GOV MIKE DUNLEAVY: China is holding critical minerals hostage. Alaska can help end the threat

Americas ability to compete with China hinges on secure access to critical minerals. That strategic imperative must guide federal policy on the resources that undergird our technology, economy, and national defense. Its not an exaggeration to say that, without access to the critical minerals that form the backbone of our modern technological infrastructure, our economy would face major challenges growing and sustaining new jobs and equipping our military with the systems that keep us safe.

Here in Alaska, our state hosts resources of 57 of the 60 most important critical minerals. These critical minerals include rare earth elements used in hard drives and laptops, smartphones, and electric motors. They also include graphite, an important component of batteries used in electric cars and computers. Graphite is not only a critical mineral, but also one essential to national security as designated under the Defense Production Act.

Among its many mineral deposits, holds a bountiful reserve of graphite in the aptly named Graphite Creek Project. New estimates suggest that this one reserve alone could provide enough graphite to meet the entire nations needs for a century. Yet in recent years, rather than developing these American natural resources, the Biden administration instead frittered away $150 million in taxpayer funds on a loan to a graphite facility in Mozambique—a facility that eventually shuttered operations.

THE CCP CONTROLS THE MOST INTIMATE ELEMENTS OF OUR LIFE. MOST AMERICANS HAVE NO IDEA

Leftists believe that ending American production of critical minerals will somehow cure the worlds environmental problems. In reality, it has only moved production overseas, to countries with lower environmental and worker-safety standards. It has also increased our economic dependence on countries with unstable governments—like , where the graphite mine was caught up in civil unrest linked to ISIS-affiliated terror groups—or interests opposed to our own, such as China.

Not developing projects like Graphite Creek amounts to waving the white flag of surrender to China in our contest to shape the future of the world economy. Its Communist government has already used critical minerals to engage in economic blackmail, holding access to the minerals hostage to protest American trade policy. Americans should never agree to this extortion—and, by developing our own American resources, we need never do so.