OPINION:
Former West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is right: China’s grip on critical minerals is a direct threat to America’s economic and national security (“Former Sen. Joe Manchin says U.S. better wake up and reduce rare earth reliance on China ” Web, July 15). We need to continue to extract and process more minerals here at home and work with trusted allies to do the same.
This strategy needs to go beyond mining to include critical mineral and rare earth material recycling and reprocessing.
For example, today American manufacturers can recover 99% of the materials in spent starter batteries and reuse them in new products, keeping essential minerals like antimony in U.S. circulation and out of the Chinese Communist Party’s hands. This is an effective model for more critical minerals.
President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill rightly preserves the Section 45X tax credit that Mr. Manchin helped write into law. The credit protects this domestic manufacturing capacity.
It’s one of the most important tools we have to secure the mineral supply chain our armed forces need while reducing our dependence on China.
Maj. Gen. Bill Crane (retired)
Former adjutant general, West Virginia National Guard
Charleston, West Virginia
Please read our comment policy before commenting.