Infrastructure and Jobs Act: Critical Minerals permitting and information

Country / jurisdiction: United States · Year: 2021 · Status: In force · Level: National · Type: Voluntary

The U.S. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act directs different agencies to take certain actions to prioritise development of domestic supply chains for critical minerals.

Sec 40206. Critical minerals supply chains and reliability

Administration reports have determined that federal permitting processes for mining, governed by the General Mining Law of 1872, have become, occasionally inefficient and long.

The section directs the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Forest Service (FS) to maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of their permitting and review processes for critical mineral mines on federal lands by establishing and adhering to determined schedules for each step in the permitting process.

This measure accompanies other Biden administration policies to make federal permitting processes for critical mineral mines more efficient.

Sec 40415. Plan for the modelling and forecasting of demand for minerals used in the energy sector

The US Energy Information Administration, created by Congress in 1977, is an independent statistics agency within the Department of Energy charged with energy modelling and forecasting.

The section directs the Administrator of the EIA to develop a plan for the modelling and forecasting of demand for energy technologies that use critical minerals, including technologies for energy production, transmission, or storage purposes.

The modelling and forecasting of demand for energy technologies that use critical minerals is crucial information for the Biden administration’s prioritisation of decreasing national dependence on foreign critical mineral supply.

Official source: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3684/text