This week during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) unloaded on Interior Secretary Deb Haaland for not realizing that the Biden Administration’s green agenda makes the U.S. heavily dependent on China.
HAWLEY: “On the subject of the sweeping mandates on electric vehicles…the metals needed to make the lithium-ion batteries in those vehicles are of course lithium, nickel, graphite, and cobalt. Can you tell me what nation is the largest producer of refined lithium in the world?
HAALAND: “No, I can’t”
HAWLEY: It’s China! Can you tell me which nation is the largest producer of refined cobalt in the world?”
HAALAND: “No, I can’t”
HAWLEY: “It’s China! Do you know which nation is the largest exporter of graphite to the United States globally?
HAALAND: “No, Senator.”
HAWLEY: “It’s China! So in all of these instances, these mandates, your decision to trade off our energy security in favor of a radical climate change agenda is making us more and more dependent on China and at the same time, you are denying mining in this country that would allow us to develop nickel and copper and cobalt. Why?”
Watch the clip above.