'When We Know Better, We Should Do Better': Pete Stauber Criticizes Biden's Mining Ban

4/4/2025

During Wednesday's House Natural Resources Committee hearing on American energy, Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN) criticized Biden's mining ban as China becomes the market leader in mineral exports.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you very much and I want to thank to our witnesses for being here. I'm going to

00:06change gears just a little bit. Here in the United States, we responsibly and

00:11ethically produce our abundant energy and natural resources better than

00:15anywhere else in the world. And when we do, we're able to bolster our economy,

00:19create good-paying union jobs, and raise much-needed revenue for the federal,

00:23state, county, and local governments. We have a decision before us today. We can

00:29either develop our own energy and minerals resources here, enjoying all of

00:35the economic benefits that come with it, or rely on foreign adversarial nations

00:40like China or Russia. I'm glad that under the Trump administration and

00:44congressional Republicans, it's clear which path we'll take over the next four

00:49years. While this morning's hearing has focused primarily on economic impact of

00:54developing American's abundant energy resources, I want to focus on

00:59the incredible prospect we have to develop our nation's critical and other

01:03non-fuel minerals, including the tremendous mineral wealth we have in the

01:08Duluth complex and elsewhere across northern Minnesota. According to the U.S.

01:15Geological Survey's latest data published earlier this year, the

01:20development, processing, refining, and recycling of non-fuel minerals in the

01:25United States contributes nearly $29 billion to our nation's GDP annually.

01:33That's even while this nation is stuck currently with the Biden era policies

01:38that have locked up a vast majority of our nation's critical minerals, like

01:42those in the Duluth complex in northeastern Minnesota. It's policies

01:47like the Biden administration's mining ban in the Superior National Forest in

01:52northern Minnesota, which locked up over 225,000 acres for responsible mineral

01:58development. And as my colleagues all know well by now, this jeopardized

02:03development of the Duluth complex, where there are trillions and trillions of

02:08dollars of mineral wealth. If we are able to develop our tremendous mineral wealth

02:12in Minnesota, Arizona, Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Michigan, Wyoming, Montana,

02:24and everywhere in between, that $29 billion annually added to our

02:30nation's GDP will skyrocket. I want to point out a figure that when we

02:39talk about mining from the raw material, the gross domestic product, to our

02:45economy, I just mentioned $29 billion. That's just the original estimate on the

02:52GDP. It doesn't go downstream, which is hundreds of billions of dollars that we

02:59can add to our GDP annually. If we're allowed to mine those critical minerals

03:04here, we have to mine them, process them here, and then we can manufacture here.

03:11Mr. Sweetenum, while your testimony and research has focused primarily on oil

03:16and gas development, including the impact that domestic production of oil and gas

03:21can have on OPEC's ability to control oil and gas prices, I believe the same

03:25arguments can be made for global mineral commodities. Would you agree that just

03:31like the oil and gas development, domestic critical mineral development

03:35would weaken China and other adversarial nations' control over global mineral

03:39prices and their ability to artificially manipulate mineral commodity prices?

03:47So the concentration of these strategic minerals, especially those needed for

03:54wind turbines and solar panels and batteries, China dominates not only the

04:00extraction and processing, but also the refining of those materials to an

04:05extraordinary degree. So where OPEC plus has a market share of about 35%, for many

04:11of these minerals, China has a market share of 80%. And they've been happy or

04:16willing to use that dominance when they want to put economic leverage on

04:24other countries. So I absolutely agree that the concentration of those minerals

04:29and processing in China is a security risk and it would be helpful to address

04:33it with US production. I really appreciate, with my 20 seconds left, I

04:39really appreciate that comment. We can mine here, we can process here, we

04:43can manufacture. We do it better, in my opinion, better than anybody else in the

04:47world. And when we know better, we should do better. We cannot allow adversarial

04:52nations to control our destiny. As the Undersecretary of Defense said

04:59when I asked what would it do, what would it be like if China stopped

05:03selling us their critical minerals, and it'd be devastating and dangerous.

05:07Department of Defense and Energy Undersecretary said that to me. It would

05:11be devastating and dangerous. When we know better, we do better. We do it better

05:15here in the United States of America than anywhere in the country. I yield back.

'When We Know Better, We Should Do Better': Pete Stauber Criticizes Biden's Mining Ban

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