Republican senator Joni Ernst has come down hard on the Biden Administration, because of whose management "we have become even more dependent upon the Chinese" for raw materials since his arrival in the White House. Ernst charged that the government's "deranged environmental policy," instead of helping Americans, only "enriches the Communist Party of China."
In an interview with Larry Kudlow on Fox Business, the senator attacked the paradoxes of the administration's climate and energy policy. Ernst lamented that instead of taking advantage of the Biden administration's "huge electric vehicles push" to bolster national independence for the critical minerals needed, "we have to go to China to source them or we have to send our own product to China for refining."
China, the great beneficiary of Biden's policies
This is a clear allusion to the ban in Minnesota, decreed by the Department of the Interior, on mining copper and nickel, two minerals essential for the manufacture of electric vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines and other renewable energy devices, the great energy bet of the Democratic Administration. The reason given was that the maintenance of the mine posed too great a risk to the ecology of the area. The rejection significantly weakens the U.S. economy, especially in terms of achieving independence from third parties in obtaining raw materials, since the only nickel mine on national territory that is in operation will close in 2025.
Joe Biden would rather rely on China than source minerals from right here at home, where we have an abundance of mineral wealth and safe labor laws. Today, he banned mining in Minnesota's Iron Range, but recently funded Chinese mining projects. https://t.co/owxStrlfWn
— Rep. Michelle Fischbach (@RepFischbach) January 27, 2023
"Source our natural resources."
Ernst insisted, stressing that the Biden Administration is leaving the US in a situation of dependence on its main world rival while also strengthening it economically. "We have become even more dependent upon the Chinese under the Biden administration. And again it goes back to deranged climate policy that is not benefiting Americans, but instead enriching the Communist Party of China," noted the senator.
From the GOP, they point out that the way forward should be the opposite, and laid out the benefits this path would bring to the country: "We should focus and source our natural resources here in the good old United States and provide for American jobs. If they want to go to EVs, great, make it a consumer choice. But let’s at least not utilize China and child and slave labor to obtain those critical minerals. We can do it much safer here."
