Funding from President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda will Create More Jobs, Strengthen National Security, Revitalize Energy Communities, and Build a Clean Energy Economy
The United States Department of Energy headquarters on Independence Avenue. (Credit: US Department of Energy/Wikipedia)
In support of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced up to $30 million to help lower the costs of the onshore production of rare earths and other critical minerals and materials from domestic coal-based resources. The funding, provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will help meet the growing demand for critical minerals in the United States, while reducing our reliance on offshore supplies. Rare earths and other critical minerals are key to U.S. manufacturing of clean energy technologies—such as solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and hydrogen fuel cells—to advance President Biden’s historic climate agenda. Extracting these materials from coal, coal waste, and associated by-products also creates good-paying jobs in communities that have historically produced fuels and electric power from fossil energy resources, supporting the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to revitalize energy communities and ensure stronger access to benefits through the Justice40 Initiative.
“President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is helping rebuild America’s manufacturing sector by enhancing our ability to produce the critical minerals necessary to develop clean energy technologies,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “Thanks to these transformative investments, we are reducing our reliance on foreign supply chains while delivering high-quality jobs throughout the communities that have helped power the nation for generations.”
Advanced Processing of Critical Minerals and Materials for Industrial and Manufacturing Applications Funding Announcement
According to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Mineral Information Center, the United States imports over 80% of its rare earth demand from non-domestic suppliers. But rare earth elements occur naturally all around us, including in our domestic coal and coal wastes. The funding opportunity announcement released today is seeking to tap this unconventional resource to help build a domestic supply chain critical to the U.S. economy, clean energy, and national security. The program will fund research for laboratory and bench-scale testing of economically viable, environmentally benign extraction, separation, and refining technologies, starting with unconventional coal-based resources, and producing rare earths and critical minerals for use in clean energy, national defense, and/or commercial commodity products and equipment.
Source: Company Press Release