Critical Minerals and the U.S. Clean Energy Transition

This briefing by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute describes the critical mineral supply chain and the United States' efforts to secure domestic sources for its clean energy transition. It details the stages of the supply chain, the U.S.'s high reliance on imports, the environmental and social impacts of mining, and the legislative and executive actions taken to promote onshoring and secondary recovery.

• The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) identifies 50 minerals as critical as of 2022, based on a definition from the Energy Act of 2020 that requires a mineral to have a "high risk of supply chain disruption" and be "essential to the manufacturing of a product vital to U.S. economic or national security."
• The United States maintains a high level of import dependency for critical minerals; in 2024, it relied on imports for 100% of 12 critical minerals and 50% or more for another 28 minerals. The primary exporters to the U.S. were China, Canada, Japan, and South Africa, with China producing 30 of the 50 USGS critical minerals.
• Domestic mineral production in the U.S. is hindered by regulatory hurdles, with exploration and discovery permitting processes taking an average of 16 years to complete. While the U.S. produces 37 of the 50 critical minerals, it does not produce iridium or gallium, though a New York company recovers gallium from scrap and iridium deposits exist in Alaska.
• Mining and processing critical minerals cause significant environmental and social harm, including greenhouse gas emissions, habitat loss, and groundwater contamination. In the U.S., a high percentage of critical resources are located near Native American reservations: 97% of nickel, 79% of lithium, and 68% of cobalt resources are within 35 miles of these reservations.
• Secondary recovery from waste products offers a sustainable alternative to mining. Potential sources include 17,400 tons of lithium in desalinization plant brine wastewater and 11 million tons of rare earth elements (valued at $8.4 billion) in U.S. coal ash stockpiles.
• Recycling efforts in the U.S. are limited by inefficient collection systems and a lack of viable methods for products like wind turbines and solar panels. While recycling streams exist for 14 minerals, lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles are not expected to reach end-of-life in sufficient numbers until 2030.
• Recent U.S. policy has focused on domesticating the supply chain through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act ($7.9 billion for battery and mineral development) and the Inflation Reduction Act. In 2025, President Trump issued executive orders to expedite permitting for mining on federal lands and to explore deep-sea mining.

APA

Pouy, N. (2025). Critical Minerals and the U.S. Clean Energy Transition. Environmental and Energy Study Institute. https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/issue-brief-critical-minerals-and-the-u.s-clean-energy-transition

Chicago

Pouy, Nicole. Critical Minerals and the U.S. Clean Energy Transition. Environmental and Energy Study Institute, 2025. https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/issue-brief-critical-minerals-and-the-u.s-clean-energy-transition.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Pouy |first1=Nicole |title=Critical Minerals and the U.S. Clean Energy Transition |publisher=Environmental and Energy Study Institute |date=14 July 2025 |url=https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/issue-brief-critical-minerals-and-the-u.s-clean-energy-transition |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{pouy2025critical, author = {Pouy, Nicole}, title = {{Critical Minerals and the U.S. Clean Energy Transition}}, institution = {Environmental and Energy Study Institute}, year = {2025}, month = jul, url = {https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/issue-brief-critical-minerals-and-the-u.s-clean-energy-transition}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }