The Hill News

Here we are again: at the mercy of a foreign government for a natural resource essential to our economic and national security. President Obama’s recent announcement that the United States plans to file a case with the World Trade Organization against China’s export restrictions on rare earth minerals highlights the under-reported fact that our nation’s reliance on foreign minerals is even more pronounced than our dependence on foreign oil.

Indeed, in 2009, the United States imported oil or oil products from 90 different countries all around the world. By comparison with rare earth elements, the U.S. relies almost exclusively on one supplier and there is no other country to turn to should China decide to withdraw them from the market. Once the world’s primary producer of rare earths, the United States is now completely reliant on imports for the minerals, with 91 percent of our supply coming from China. The Pentagon reports that that rare earthsâ€"foun! d in night vision equipment, satellites and other defense technologiesâ€"are vital to sustaining and building U.S. military efforts. Beyond that, they’re used every day in petroleum refining, in green energy technologies like wind turbines and hybrid cars and in the production of medical technologies.

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