Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act Will Cause Energy Mineral Supply Shortages

August 17, 2023

One year after the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law, we ask ourselves, are we better off? The short answer is no. Inflation and energy prices are still sky-high, and the push to green energy has only enriched and strengthened China, especially in the critical minerals market. 

Forbes reports, 

“The array of tax incentives and subsidies contained in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act appears likely to create supply shortages of critical energy minerals. That is the central finding in a new study published this week by S&P Global titled, Inflation Reduction Act: Impact on North America Metals and Minerals Market.”

“The IRA impacts minerals in two ways,” the report’s authors write. “On the demand side, it does so by providing major stimulus and subsidies for a wide range of mineral-intensive decarbonization technologies, from electric cars to off-shore wind turbines. On the supply side, it seeks to promote mineral development by imposing percentage requirements for mineral content from the United States or countries with which it has a free trade agreement (“FTA countries”).”

These rare earth minerals are used in various green energy projects, including electric vehicles and offshore wind turbines. President Biden is pushing these projects onto the American people. While simultaneously making it so we cannot mine the critical earth minerals here in the U.S., which causes our dependence on China to grow stronger rather than helping the U.S. become energy independent once again. 

“International competition for constrained resources is likely to increase as governments push their 2050 goals,” the report notes. “And, in this new era of Great Power competition, the quest for minerals will likely become entangled in the rising tensions between the United States and China, the latter of which has a predominant international position in minerals.”

Power The Future has investigated America’s dependence on China’s rare earth minerals, and now we have laid out a road map to reverse the United States’ growing reliance on China. You can read our latest report, Where Green Meets Red: How the Environmental Agenda is Making America Dependent on China, here: