On the West Texas stop of his Good for Texas Tour: Supply Chains Edition, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar recently toured USA Rare Earth Inc., a critical mineral supply chain company that, along with its joint venture partner Texas Mineral Resources Corp., is building a transformative project here to produce American-made rare earth magnets. These components are used to power devices such as smartphones, large-scale batteries, wind turbines and fighter jets.
As coal mines and power plants close across the U.S., many climate hawks envision a new generation of renewable energy facilities rising from the ashes of America’s coal fields. Reality is more complex.
Republican-led states and mining groups filed opening volleys at the Supreme Court recently over greenhouse gas authority in a pivotal case that could rattle the Biden administration’s ability to set climate regulations. Congress never gave the Environmental Protection Agency broad authority to "weaponize" Sec. 111(d) of the Clean Air Act and create sector-wide rules, according to the brief filed by West Virginia on behalf of a coalition of other states.
 
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As the nation slides into winter, the U.S. could very well be facing another energy crisis. But this one won’t be at the gas pump. Instead, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) — which oversees the reliability of the nation’s power supply — is warning that a prolonged cold snap could spur blackouts across dozens of states this winter.
Rare earth minerals or elements, a group of 17 different metals, are critical to defense, and can be found in lasers, precision-guided weapons, fuel cells, magnets for motors and other devices. That’s why the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) created the Environmental Microbes as a BioEngineering Resource (EMBER) program to secure the rare earth elements supply chain in the U.S.
USA Rare Earth announced that it expects to produce nearly half of the critical minerals listed in the US Geological Survey’s revised list of raw materials deemed crucial for national security and the economy. The Texas-based company said that together with partner Texas Mineral Resources, it is committed to developing the Round Top heavy rare earth, lithium and critical minerals project in Hudspeth County, thus making it a national strategic asset for supply chains essential to the US economy.
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Email Christian Goff at cgoff@pureenergypr.com to learn more or to submit your photo.
You can Sponsor A Teacher anytime during the year. This Sponsor A Teacher program gives all members/companies an opportunity to support TMRA’s successful teacher education program. A contribution of $1,500 will sponsor one teacher for a workshop that covers teaching materials, meals, lodging, etc. This is your chance to promote our industry by sponsoring a teacher! To learn more, click below.
The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) recently announced Luminant, a subsidiary of Vistra, as a recipient of its 2021 Excellence in Surface Coal Mining Reclamation Award for the work done to reclaim and restore previously mined land at its Monticello-Winfield Mine. The award recognizes companies that achieve the most exemplary coal mine reclamation in the nation.
National Miners Day is celebrated each year on Dec. 6. This observance serves as an important reminder of how the efforts of U.S. miners have and will continue to provide the foundation of supply chains that feed into nearly every sector of the economy and support our national defense. Working behind the scenes, miners are responsible for generating nearly one-fifth of the national GDP and the industry itself supports more than 1.2 million high-paying jobs that benefit all Americans.
The recently passed bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure package, includes major investments in nuclear energy. A dominant focus of the bill is on clean energy, as the U.S. seeks to scale up clean technologies, decarbonize the electrical grid, and meet our ambitious climate targets. The passage of this hallmark piece of legislation includes significant investments in nuclear power, signaling our nation’s commitment to our largest source of carbon-free energy.
The degree to which the world depends on oil and gas is not well understood. To appreciate the complexities of the competing demands between climate action and the continued need for energy, consider the story of an award—one that the recipient very much did not want and, indeed, did not bother to pick up.
There is merit in exploring alternative fuels as a means to progress, but there is a right and a wrong pace to getting there. Innovation is certainly moving along, but we’re nowhere near a day when diesel and other fossil fuels can be fully discarded. Some policymakers make clear, however, that the end of fossil fuels is their immediate end goal. The industry must be prepared to counter their interests.
As the global energy crisis marches on, Europe and the U.S. seem to be in a nightmarish game of one-upmanship over who can produce the most dire warnings over energy-induced inflation, energy insecurity and blackouts. The North American Energy Reliability Corporation is warning that much of the U.S. will face unprecedented reliability challenges this winter, with some grids facing significant shortfalls in available capacity during spells of bitter cold. Europe’s current reality foreshadows an equally dark winter ahead.
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Horshoe Bay Resort Horseshoe Bay, Texas
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