 
per year is a lot; where are we getting it from? How much of it are we 
relying on other countries, asking their permission to bring it in?
  It is not just rare earth elements. The reality is that the United 
States now depends on many, many other nations for a vast array of 
minerals and metals. We have the numbers to back that up. In 1978 the 
U.S. Geological Survey reported that the United States was importing at 
least 50 percent of our supply of 25 minerals, and 100 percent of 7.
  We recently got the latest figures from the USGS. Our foreign mineral 
dependence is now far deeper. In 2015, last year, we imported at least 
50 percent of 47 different minerals, including 100 percent of 19 of 
them. On this list you have the minerals for which we are 100-percent 
reliant on foreign nations, whether it is bauxite, cesium--which we 
have in Alaska--graphite--which we have in Alaska--indium, iodine, 
manganese, mica, niobium, quartz, crystal. I am going to stop now 
because they get more difficult to pronounce.
  These are the minerals that we are 100-percent reliant on other 
nations for. What do we use them in? We use them in transistors, 
electrical components, mirrors, rubber, vacuum tubes, photo cells, 
bicycles, fishing rods, golf iron shafts, baseball bats, defense 
applications, medical equipment, atomic clocks, aluminum, glass, 
enamel, batteries, gaskets, brake lining, fire retardant, magnets. 
Again, that is just what we can put on the charts.
  We are 100-percent reliant on other countries for some of the things 
that are basic everyday products that we do not think about. Again, we 
take for granted that these things are going to continue to be readily 
available--that it is always going to be there for us.
  For example, look at the cell phone. Let us look at the elements that 
it takes to make a smartphone. When you look at what goes into the 
smartphone, for your screen, indium is part of the screen. Alumina and 
silica are part of the screen. It is a variety of rare earth. All of 
these rare earths that we are looking at are 100-percent reliant on 
other nations for what goes into the screen.
  For the battery for your smartphone, we have lithium, graphite, and 
manganese. Manganese and graphite are 100-percent reliant on foreign 
sources. We are 50-percent reliant on lithium.
  You have tantalum, and we are 100-percent reliant on that. There is 
tin, lead, copper, silver. We are 70-percent reliant on tin. It goes to 
show that the things that we take for granted, the things that we are 
all using all the time to communicate, to send messages home, to do our 
business, we cannot have them unless we get this from somebody else, 
from some other country. There are options for us though, just as there 
are options for us with energy sources. We can find ways to help us 
produce more when it comes to minerals and mineral capacity so that we 
are less reliant.
  We had a hearing before our energy committee, and we had a witness by 
the name of Dan McGroarty, who leads the American Resources Policy 
Network. He provided some pretty good examples of our Nation's foreign 
mineral dependence. He pointed out that the minerals needed for clean 
energy technologies often come from abroad, threatening our ability to 
manufacture those technologies here at home. This is what he wrote in 
his prepared testimony:

       Graphite is key to [electric vehicle] batteries and energy 
     storage. The U.S. produces zero natural graphite--we are 100 
     percent import dependent.
       Indium is needed for flat-screen TVs and solar photovoltaic 
     panels. Most indium is derived from zinc mining--the U.S. is 
     81 percent dependent for the zinc we use, and we produce 
     zero indium.
       Thin-film solar panels are made of C-I-G-S materials--those 
     letters stand for Copper, Indium, Gallium, and Selenium. We 
     have a 600,000 metric ton copper gap at present--demand 
     exceeding supply. Selenium is recovered from copper 
     processing.
       Gallium comes from aluminum processing--we are 99% import-
     dependent--and we are closing American aluminum smelters at a 
     record pace.

  Mr. McGroarty also highlighted the national security implications of 
our foreign mineral dependence, explaining:

       We need rhenium for high-strength alloy in the jet turbines 
     in the F-35 and other fighter aircraft. Rhenium is dependent 
     on copper processing--and we are 83% import-dependent. 
     Congress has directed the Defense Department to purchase 
     electrolytic manganese, used in key super-alloys, for the 
     [defense stockpile]--the U.S. produces zero manganese. We 
     need rare earths in too many applications to list: Wind 
     turbines, lasers for medical and national security 
     applications, smart phones and smart bombs. We produce zero 
     rare earths--and we are once again 100% dependent on China.

  You may recall not too many years ago now when there was a little bit 
of an issue going on between Japan and China. China withheld delivery 
of certain rare earth elements that Japan needed for its manufacturing. 
China was holding the keys. China is holding the keys with many of 
these minerals.
  Our foreign dependence is dangerous enough. You know that full well, 
Mr. President. The concentration of our foreign supply presents 
additional challenges. Our minerals often come from a handful of 
countries that are less than stable or that might be willing to cut off 
the supply to us to serve their own purposes or to meet their own 
needs. They are going to take care of themselves first. If they do not 
have much supply, they are going to help themselves first.
  When I look at our foreign mineral dependence and where those 
minerals are coming from, I see reason after reason to be concerned. It 
is not hard to see the prospect of a day of reckoning when this will 
become real to all of us, when we simply cannot acquire a mineral or 
when the market for a mineral changes so dramatically that entire 
industries are affected.
  To put it even more bluntly, our foreign mineral dependence is a 
mounting threat to our economy, to our national security, and to our 
international competitiveness. We cannot lose sight of that 
international competitiveness. The absence of just one critical mineral 
or metal could disrupt entire technologies, entire industries, and 
create a ripple effect throughout our entire economy.
  I think it is well past time for us to be taking this seriously. We 
have seen some good signs from the administration. However, the reality 
is that our executive agencies are not as coordinated about this as 
they really should be. They do not have all of the statutory 
authorities needed to make the necessary progress on this issue.
  There is just no substitute for legislation, and that is why I am 
very pleased that the members of the Energy and Natural Resources 
Committee accepted my language in our bill to rebuild this mineral 
supply chain. We did this in committee with almost no substantive 
changes.
  When it comes to permitting delays for new mines--you have heard me 
say this before--our Nation is among the worst in the world. We are 
almost dead last. We are stumbling right out of the gate, right out of 
the very start of the supply chain, and then we do not ever seem to be 
able to catch up.
  Where do you place the blame? The fall begins with us here. When we 
decide that a mineral is critical, we need to understand what we have. 
We need to survey our lands. We need to determine the extent of our 
resource base so we know what we can produce right here at home. If we 
do not know, it makes it pretty difficult to get anybody interested in 
production. We should keep working on alternatives, on efficiency, and 
recycling options. That is not what this is about. We need to keep 
doing that, especially for those minerals where our Nation does not and 
will not ever have significant abundance there.
  We should build out a forecasting capability so that we can gain a 
better understanding of mineral-related trends and also an early 
warning when we see that there might be issues arising. We also need to 
have a qualified workforce. We need to make sure that we have those 
that can access this mineral resource, this mineral wealth.
  The United States right now is down to a handful of mining schools. A 
large share of their faculty will be eligible to retire in the near 
future. We need some smart, young people who are interested and want to 
go into these fields.

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  Provisions to tackle all of these challenges are contained within the 
bill. They have good support. The Director of the United States 
Geological Survey, the CEOs of the Alliance of Automobile 
Manufacturers, and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association 
are among some. State witnesses, former military officials, and many 
others have endorsed this approach. We have a good opportunity to bring 
our mineral policies into the 21st century, and the mineral subtitle in 
this bipartisan Energy bill offers us that chance.

  I want to note the other members of the energy committee who have 
been very helpful in helping to advance this legislation. Senator Risch 
was very helpful as was Senator Crapo of Idaho and Senator Heller. They 
were all cosponsors of the original bill with me. There were many other 
cosponsors from both sides of the aisle in recent Congresses, and we 
also thank the Presiding Officer for his support as well.
  I also wish to acknowledge Secretary Moniz, the Secretary of Energy, 
and his team over there at DOE, and Director Kimball, who is the 
Director of the U.S. Geological Survey. They helped us a lot when it 
came to drafting this bill, and I thank them for that.
  I have consumed more time than I should, but I hope everyone can hear 
the enthusiasm I have in ensuring that as we modernize our energy 
policies, we do not take a step forward to help address what we need to 
do on the energy front and fail to bring along the growing concerns 
that we have in needing to modernize and understand our mineral 
resources and how we can ensure that there is that level of true energy 
security that helps us with our economic security and certainly our 
national security.
  With that, I see that my colleague from Alabama is here, so I yield 
the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I thank the senior Senator from Alaska 
for her leadership and comments on this bill, and I will have thoughts 
on that subject as we go forward. We have had some good things happen 
in energy, and we need to keep having that happen. Energy serves the 
American people. A low cost of energy is a blessing, a high cost of 
energy is a detriment to working families.
  I truly believe we need to make clear to the American people that 
those of us, like the Senator from Alaska who fought to increase 
production of energy, have done so not to provide a profit to private 
companies but to have created a situation in which the price of energy 
would decline. We have had a large surge in energy, and sure enough the 
prices have declined. I think that is a good thing.

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