The United States remains wholly dependent upon China for 95% of rare earth elements, 100% reliant on imports for 15 critical minerals, and over 80% reliant for eleven more. These minerals enable everything from batteries to semiconductors—and without domestic access, America’s technological dominance is at risk.

Robert Bryce, a leading energy policy scholar, joins Oren to explore how decades of shortsighted policy let China dominate critical supply chains, what it would take to rebuild them, and whether the West can shake off its complacent belief that “the market will fix it” before it’s too late. Finally, they close with a discussion on the promising future of domestic nuclear power.

Further reading:

• “Restoring Leadership in Critical Minerals” by Dean Ball
• Read Robert Bryce’s Substack