Ernest Scheider
speaker
31 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2025
last heard May 2025
Ernest Scheider’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsNo recordings in the last 12 months.Older appearances are listed below; set an alert to hear about the next one.
Appearances
Yeah. So I see sort of two issues or two tension points here. Certainly, there's the geopolitical tension because we know right now that the United States produces relatively few amounts of these critical minerals. And China and its allies have spent the better part of the past 30 or 40 years cornering control of many of these critical mineral markets.
And they've been very willing to use that control as economic leverage, as an economic weapon. There's also a battle here closer at home, Noel, because while we do have reserves of many of these critical minerals within our borders, we just generally don't like mining.
People don't want a mine in their backyard, or they don't want a mine where they might have gone camping or fishing as a child and have strong memories there, or they just might have concerns about what mining might do to land in the long term. And so there's a big tension point there as well.
And then I would add to that that there's also a tension point around where we want to actually process these materials, because once you take that rock out of the ground, you just can't put it into a battery. You then have to process it into a form that can be used to make a battery or other electronic device.
So if people don't want to mine in their backyard, they definitely probably don't want a giant refining complex in their backyard as well. But that is an extremely important part of this supply chain here and has to be part of the conversation.
Do you agree with that? Well, what I would say is that whoever controls the production and processing of these critical minerals will control the 21st century economy the way that control of petroleum defined the 20th century economy. I mean, I think it's that stark of an issue here for us to look at. And this is something that not just President Trump is focused on.
You know, many folks across the aisle in Washington, D.C., Democrats, Republicans and independents are focused on this. You know, I think it's the one issue actually that unites people politically in Washington, D.C. right now.
And it also was an area that President Biden, when he was in office, focused on.
And I'm not saying that oil or natural gas will be phased out completely. I don't think that's a realistic assumption. But we do know that our economy, not just in the United States, but the economies of other nations across the world, are expanding to include more and more of these critical minerals. And there's going to be a fight for supply on the global stage.
And so the United States can either produce more of its own domestically or go out to global markets and try to tap deposits there. And this is something that is very, very, very, very much a focus for folks across the Washington establishment, not just President Trump.
What's not working?
Showing 21–31 of 31 · page 2 of 2
← Previous