Tim Scott Asks Witness About Expediting Permitting Process For Critical Mineral Mining Operations

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During a Senate Banking Committee hearing last week, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) spoke about the permitting process for critical mineral mining operations.

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00:00Ms. Lyons, Ms. Lyon, we use critical minerals across our supply chains from

00:06defense munitions to commercial vehicles. The United States is home to many of

00:11these minerals. However, it's extremely challenging, time-consuming, and capital

00:15intensive to open or expand mining facilities in the United States. And that

00:18frankly during your testimony, it seemed to me that the government creates a

00:23problem through permitting and then we want to solve the problem through

00:26financing. It seems to me if we could eliminate the problem through permitting

00:30we could not have to use the dollars for financing and then have other options

00:34available later. Talk to me about that. Thank you, Senator, for the question.

00:40You're absolutely right that we have a problem of the left hand of government

00:46not always knowing what the right hand needs. And part of the value for us of

00:52the defense and defense production act when we were six years into our

00:57permitting process for which we were spending an average of two million

01:02dollars a month to get through as a single asset company we were stuck. And it

01:10was really hard to figure out a how to get our federal agencies to even talk to

01:16each other, to coordinate, to come to an agreed set of milestone expectations. But

01:22receiving the award sent the signal across the federal family that this had

01:28to be a priority. That we needed our agencies to work together to solve a

01:35problem. And I will say that working with the Defense Department was a refreshing

01:42experience of people who when confronted with a problem our mission driven to

01:49find a solution. And that mentality absolutely helped us get to where we are

01:55today. And but for that coordination and accountability and transparency I don't

02:02think we would be. However the 29 years, I was older than my staffers back here, 29 years to open a mind is not frustrating but infuriating.

02:28That alone should provide an opportunity for us not to talk just about talking across

02:35lines but just solving that one simple problem that will be persistent for many

02:42years to come if we don't fix that one issue. Yes sir, that 29 year time frame is

02:48the second longest in the world. Second only to Zambia. I have full faith in this

02:55country's ability to do great things but this is not one of them right now. We

02:59have the right environmental standards, we have the right public transparency in

03:03our process, but we need to focus on how to make it a more coordinated process. We

03:08are returning to an abandoned mine site. A site that is in real trouble

03:12environmentally and we've offered to clean it up. And yet, and we've got a

03:17critical mineral that's important for our strategic defense. And our time frame, it's

03:21not going to be 29 years, but it'll be at least 18. It's crazy. Well, I have limited

03:27time to keep myself to the same five minutes until I do require everybody else up. Dr.

03:33Doshi, you talked about the definition of national defense, obviously

03:37cybersecurity technology. I think of Huawei as a real actual existential threat,

03:43perhaps space. I think about satellites, pharmaceuticals, we've talked about that. If it's limited time, talk to me about the need to

03:51define and perhaps expand the definition of national defense.

03:56Well, thank you very much, Chairman Scott. You know, we've had to redefine national

04:01defense and DPA many times, at least four times in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s. And I

04:06think we have to do so again to consider some of the challenges that the PRC will

04:09pose to us. Supply chain attacks can occur in areas outside pharma, outside

04:13critical minerals. Cyber attacks can have implications for the wider country beyond

04:18simply just the loss of a piece of critical infrastructure. I think expanding

04:22the definition could be done in multiple ways, sir. One way is to list out

04:25scenarios that we want to plan against. Another is to list domains, as we have in

04:29the past, like space, that we want to make sure we're defending in. And another would

04:33be to offer tiered justifications. If this, then DPA can be activated. We should

04:38allow us to address some of the concerns Senator Moreno raised about the

04:42excessive use of DPA. Hopefully depoliticize it. And I guess my answer, sir, would be

04:45definitions can help depoliticize the term. Thank you. Return my 15 seconds and

04:51Senator Kim, you are next.

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