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Trump Expands Critical Minerals List to Copper, Met Coal, Uranium

William Attardi on November 8, 2025

The Trump administration on Thursday added 10 minerals to a list it deems essential for the U.S. economy and national security, including copper, vital to electric vehicles, power grids, and data centers, and metallurgical coal, used to make coke fuel for steel production.  The Interior Department’s critical minerals list guides federal investments and permitting decisions and helps shape the government’s broader minerals strategy. The administration is expanding the list amid efforts to boost domestic mining and cut reliance on imports, particularly from economic rival China.  Trump expands critical minerals list to copper, met coal, uranium | Reuters

How the United States Can Enhance Critical Minerals Supply

William Attardi on July 21, 2025

An action plan could help reduce the risk of market disruptions, enhance competitiveness, and reduce reliance on imports, fostering supply chain resilience. Of the 50 elements deemed critical to the American economy and national security by the U.S. Geological Survey,  the United States is 100% dependent on foreign suppliers for 12 of them and is more than 50% reliant on non-domestic sources for another 29.  The Trump administration has made critical minerals security a key component of its energy-focused strategy, evident by several recent executive orders. By following a targeted strategy and working with industry toward the achievement of a set of common objectives, the U.S. government can make tangible and measurable progress toward its goal to promote U.S. critical mineral security and move from being a primary consumer and price-taker in a nontransparent market to being a supply maker in a transparent and resilient market. How the United States Can Enhance Critical Minerals Supply – WSJ

NEMA Urges Passage of Critical Mineral Legislation

William Attardi on May 2, 2025

A Senate committee unanimously approved the Critical Mineral Consistency Act, legislation aimed at boosting the development of reliable critical mineral supply chains. NEMA Senior Vice President of Public Affairs Spencer Pederson thanked the committee for quickly advancing the legislation and urged lawmakers and President Trump to turn the bill into law. “The advancement of [the bill] through Committee brings us one step closer to reaching our goals by removing dependence on unreliable foreign sources like China for the raw materials that are essential to the electroindustry and will help bolster supply chains,” Pederson said. NEMA urges passage of critical mineral legislation

That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind – The last time human beings headed moonward was on the Apollo 17 flight that launched Dec. 7, 1972—before any of the Artemis II crew members were born. Today’s crew will not land on the moon—they won’t even orbit the moon. But they will whip around the lunar far side, on a shakedown mission test-flying the Orion spacecraft. This is essential preparatory work for achieving NASA’s bigger lunar goals. Next year there will be another test flight in low Earth orbit during the flight of Artemis III, followed by up to two moon landings by Artemis IV and V in 2028, and annual landings thereafter. Unlike the Apollo program, Artemis aims not just for the so-called flags-and-footprints model of short, one- to three-day stays on the moon, but for a long-term presence at a long-term moon base in the south lunar pole, where deposits of ice can provide drinkable water, breathable oxygen, and oxygen-hydrogen rocket fuel. Very much like the Apollo program, Artemis finds itself in a closely watched moon race, not with the old Soviet Union this time, but with China, which has announced its intention to have astronauts on the moon by 2030. The U.S. is not going it alone this time, however. While Apollo was an entirely American enterprise, Artemis flies under the flag of 60 countries, signatories to the Artemis Accords, an international pact whose members vow to support the peaceful exploration of space and contribute money, modules, and astronauts to the Artemis cause. Artemis II Has Launched. Here’s Everything You Need to Know