Author: David Kemp

Trade tensions between the U.S. and China continue to escalate, and rare earths remain a central pawn, despite an apparent agreement reached last month, in which China would address U.S. concerns over shortages of rare earths and other critical minerals. Earlier this week, China added 10 companies to its export control list, banning exports of dual-use rare earths to firms it says are tied to the U.S. military. The move was a response to Washington’s decision earlier this month to add new companies, including large Chinese firms such as Alibaba and Baidu, to a list of entities it says assist the Chinese military, a designation that restricts their access to U.S. technology and trade.

Critical minerals have become a marquee issue in Washington over the past several years, driven by growing concern that the United States and its allies depend too heavily on China for materials that are indispensable to both the civilian economy and the defense industry.

For the past two decades, U.S. climate policy has been driven more by legal and administrative maneuvering than by legislative consensus. The result has been regulatory inefficiency, policy whiplash between administrations, and little progress toward a durable, politically sustainable framework for managing climate risk.