Can’t wait for the EPA to weigh in on this...
Exactly. Rare earth metals are “rare”, but both Montana and California are blessed with strategic minerals. Bureaucracy ensures they are off limits, all in the name of “protecting the environment”.
We’ve seen this play out over and over for 50 years, whether it is our timber resources, petroleum, and coal. Somebody dusted off the “Morgenthau Plan” from World War II near as I can tell.
Some NGO cutout will sue the government over some “endangered” Wilson’s Non-Binary Cockroach, and that, as they say, will be the end of that.
See also the indonesian payola over high quality coal deposits out west. I love wild open spaces as much as anyone, the people doing this don’t care about the “environment” they are just watermelons.
We’ve known the US has rare earth elements but mining it is dirty so the EPA will likely shut it down and we’re back to bowing down to BRICS. What’s even more aggravating is BRICS will continue to have their hands out for aid.