Trash to Treasure: Examining Legislation to Support Domestic Critical Mineral Recovery and Recycling

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The Subcommittee on Environment will now come to order. I will now recognize myself for an opening statement. Good morning. Welcome to today's hearing on the Subcommittee on on Environment. Well over two months ago, this subcommittee held a hearing to analyze the impact of some of our major environmental laws on access to critical minerals and minerals that form the products essential to our health care, defense, transportation, energy, and telecommunication sectors. The title of that hearing was Help or Hindrance? The Impact of US Environmental Laws on Critical Mineral Supply Chains, National Security, and Economic Growth. In particular, we discussed some of the challenges associated with the Environmental Protection Agency's or EPA's interpretation of the Resource Conservation Recovery Act, RCRA. While some of our witnesses explained that RCRA had been a hindrance, largely due to lack of regulatory clarity, there are also opportunities for it to be a help. Even as early as nineteen seventy-six, when Rick, uh, was enacted to amend the Solid Waste Disposal Act, Congress included in that law its findings that methods are available to separate usable materials from solid waste, and the recovery and conservation of such materials can

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reduce the dependence of the United States on foreign resources. EPA has developed unique knowledge that should be leveraged to shore up domestic supply chains and identify opportunities to facilitate recovery of domestic material from discarded materials. This experience is not limited to solid waste management. EPA also coordinates the remediation of the nation's most contaminated sites. In recent years, EPA has explored opportunities to use innovative technologies to recover valuable materials while cleaning up these contaminated sites. EPA currently manages a program called the Environmental Monitoring and Remediation Technology Assessment, or MTI, to identify and recover critical minerals and waste materials at legacy mining sites. According to the United States Geological Survey, the United States is entirely reliant on the imports for thirteen of the sixty mineral commodities on its twenty twenty-five list of critical materials. And it is reliant on imports for over half of its consumption of another twenty mer- uh minerals. Removing regulatory barriers to a more robust domestic recycling industry could allow us to recover more of these m- minerals from products already in the United States. Deliberate federal coordination has never been more important with adversaries such as China demonstrating that they are willing and able to weaponize their control of crucial supply chains. Securing our fragile supply chains requires coordination across the entire federal government, and it is important for EPA to have a seat at the table. To that end, we plan to discuss seven bills to eliminate unnecessary barriers to the growth of a strong domestic recycling industry, establish EPA as a leader of inter-agency efforts to recover and support the remediation of contaminated sites while identifying new domestic sources of valuable materials. I hope we can continue working together with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to reach bipartisan agreement on these discussion drafts. I'm encouraged by our initial conversations and I look forward to finalizing bills that can advance with bipartisan support. To help us in these efforts today, we welcome four witnesses. First, we have David uh Kole- uh Konecki, uh Chief Executive Officer of SERBA Solutions. SERBA Solutions is a leading battery recycling materials and management company. We're also joined by Doctor Jessica Dunn, Scientist, Clean Transportation at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Doctor Dunn specializes in lithium ion battery sustainability research. We also welcome Mister Aaron Goldberg, a principal at Beverage and Diamond, an environmental attorney. Mister Goldberg will call upon his decades of experience with the Resource Conservation Recovery Act. Finally, we will also hear from Mister Grayson Buckingham, co-founder, chief executive officer, and president of Disha Technologies. Disha has developed innovative technologies to recover minerals from legacy mine sites. I thank all of our witnesses for their time today and I look forward to today's discussion. I now recognize the ranking member of the subcommittee, Mister Tonko, the gentleman from New York, for five minutes for an opening statement.

Oh, thank you, Mister Chair. Today, the subcommittee will examine seven bills and discussion drafts seeking to enhance our national capacity to recover and utilize alternative sources of critical minerals. While I do have serious concerns about a couple of these bills, including any codification of President Trump's executive orders, I also believe several of these proposals warrant our further attention. Democrats on this subcommittee have long recognized the potential of resource recovery and recycling to contribute to meeting our national critical mineral needs. Recycling can provide significant percentages of expected demand of key minerals needed for uh battery production including lithium cobalt and nickel. This would provide us with a new untapped domestic supply, not only reducing our current over-reliance on foreign sources, but also creating more sustainable supply chains by alleviating some of the need for riskier environmental extractions. With that said, I recognize that turning a battery into its raw materials and then back into a battery is not an easy process. Batteries, when not properly handled or disposed of, do present some risk to workers, nearby communities, and yes, our environment. We know that has been the case with lead acid batteries and it will remain true of lithium ion batteries. So while I am open to understanding better some of the regulatory barriers that are making it more difficult to add greater long-term circular circular rarity to our uh critical mineral supply chains, I do not believe this should come at the expense of fundamental environmental and worker protections. And I do hope we can begin to figure out that balance today. While the drafts under consideration today warrant discussions, I believe Congress can play a constructive role in moving us even further toward a shared goal of secure domestic critical mineral supply chains. Our environmental and safety regulations need not only be seen as a barrier to achieving our goals. States are already approving that smart regulations can push all stakeholders, from manufacturers to recyclers to indi- individual consumers, to being part of the solution. And I would again suggest that responsible end of life management of batteries through a national product stewardship program, like extended producer responsibility, can be an important step. Because once we have gone through the trouble of importing critical m- materials, sensible collection, reuse and recycling requirements can ensure that those materials are recovered. That is how we can build for long-term sustainable management of our critical mineral supply chains. And this type of more comprehensive approach to responsible end-of-life management of batteries is not only possible, but preferable. It would guarantee valuable minerals are kept out of landfills, while also mitigating fire risks and enabling the repurposing of batteries when possible. I have been encouraged by the work happening at EPA under both the Biden and Trump administrations to examine this challenge. I do hope we can learn from that effort and determine what additional action from Congress may be necessary. Finally, while I'm have mostly focused on batteries this morning, I'm also encouraged by the Environmental Monitoring and Remediation Technology Assessment initiative. If we can find opportunities for mineral recovery and legacy environmental remediation to work hand in hand, it could be a true win-win situation. We must be careful not to create loopholes in the law, to exacerbate environmental harms at these sites. but exploring how EPA can support emerging remediation technologies has potential. And that work could be further expanded to support other valuable environmentally beneficial products such as the mineral mineralization of carbon dioxide. Again, I want to thank the Chair for today's discussion. There are some good opportunities to strengthen our domestic critical mineral supply if we are able to unlock that potential while maintaining appropriate environmental safeguards. With that, Mr. Chair, I thank you and yield back.

General Nils, I now recognize the Chairman of the full committee, the gentleman from Kentucky, Mister Guthrie, for five minutes for an opening statement.

Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Palmer, and thank you for holding this hearing, and I really appreciate all of our witnesses being here today. This Congress, our environment subcommittee has explored creative solutions to identify sources of critical materials and uh critical minerals uh here at home, so that we are less dependent on foreign adversaries like China. And I will say uh I've become Far more acquainted in the last couple of years with this issue, but our our chairman of this committee has been focused on this for years, and it was absolutely correct that we have to deal with this. And I should have dealt with it sooner, but well here we are. So, for example, in June of twenty-five, the subcommittee held a hearing on the management of cold combustion res res- residuals and evaluated the potential recovery of critical minerals from coal ash. In July of last year, the subcommittee met to assess uh state of our domestic recycling industry and opportunities to recover critical minerals from end of life electronics. This past April we identified opportunities to modernize some of our major environmental laws to eliminate unnecessary barriers to stronger supply chains. Securing access to critical minerals is a daunting task, with geopolitical tensions, trade policy complexities, and economic rivalries complicating efforts to shore up our supply chain. This is why it's essential for all of our federal agencies to work together and harmonize their efforts to make sure we're all rowing in the same direction. The Environmental Protection Agency has unique expertise regarding recovery of valuable materials from waste streams and complexities of our domestic recycling infrastructure. Today, we will consider seven pieces of legislation to further the recovery of critical minerals from waste streams that are already located with our with our within our country, and support the development of domestic material recycling, recovery, and refining industries. I hope this endeavor can be part of our committee's strong tradition of bipartisanship. When today's bills introduced, H. R. three seven one seven, the legacy mine cleanup act of twenty twenty five already enjoys bipartisan support. And we will continue to work with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, to hopefully reach bipartisan agreement on the three discussion drafts as well. So thank you for being here. I thank all of my colleagues on this committee for willingness to be open and work together for this absolutely critical part of our national security. Um, if people uh, this is one of those issues I always say that if people fully understood the the issue before us, I think the country would it's one of these people ask me sometimes, what do you sleep over? And it's not having adequate uh critical minerals in in our area and and within our country and within our uh our dependency on China is just something we absolutely have to solve in a bipartisan way, we will solve. So thank you and I yield back.

Gentleman yields, the chair now recognizes the ranking member of the full committee, the gentleman from New Jersey, Mister Palone, for five minutes for an opening statement.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Critical minerals are the building blocks of many modern technologies, from our cell phones to clean energy technologies like electric vehicles and solar panels. And as the world continues to shift towards clean energy to reduced cost, the demand for these minerals will continue to increase and that's why it's vital that we work to bolster our domestic critical mineral supply chain. And as we do that, we must also focus on critical mineral recycling and recovery, that increases resource efficiency, reduces the need to mine new materials or new minerals, and reduces waste. And this represents a true win-win for our environment and for our economy. For too long we've allow valuable critical minerals to go to landfills, never to be recovered, and that has to change if we want to remain globally competitive. Domestic recycling of still viable critical minerals also helps mitigate supply chain vulnerabilities. This is so important considering the US is dangerously dependent on foreign adversaries, namely China, for critical mineral refining, processing and even recycling, leaving our nation exposed to geopolitical supply chain risks. And that's why domestic recycling of critical minerals can also help boost national security. We know it's possible to shore up our critical material supply chains without compromising environmental and public health protections. Democrats support the responsible and sustainable build-out of our domestic critical material supply chains. It's important for our economy and national security, and necessary for the transition to cleaner and cheaper energy, particularly at a time when the Trump administration and congressional republicans have gone to war against clean energy. It's time republicans join us in supporting clean energy rather than continually targeting it. And democrats secured important down payments in the bipartisan infrastructure law and the inflation reduction act. The bipartisan infrastructure law included seven point nine billion for battery materials processing, manufacturing and recycling. It also directed the EPA to develop battery collection best practices. voluntary battery labeling, guidelines and an extended producer responsibility framework for batteries to help grow our circular economy for critical minerals. The Inflation Reduction Act included tax credits for electric vehicles, critical mineral minerals for batteries, and battery manufacturing to expand our nation's capacity and boost supply chain resiliency. And while none of my Republican colleagues supported these historic laws, I am encouraged by today's conversation to advance critical mineral recycling and recovery. The Slater bills span the breadth of critical minerals recovery, ranging from bipartisan ideas we can continue to work on together, to some highly partisan ideas that Republicans pushed under previous Congress. To that end, the wholesale industry deregulation in H R three O five nine, and the codification of troubling Trump executive orders in H R four three seven O are bills i simply cannot support. on the other hand hr three seven one three the legacy mine cleanup act which creates a dedicated epa program for cleaning up abandoned toxic mine mine sites is a welcome bipartisan effort we'll also consider three discussion drafts on battery recycling for critical minerals a strategy for recovering critical minerals from discarded materials and authorizing a program for reclaiming mining waste in search of critical minerals And these discussion drafts are not perfect, but I believe they are heading in a promising direction, and I look forward to continuing conversations with the Republican majority to improve these discussion drafts so that we can secure bipartisan agreements. While critical mineral recycling and recovery is essential to bolstering our domestic supply chains, it's important that we do it responsibly and in a way that mitigates risks and protects the environment public health and worker safety. And we have to recognize and build off of the tremendous progress already underway at the state and local levels. So with that, Mister Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time. Thank you.

Gentlemen yields, we have concluded with member opening statements. I would like to remind members that pursuant to the committee rules, all members' opening statements will be made part of the record. We want to thank our witnesses for being here today and taking time to testify before the subcommittee. Witnesses will have the opportunity to give an opening statement followed by a round of questions from members. Our witness witnesses for today are David Klinecki, uh President and CEO of Service Solutions, Grayson Buckingham, Co-founder, President and CEO, DISA Technologies, Doctor Jessica Dunn, Scientist, Clean Transportation, Union of Concerned Scientists, and Aaron H. Goldberg, Principal, Beverage and Diamond, PC. We appreciate you all being here today. I now recognize Mister Klineski for five minutes to give an opening statement.

Great. Chairman Palmer, Vice Chair Crenshaw, Ranking Member Tonko, and distinguished members of the committee, thank you very much for the opportunity to testify today. My name is David Klineski, President and CEO of Service Solutions, North America's premier battery recycling and materials management company. We were the first company in North America to process lithium ion batteries at commercial scale and today we recover over ninety percent of the critical minerals in these batteries that we process. I'm here today because the committee has an extraordinary opportunity to take decisive action that will strengthen America's national security, reduce our dangerous dependence on China for critical minerals, and position the United States to lead the global energy economy. Let me offer a vivid perspective. Access to critical minerals is essential for our nation. The largest critical mineral mines operating today in America are not on the in the ground. They're actually operating on our roads and data centers and energy storage systems and our homes right now. All these batteries contain critical minerals that are recoverable. There's a remarkable opportunity for United States to take control of our own destiny. But instead, we're allowing these materials to be sent to China. Battery manufacturers are sourcing critical minerals from different parts of the world like Chile, Australia and and Argentina to build those batteries in the United States. only to have these materials shipped back to China when those batteries reach end of life, or become manufacturing scrap. Those critical minerals then become controlled by China, and in essence we're subsidizing China's critical mineral supply chain. China controls an estimated seventy to ninety percent of the global critical mineral processing in the world, including materials that that power our defense applications, energy for the grid, and much more. It's just not an economical uh vulnerability, it's a national security crisis. Battery recycling and critical mineral recovery offer one of the most fastest and cost-effective ways to reduce that path of dependency. And at Service Solutions we recover lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese from end-of-life batteries and gigafactory scrap, and make sure that we return them directly to the production of a new battery, enabling a closed-loop battery supply chain, which we all need. One of the most pressing obstacles facing our industry today is the export of end-of-life batteries and gigafactory scrap out of the United States to overseas processors, primarily in China. Large volumes of lithium-ion batteries and gigafactory scrap are being shipped abroad rather than processing here at home. And our own regulatory framework is allowing that to happen. The path of least resistance for these materials is to ship those materials abroad. It's more economical. to countries with far less stringent regulations and state subsidized capacity like China. China has deliberately structured its industrial policy to attract exactly that material flow. And there are United States companies today actively shipping these critical minerals, end of life batteries, and gigafactory scrap to China. Meanwhile, domestic processors are operating under rigorous rigorous, sorry, environmental standards like RecrePort B as well as stringent capex and opex disadvantages, which result in increased cost to process these batteries. These are hurdles that foreign competitors are not burdened with. Every battery that leaves America is a compounding lost, not only just in the mineral value, but the jobs, the processing infrastructure, and the manufacturing feedstock that could supply US's global battery production. Enhanced material tracking, targeted incentives for domestic recycling, and a level regulatory playing field for domestic recyclers can reverse this dynamic, keeping critical minerals, jobs, and processing capacity here in the United States. The second barrier is how the federal government classifies black mass. Black mass is a concentrated intermediate material produced when lithium ion batteries are shredded and processed at their end of life. It's rich in lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese, and to every buyer and seller in the marketplace, Black Mass is a very valuable product, actively purchased, trade, and sought by refiners and manufacturers worldwide. Yet under current US regulations, it's classified as a solid waste. This creates a cascade of real-world consequences, such as imposing compliance costs that make US recyclers less competitive. When policy treats a product like a waste, it creates waste-like economics, instead of product economics that attract investment. We cannot afford to let this dynamic occur when we are trying to compete with China who controls eighty percent of the black mass shredding capacity in the world. The BRACE Act must exclude black mass from the definition of solid waste and direct the EPA to implement universal waste standards, specifically tailored for lithium ion batteries. that reflect the value of the critical minerals they contain. The practical benefits are significant. Easier domestic and transboundary movement, more competitive pricing, and a lower cost mean all more capital available for infrastructure and domestic processing capacity. And this translates into a much stronger competitive position against China. It also sends a clear unnecessary market signal that battery recycling intermediates such as Black Mass are a strategic product. that we value. Let me be clear. We're not asking for anything to be exempt from environmental regulations or laws that are there. We're simply want the regulation to reflect the nature and the value of the products that we create, and tailored enforcement across the industry. The volume of lithium ion batteries reaching into life and gigafactory scrap being created will grow dramatically over the next decade. The countries and companies that build a robust ref- recycling infrastructure today will now crow control the critical mineral supply chains of tomorrow the ones that wait will find themselves dependent on whoever did invest and China has been and is investing aggressively at scale on recycling a diversified domestic supply chain one that draws recycled materials alongside a responsibly sourced primary material through mining is the only long-term resilient path for international competitiveness Service solution proves every day that domestic battery recycling and critical mineral recovery at scale can be done, and done commercially profitable. The critical minerals we need for our national security and economic competitiveness and for our energy future are already here. As I mentioned, they're out on the streets and in our pockets. Battery recycling is how we claim them for America. Thank you very much. I welcome your questions.

Chair, now recognize Mister Buckingham for your opening statement.

Chairman Palmer, Ranking Member Tonko, Chairman Guthrie, Ranking Member Pilon, and distinguished members of this subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Grayson Buckingham. I am the Co-Founder, President and CEO of Dissa Technologies, a veteran-led critical minerals and remediation company headquartered in Casper, Wyoming. DISSA started with two Wyoming entrepreneurs and a conviction nearly everyone else had written off. My business partner, John Lee, and I met at the University of Wyoming, two Westerners raised with a deep appreciation for this land and the resources it holds, and the belief that we owe it to both to take care of them. In two thousand eighteen, we founded DISSA on a simple conviction, that America can meet its own energy and mineral needs, and does not have to choose between cleaning up its land and putting it back to work. For the first two years, neither of us drew a salary, I served in the US Army National Guard throughout with deployments to Kuwait and Iraq, and we took on a variety of jobs just to keep the business afloat. We kept going because we believed in the mission. Every ton of critical minerals and nuclear fuel we do not produce at home, is a ton we buy from foreign sources, including Russia and China. And changing that is national security. Today, that conviction has earned DISA the backing of some of the most respected names in energy and industry, including Constellation, the largest US nuclear power producer, BHP, the world's largest mining company, as well as Valor Equity Partners, Galvanize, Evoke Innovations, Veriden, and Halliburton Labs. We have raised more than eighty million dollars in private capital, employ over seventy-five people, and hold the first and only US nuclear regulatory commission license ever issued to remediate and recycle abandoned uranium mine waste. Across the West, there are thousands of abandoned uranium mine sites, not mill tailings, but the uranium-bearing waste rock and soil left behind by the federal government's own Cold War weapons programs. Most on federal land, many on tribal land, and nearly all without a responsible party to fund the cleanup. And for the past forty to seventy-five years, these waste rock piles have sat exposed on the surface, posing a hazard to public health and the environment. On the Navajo Nation alone, there are five hundred and twenty-three abandoned uranium mines. An estimated eighty-five percent of homes on the Navajo Nation have been contaminated with uranium. And generations of families have faced elevated risk for cancer and kidney disease. For decades, the only options were to do nothing, cap the material in place, or haul millions of tons of radioactive material away to disposal cells, each slow, costly and leaving both the hazard and the resource behind. We are joined here today by the Navajo Nation EPA Executive Director, Steven Etzede, and the Navajo Nation Washington Office Deputy Director, Duane Crank, partners we have been privileged to work with for the last several years. Working with the Navajo Nation and other partners, this has built a different option. Our technology, high pressure, slurry ablation is a mechanical process that uses water and particle-on-particle collisions to strip uranium, radium, and vanadium off the sand. In EPA's own study on the Navajo Nation, it cut contamination by more than ninety percent, eliminated leachability, and shrank the waste needing disposal by up to eighty-three percent, at sixty to seventy percent less uh cost than hauling and disposing the material. EPA and Idaho National Laboratory validated the technology. And the NRC licensed it just last year after a four-year-long process and a finding of no significant environmental impact. Our crews are trained radiation workers held to the same rigor used as Superfund sites. Protecting the people, land, and water is the foundation of what we do. That same waste also holds the potential to recover hundreds of millions of pounds of domestic uranium. So we can clean up a legacy hazard and, in the same step, recover a critical mineral our country desperately needs for national security and energy production. While the technology is ready, the regulatory framework has not kept pace. Federal law is built to treat and dispose. It does not reward recovering minerals while cleaning up. The bills before you begin to fix that. And we especially support the Legacy Mine Clean-up Act, the CHARM Act, and the MRTI Act. And we don't, and we needn't start from scratch. EPA's Superfund Optimization Program already makes cleanups more effective and cheaper. And it should examine and prioritize proven recovery technologies like DISA's. Four principles matter most. One, recognize, and where appropriate, credit the value of recovered minerals and cleanup decisions. Two, give a technology proven at one site a streamlined path to the next. Three, put one lead federal agency in charge of coordinating, permitting, And four, distinguish legitimate remediation, recovery, and recycling from new mining, so a clean-up is not treated like a new mine. We are not asking you to choose between clean-up and recovery. With the right framework, America can do both. Protect public health, restore the land, and strengthen our mineral supply, all while saving taxpayers' money. Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.

So, I'll now recognize Doctor Don, uh, for your statement.

Chair Palmer, Ranking Member Tonko, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss how we can increase safe domestic critical mineral recovery. My name is Jessica Dunn and I'm a scientist at UCS. I use environmental engineering methods to assess the circularity of critical minerals and conduct research on electric vehicle battery recycling policy. My peer-reviewed research, along with the work of scientists at universities and national labs, have demonstrated that recycled materials could meet up to fifty percent of future demand for lithium cobalt and nickel for electric vehicles in the US by twenty fifty. For that reason, I appreciate the subcommittee's focus on this topic and agree that it is important to assess how a federal policy can help us recover the maximum amount of minerals, from waste, and support our domestic economy. At the same time, it is important to ensure compliance with foundational environmental laws, that are necessary to protect people and the resources we rely on. I urge this committee to consider approaches that build a robust recycling system while upholding critical environmental protections. My work is informed by years of in-depth discussion with industry lawyers and other researchers. These conversations have made clear there are key areas where policy can improve the system without lowering necessary health and safety standards. The CHARM Act, takes a first step at this by coordinating recovery plans across the agencies, but much more can be done. The first issue is addressing uh to address increase increasing battery collection and ensuring they can reach recycling facilities safely. The dispersed nature of battery retirements across the nation leads to many instances where the cost of collection and recycling exceeds uh the revenue from recovery. This lowers battery collection and squeezes the recycling market. In Colorado, this issue was addressed by a recently enacted law requiring the recycling and recovery of battery of critical minerals from batteries in hybrids and electric vehicles. The Colorado legislation allows the collection and recycling market to continue operating but holds the producer responsible for batteries that would typically fall through the cracks. The bill was supported by automakers and other affected stakeholders because they know they can create an efficient and lower cost battery collection network that will increase feedstock to recyclers and increase the critical mineral supply for future manufacturing needs. Additionally, we need to make sure minerals are actually recovered from these batteries when they reach a recycling facility. Currently, minerals are covered at rates below the technologically available level due to low and fluctuating mineral market prices. um, and outdated technology. By setting minimum recovery rates, as done in the European Union and Colorado, more minerals will be recovered and added to US production. This can also be achieved by setting minimum thresholds for recycled content in new products. Lastly, there is a lack of ability to determine the battery's health when it reaches retirement and is removed from a product. This is especially true for electric and, um, hybrid vehicles. This prevents third parties from truly knowing if the battery is damaged or can be sent for repurposing. Requiring the sharing of this information would make shipping safer and the battery end of life more profitable and efficient. Unfortunately, the deregulation approaches in the BRACE Act would make matters worse by introducing dangerous changes to the management of retired batteries. This draft legislation would undermine current laws covering transportation and storage. For example, excluding black mass from being considered solid waste removes the environmental oversight necessary to control heavy metals and other contaminants. Exempting recyclers from the requirement to be fully permitted under RCRA to allow them to store batteries for longer will im- remove important guardrails and mitigate risk. These guardrails include fire and spill controls, storage and disposal standards, air emission standards, and public notice requirements. Enacting policies to increase critical mineral recovery while also upholding key environmental regulations is of national importance. These recovered minerals are a domestic replacement for those that are newly mined and result in significantly less environmental impact. There are valuable steps Congress could take to achieve these goals without the dangerous backsliding in the BRACE Act that creates health and safety risks. Thank you for the opportunity to testify, and I'd be pleased to answer any questions you may have.

Mister Goldberg, you are now recognized.

Chairman Palmer, Ranking Member Tonko, and members of the subcommittee, uh, thank you for this opportunity uh to speak today. My name is Aaron Goldberg. I'm an Environmental Attorney with Beverage and Diamond. I've been working on hazardous waste issues under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act since nineteen eighty. I'm here today in my personal capacity to highlight the need for legislation to promote recovery of critical minerals from the lithium ion batteries used in uh consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and energy storage systems. Uh, the views I expressed today are my own. To start, it's important to note that virtually all the relevant RICA regulations were issued in the nineteen eighties and nineteen nineties before lithium ion batteries were widely used. The rules contain numerous provisions designed to facilitate recycling of other types of batteries such as lead acid and nickel cadmium however the rules are essentially silent on lithium ion batteries as a result, they create obstacles that were never intended and that frustrate national goals. The fundamental problem is that the RICRA rules generally classify lithium ion batteries and related materials as wastes, rather than the valuable resources that they are. That in turn results in a cascade of other problems. I'll highlight three examples. First, the rules compel battery recyclers to store uh store the bar- the batteries offsite prior to processing. That serves no environmental purpose, it merely adds costs, complicates logistics, and increases transport and handling risks. Second, the rules classify critical mineral-rich black mass from shredding lithium-ion batteries as solid waste, even though lower-value shredded circuit boards are generally viewed as non-waste. That makes recovery, domestic recovery, harder, and it puts the U. S. at a disadvantage to countries like China, which generally views black mass as a valuable commodity. Third, the rules restrict land disposal of non- hazardous residues from recycling lithium ion batteries, even though similar residues from recycling other batteries are not subject to the same type of restrictions. That imposes extra burdens without a corresponding environmental benefit. EPA has announced its intent to revise some of the RICA rules for lithium ion uh batteries But the focus appears to be more on uh on more stringent standards to address fire risks, not any of the issues that I've mentioned. Fire risks are real, but they are already addressed through fire codes, DOT transportation rules, and other targeted requirements. Moreover, EPA's authority to add new requer standards to address these uh risks is uncertain under the nineteen ninety-six Rechargeable Battery Management Act. And even if EPA does act, a rulemaking would likely take years and would have to be followed by state adoption that could take several more years and might never be complete. For these for these reasons, congressional action is important. I appreciate the subcommittee's work on the on the draft BRACE Act. Uh, the bill is a useful start, but it needs important revisions. First, It addresses only the rule that pushes uh recyclers to store batteries offsite, and it does so in a way that paradoxically could leave on-site storage less regulated than offsite storage. Second, it does not address other barriers that I've discussed, including the regulation of black mass and non- hazardous recycling residues. Third, it would give EPA broad authority to issue new standards without requiring the agency to account for existing safety standards or the national goals for recovery of critical minerals. There are simple common sense solutions. For example, recyclers could be allowed to store batteries on-site as long as they comply with the same requirements that they are currently subject to at their separate facilities. Black mass, like other partially reclaimed materials that are commodity-like, could be reclassified as non-waste. And non- hazardous residues from recycling lithium-ion batteries, like those from other types of batteries, could be deemed to be sufficiently treated to allow land disposal. I urge Congress to enact these and related changes nationwide to help support the domestic supply chain for critical minerals, while continuing to protect human health and the environment. Thank you for considering my testimony. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Well, thank you all for your testimony. We will now move to the question and answer portion of the hearing. And the chair now recognizes gentleman from Ohio, Mister Latta, for five minutes for his questions.

Well, thank you very much, Mister Chairman, for today's hearing and thanks to our witnesses for appearing today. Mister Buckingham, you noted in your written testimony there's a lack of incentives for recovery of valuable uh materials during the remediation of contaminated sites and i've been to several contaminated sites and usually what you see is they come in they move all the dirt out it's you know taken to some other hazardous waste area and it might be put into a pit or some kind of aligned area and uh forgotten for uh forgotten forever then on that end but how should the epa address and incentivize some kind of a process that we can go in and make sure the recovering these really critical minerals that's in that soil.

Thank you, representative, for the question. Uh, the US EPA, for the purposes of uranium, estimates there's about fifteen thousand sites associated with abandoned uranium mine waste. Those sites have largely just been sitting on the surface, uh, for decades and without any meaningful, um, incentives to remediate those sites cuz it's too costly. Um, you know, on average the US EPA estimates there's about three billion tons of overburden material that's been sitting on the surface. Uh, and so when the EPA approaches these different types of cleanups, uh, specifically on the Navajo Nation, uh, they have to formulate what's called an Engineering Evaluation Cost Analysis Report. And they let list out the various options and how to, uh, address the clean up of - of that particular site. And almost always option one, which sounds silly, is do nothing, uh, because it's too expensive. Um, you know, the - the predominant option historically has been to bury the material on site, which takes no benefit of the resource and keeps those contaminants at that site and those caps, you know, over time do erode and that material can still leach, uh, into the water and pose an environmental hazard. And so, you know, a technology like ours where we can come in, we can treat that material, uh, we effectively recover over ninety percent of the uranium and vanadium into just twenty percent of the original, uh, mass. So we upgrade it to where, you know, in some cases it's economic to take that material and recycle it and put it to productive use convert it to U three O eight and enter the new. But when the US EPA did the treatability study, um, based on the current regulatory framework, you know, they just looked at us compared to hauling offsite, which we were still sixty to seventy percent more economic and then capping that material in place. But there was no consideration given to the value of those minerals. And so the economics are a major driver in determining which options to pursue. And so if the US EPA had that framework, uh, where they were able to value the minerals that could be recovered, uh that would drastically change the economics um in how they approach cleanup decisions

let me ask let me follow up with that because again one of the great things about serving on this committee you know we're looking out over this dais to a lot so many innovators and entrepreneurs that come in here with so many great ideas and one what you brought up again is on the regulatory side and so if we just put in the regulation our you know i think you you touched on this it's on the economics issue but what are they talking to the folks out there that are coming up with the new process of the new ideas say hey we can do this or is it just always kinda like no it's much much easier just say that um we're gonna bury it

yes and it's been a long journey of perseverance on our end you know especially overcoming the you know valley of death as what they call you know a lot of uh technologies when you're trying to commercialize that um and you know we're we're extremely grateful and i think you know the amartya act uh you know strongly helps advance this um for example but we did our treatability study on the navajo nation in twenty twenty two uh you know they looked at how effective economic um and could we uh use the technology in a wide variety of sites and we answered yes to all of those questions but you know with the current regulatory framework it just kinda gets put on a shelf um and you know fortunately with uh because there there wasn't a funding mechanism to take it to the next step And you know fortunately with the leadership of the Navajo Nation, um you know they said we wanna see this verified at commercial scale. You did a great job on the pilot uh scale, but we wanna see this commercially validated. Um but there were appropriate mechanisms, you know within the EPA regulatory framework to do that. So the Navajo Nation using its own funds is um is funding a a phase two verification study where we'll be doing uh the first deployment of our technology for a clean up this year uh on the Navajo Nation. And so you know but it it does come down to economics uh you know to to your point representative and you know given the the current you know regulatory framework that does not incentivize the value of recovered minerals it's extremely difficult uh for new innovative technologies uh to even come on board to validate to validate to reiterate the technology and prove that at commercial scale and so you know with those incentives aligned i do believe that it will encourage uh a much more significant amount of innovation to take place in this space and i love the the title of this um, hearing from trash to treasure, I mean that's that's been our slogan, you know, converting liabilities into assets, uh, since we founded the company. And and I do believe there's massive opportunities, uh, that are sitting in these waste piles.

Well, well thank you very much, and my time has expired and Mr. Chairman I'll, uh, submit my other questions to the witnesses in writing. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Gentlemen yield, this chair now recognizes the ranking member, uh, Mr. Tonko from New York, for five minutes for his questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I reiterate that I am open to examining potential barriers that are hindering the responsible recovery of critical minerals. Uh, but I also believe we would benefit from an overarching end of life management program to require the collection assessing and recycling of large formal batteries so Doctor Dunn what do you think uh we can take as a next step to really improve the circularity of our critical mineral supply chains and are there state level policies that Congress can learn

Thank you, Mister Tonko. Um, that is a great question. Yes, there are um, extended producer responsibility, as I mentioned before, is a program that really requires the recycling of these products by the producer, so ensuring that they make it to the recycling facility no matter the cost. In addition, the um ensuring that the minerals are actually recovered once they get to that facility is essential for building up our domestic um feedstock of critical minerals. There are also additional measures that can be taken, such as recycled content standards, so requiring the the um the production of batteries using uh recovered materials, and therefore kind of in uh building up that end of life market. In addition, um there is labelling standards, which really help uh increase the efficiency of the end of life market, so by telling the recyclers actually what is in that battery and those minerals and that worth. These are all policies that were enacted in Colorado uh this year, and um they are also policies uh that are in the European Union since twenty twenty three.

Thank you, and why is this trend toward uh state level extended producer responsibility uh as a program so promising?

This is extremely promising because um it is a answering a question that a lot of people have of what are we going um to to do with these big batteries, and how can we get the the um minerals out of them. It's something that is supported by industry within the market, not only environmental orgs. Um so the dismantlers, the folks that are taking the the batteries out of the cars and realize that they need help, along with the automakers who recognize that um it is in their best interest to recycle the batteries because this will create a um, more resilient, low impact in domestic supply. Um.

OK. Uh, if there are requirements that battery producers support the recycling of their products, might that result in batteries uh becoming designed and manufactured to be more recyclable?

Yes, that is an extremely good point. Um, holding the producer responsible for recycling ensures that they are uh incorporating the cost of recycling, so that means the disassembly, um, the shredding, the black mass processing into the design of their batteries. This, uh, is important because the dismantling of the batteries is costly. All of the batteries from different, um, cars to different manufacturers are designed differently, and that means that they have to take the batteries apart manually. Uh, this is an extensive and, uh, you know, very, um, uh, risky situation. And if it is designed to be disassembled and to be recycled, it will increase the efficiency and decrease the cost.

Thank you. And uh, Mister Kloneski, how might a national product stewardship program uh that requires producers to be responsible for end of life management and ensures the safe recycling, repurposing, or disposal of large formal batteries be beneficial to our shared goals of promoting critical mineral recovery?

Thank you, Representative Taka. Yeah, that's that's the overarching goal, right, is is we have these programs so we keep the critical minerals in the United States, and the extended producer responsibility programs enable that. They enable the collection of batteries. They they enable that there's a certain uh supply chain that's set up to ensure that those batteries when they reach end of life do do get recovered. And I think that helps recyclers, that helps the industry, uh it also creates a framework where we know where these batteries are gonna end up. They're not gonna be uh ending up back in China, for example, so I think one of the the important things is just working with the the states, every state is kind of proposing different rules, but working with the states to ensure there's some consistency and how these rules are are enforced as well as the fact that the entire supply chain needs to needs to be profitable when they do these things, right? Miss Miss Dunn mentioned a few things about the economics, I think that's important as well with these with these programs that they're the they are set up to ensure that not one part of the supply chain actually profits from everything and the other part other parts of the supply chain aren't able to to build a business beyond that, but I think it definitely in the end of the day, it reaches the overarching goal, which is keep the minerals here in the United States.

Well, thank you very much. I uh have exhausted my time, but I had another question that I'll get to the committee, but uh again I thank the panel for their attendance today. Thank you.

Chairman yields back. Chairman, I recognize the chairman of the public committee, Mister Guthrie, for his five minutes.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, for the recognition. I appreciate you all being here and I said this is critically important, and it absolutely makes sense that we can take uh products that are gonna be discarded and reclaim them and put them back in the stream of commerce instead of putting them in the earth to be buried for some future generations to discover. We need to use them now. Um, so I'm gonna ask Mr. Goldberg a series of questions and then uh, Mr. Kulinski after I get through if you'll comment on some of the comments, I'd I'd appreciate it. Uh, so, Mr. Goldberg, in your written testimony, you note that the current RCRA regulations make domestic recovery of valuable materials from lithium on our batteries more difficult and puts US at a disadvantage to countries like China where the black mass the results from shredding lithium iron or batteries is treated as a valuable commodity. So my question is how does EPA go about deciding which materials should be considered solid waste and therefore potentially hazardous waste and which should be exempted or excluded from definition of solid waste by its regulations? Did you get all that?

Uh, I believe so.

Okay.

Thank you very much uh for the question. Um,

And then could increased coordination uh,

the

communication between EPA and federal agencies help deal with this? Uh, that's see if you can't fill that in as well. Okay.

Okay.

There you go.

All right. Um, EPA's definition of solid waste is very complicated. Uh, it's um, it's based uh largely on the nature of the material that that's being processed as well as the um, uh, the manner in which it's going to be, uh, uh, managed, in, in this case recycled. And, uh, with black mass in particular, since you were a- you were asking about that, um, generally, uh, if it's black mass from a used, uh, product it would be viewed as a spent material, uh, that is partially reclaimed. This is under EPA's regulations. And, uh, therefore it would still be viewed as a waste, uh, by EPA. Uh, it would also then p- potentially be hazardous uh depending upon the composition of the black mass. Um and um you know I

So it communicates between the with the EPA if they communicate it with other agencies, would that be helpful in trying to get to the bottom line of this or is that

I I I think I think that that might might be helpful. Uh you mentioned in particular China. China takes the position that black mass is not a solid waste if it meets certain standards,

Mm-hmm.

uh and that creates a uh as I indicated a disadvantage to the US. because uh th- you know because they're viewing it as a non-waste that they can take in freely, uh whereas in the US it would be uh

So so how could a a regulatory approach that treats black mass recovered from lithium owner batteries as a valuable commodity, encourage the growth of domestic battery recycling?

If black mass is viewed as a non-waste, then it can move uh without uh all the restrictions of the regular regulations uh it can also be then be processed without uh uh, compliance with those regulations, they would still be subject to other regulatory regimes, like the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. Uh, but uh, the the the stringent hazardous waste rules would not apply, um, you know, as would be the case, uh, you know, for for other uh kinds of uh of of materials.

So, mister Kalineski, if we treated um the Black Master cover from lithium-ion batteries as a valuable commodity, well, how does that encourage the growth or any other comments of of you'd like to like on this subject?

Yeah. Yeah, no, appreciate, thank you, Representative, for the the question.

Yeah.

I, you know, I think when you look at black mass as a waste, I mentioned in my testimony, it, you know, waste, when you're classifying something as waste, it has waste economics as well that come along with it. And that there there are certain burdens and restrictions that that that carry that definition. If you classify it as a product, which it is an intermediate product, it contains valuable critical minerals, that attracts different investment, it's a it's a material that can be used further downstream in the in the entire process of the supply chain. So There's other industries that have intermediates that aren't aren't called waste as well when you're when you're recycling plastics or other types of devices as well. Uh, they're not considered as a as a solid waste or considered as an intermediate product, which is what Blackmass is.

Okay, thanks. I'll summarize, switch a little bit to Mister Buckingham. So what type of uh contaminated sites are good candidates for recovery of critical members? And when EPA identifies contaminated sites for remediation, how does it coordinate with other local other other federal agencies?

Yes, thank you, uh Chairman Guthrie. Uh, we're primarily focused on abandoned uranium mine waste, uh, where, you know, you'll typically find large amounts of uranium and vanadium and radium, uh, located in those sites. But in addition, the technology can also be used for tailings recovery. So we've got, uh, strong partnerships with a group called Element, uh, USA, as well as Regeneration that are focused on reprocessing tailings. Um, so looking at copper, uh, gold, um, primarily in those applications. Uh, with respect to the abandoned uranium mine situation, Um, it is, there are a lot of agencies that we have to deal with. You know.

Is the, uh, I only have a few, is the process sufficient now or do we need to update the process between inter-agencies?

Uh, we would, for su- Superfund sites and EPA-led, we would, uh, you know, I think the Legacy Mine Cleanup Act does, is a very strong step in, um, in helping a lead agency with the office of mountains, plains, and deserts, uh, streamline coordination.

Thank you. Well, my time has expired, then I will yield back what I don't, time I don't have.

Uh, thank you for the time you don't have, Mister Chairman. The the gentleman now uh from New Jersey to recognize for five minutes.

Thank you, Mister Chairman. I wanna focus on the proposals we can work together on to ensure that we create a sustainable, reliable and domestic supply of critical minerals, but while at the same time maintaining critical environmental standards. So, along those lines, the BRACE Act tackles battery recycling and offers a critical opportunity to reclaim critical minerals, from discarded lithium ion batteries. And so, Doctor Dunn, my question, I have two questions, this is the first one, they're both of you. Uh, would you please uh pre briefly explain how we currently recycle critical mineral resources found in batteries, despite them being considered solid waste?

Yes, thank you for the question. Uh, currently batteries are first uh taken out of the product they're already in, so if it's an EV uh dismantled. uh from that EV um shipped to a recycler. At that point it's further broken down to um from the pack to the modular cell level. And then it is shredded or crushed. Um that is a a very uh harsh process, it's exactly what you think, breaking that battery up into tiny pieces. Um at that, I mean there's very, you can do that uh in in inert environment, you can do it in um uh salt water essentially. Uh, from there, the black mass is, um, attempted to be separated from the rest of the battery. This can be, uh, through sifting or, um, magnets. And then at that point, um, that material is sometimes, um, uh, heated. Uh, not always, then it goes to a hydrometallurgy facility, where the constituent materials are removed.

Alright, I appreciate it. And of course, My view is that we don't need to exempt the so-called black mass from from solid waste protections to recycle batteries because as you say there are already examples of recyclers managing the solid waste designation appropriately while successfully moving forward with recycling batteries so um I think it's clear that battery recyclers are already doing this work without a without that the need for that exemption. But moving on to safety, my second question is the EPA started a rule making process to establish universal waste standards, specifically tailored to lithium ion batteries to address potential fire risk. And EPA made this announcement in response to a twenty twenty-one report on lithium ion battery fires in the waste management process. Yet some suggest that an updated standard to address a fire and other safety risks associated with lithium ion batteries uh is not warranted. I I think that we do need an updated uh um standards. So, Doctor Dunn, the BRACE Act also directs EPA to revise its universal waste regulations to establish standards for lithium ion batteries could you please explain why it's essential for EPA's rulemaking to reduce fire risk and improve other safety standards associated with the end of life treatment of lithium ion batteries if you would.

Yes, thank you for the question. I agree that it's essential to consider fire when uh fire risk when we are handling these batteries. Um, one uh battery that has a thermal runaway, so it heats up and creates a fire, um can, you know, when these are being shipped, eh there are a lot of batteries on the truck, and the fire in one will spread to the other fires, uh to the other batteries, um and that is, that is a huge risk and something that can be mitigated and should be mitigated, um and is essential to address in any kind of um transportation standard. Additionally, um there's fire risk with black mass if there's lithium or um or uh battery fragments in that. Um so ensuring that fire uh risk is included in the transporting, handling, storing of these batteries is essential.

Well I appreciate it. And again I think that the uh these batteries or lithium ion batteries that are handled or transported or disposed of improperly can pose significant safety risks. So that's why I think it's vital for any updated universal way standard to adequately address these risks because battery safety is integral to whatever safe and sustainable recycling of these critical minerals that we seek. So thank you again and uh, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

Chairman yields back and the Chairman recognizes himself for five minutes. Mister Buck, Mister Buckham, I'm gonna come to you. Thanks for being here today, by the way. Uh, your testimony briefly touched on the geopolitical landscape and the favorable advantage China currently has in the global production and refining of critical minerals. While I'm encouraged by the ongoing conversations and the efforts of the Department of Energy and the H EPA and the Environmental Protection uh agency, rather, to reduce our reliance on critical minerals from foreign countries, can you speak to how Environmental Monitoring and Remediation Technology Assessment Initiative have amortized so to speak. The program would allow us to

Yes, thank you, Representative Vint. Uh, I think MRTI is a a great first step in incentivizing um how to recover these critical minerals um you know and turn that trash into treasure Idaho National Labs put out an amazing report a few months ago uh discussing the untapped resource we have tailings facilities and you know speaking to our own um personal experience you know the state of wyoming had an investment through the wyoming energy authority for and a half million dollars that brought in fifty five million dollars in private capital within six months so it's a signal uh to the private sector as well um you know these types of policies that this is a major focus um of the us government and that there is uh potential in recovering significant minerals you know when we started the company in in two thousand eighteen no one

So you saw an opportunity. that was gonna be good for the country and you jumped on it.

Yes, we did. You know, we're passionate about restoring lands and recovering critical minerals. We have seventy-five employees, we have thirty job openings right now, and every single day those employees come to work passionate about restoring our lands and recovering critical minerals for national security.

Alright, well thank you for that. Mister Goldberg, I'm gonna come to you. Your testimony demonstrates the importance of creating uniformity and regulating the collection and recycling of lithium ion batteries. However, you briefly touched on a potential problematic a proposed a proposed EPA rule that seeks to address the fire risk of these batteries. Can you describe what legitimate oversight the EPA has on addressing fire risks with respect to the transportation and collection of those batteries?

Uh, uh, thank you for your question. Um, EPA uh has uh legitimate authority over uh fire risks. Uh, on the other hand, uh, there are a l- a large number of other regulatory regimes that already address fire risks. And, uh, I question, uh, uh, whether EPA re- there's really a need for further EPA action here. Uh, there are currently fire codes, uh, uh, that address these that are, uh, developed through the, uh, National Fire Protection Association. Uh, there's DOT transportation rules and a number of other, uh, rules under, uh, other, uh, programs as well. I also have some concern that uh if EPA uh the you know the the uh EPA rules here may not be desirable for certain reasons. For example, if you have a uh a facility that is taking in batteries, both lithium ion batteries and other types of batteries, are they now going to have to s to to comply with two separate standards? Um also there's development of uh uh of solid state lithium ion batteries that do not pose fire risks. So if we have rules that are specific to lithium ion batteries in general, are the the the non- you know, the the the batteries, the solid state batteries that don't pose fire risks, are those also going to be subject to the same standards? So I think there are a lot of issues that I think that it uh, if EPA were to do anything in this ca- in this area, they need to uh, you know, make sure that they're taking to account the existing rules that apply to fire risks. Uh, they'd uh, they take into account new developments of new new battery chemistries. And they also take into account the uh uh the national goals of recovering of uh of of the critical minerals from the lithium ion batteries.

Well, you're reading my mind, my next question was gonna be, you know, how would that a proposed rule mess up the entire facility and how would we work through that? I think you just outlined that. Thank you for your answer. I appreciate it. Chair is gonna now recognize the gentleman from Massachusetts for five minutes. Or is it the doctor from California? All right, I thought you were from Massachusetts, doctor. Chairman's, the gentleman's recognized.

You should know better. That's great. You know that. That's great, man. You know that. Uh, thank you, Mister Chairman. Uh, as a physician who has cared for patients across the Coachella Valley, uh, for decades, I've seen firsthand how environmental conditions affect the health and quality of life of the communities that I serve, and why economic opportunity and public health must go hand in hand. Uh, my district is home to Lithium Valley and located in the Salton Sea region, it sits atop one of the largest known lithium deposits in the world. I can see many of you have heard of it already. I have said many times in this room, including at our last hearing on critical mineral supply chains, that we have an extraordinary opportunity right under our feet. The brine beneath the Salton Sea alone, the Salton Sea region, uh could help strengthen our national security, anchor a domestic battery supply chain, and create good paying jobs in the region that has waited generations for economic investment and opportunities. But I've also said that every single time that this opportunity cannot come at the expense of the people who already live there. My district has some of the worst air quality in the whole country. Community surrounding the Salton Sea continues to face significant public health challenges including elevated rates of asthma and respiratory illnesses children in North Shore for example and across Imperial County are seeing emergency room visits for asthma nosebleeds at rates that should alarm all of us that is why when we talk about unleashing domestic critical mineral productions I want us to be honest that energy security and environmental and public health protections are not competing goals. In fact, I would argue they are inseparable. If we fail to protect the health of the communities hosting these projects, then we have not truly achieved energy security. We have simply shifted the cost onto the people least equipped to bear them. Doctor Dunn, would you agree that critical mineral development projects should leave host communities better off than they were before the projects arrived?

yes sir i agree uh we need to consider both um the public impacts to health and our environment as well as the the recovery of these minerals

do you also agree that they're not competing interests that we can actually create a win-win solution where we have energy development renewable critical mineral mineral development uh while at the same time, protecting and advancing the public's health

I do. There are routes of um complying with the regulation and protecting the environment and also boosting the recycling system in the US.

Thank you. And how can Congress ensure that efforts to streamline development do not come at the expense of transparency, accountability, accountability, or public health protections?

Upholding these bedrock environmental policies and regulations that we already have is is critical.

So no fast tracking uh, NEPA, or in California, CEQUA, or or taking shortcuts that, uh, that allow for some of the, uh, uh, um, contaminations to occur. OK?

No, sir. Yeah.

Uh, and would you agree that one of the greatest opportunities for domestic critical mineral development is demonstrating that economic growth and environmental stewardship can coexist?

Yes, and I I think the policies that we've enacted in Colorado recently with EPR and recovery rates show that we can do both hand in hand while complying with regulations.

OK. I mean, I wanna make it very clear that we need our critical minerals, and we need to have a domestic supply chain of critical minerals. I am a big proponent of making sure that the lithium value uh uh h gives America the boost its need for our national security, to lower costs on technology, to create and manufacture the batteries that we need. We absolutely need it and the people in my district need the job opportunities. Uh, and we can do both. We can invest in a community, we can protect their public health, and we can create a full regional supply chain manufacturing and recycling. You mentioned recycling, uh, Doctor Dunn, as a way to be good environmental i agree with that we don't have a robust battery manufacturing uh industry uh in our nation but oftentimes in history the batteries are discarded near poor communities we have environmental injustices happening like that where companies will take advantage of marginal poor communities that has happened in our nation and in my district multiple times tell me how that is uh a priority

Yes, it is essential that the recycling of these batteries doesn't lead to increased public harms and that's something we've seen in environmental justice committees, uh specifically in California with lead acid batteries.

Thank you, I yield back my time.

Gentleman yields, chair now recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Doctor Joyce, five minutes for his questions.

Thank you, Chairman Palmer, and thank you for holding this important hearing and for our panel for being with us this morning to testify. The legislation under consideration today represents another step forward in this committee's ongoing efforts to improve America's domestic critical mineral supply chain. While we work to onshore and scale up domestic mining and processing of these materials legislation like this will help in our efforts to recover the materials that would otherwise be discarded. With the equipment used for advanced manufacturing and precision agriculture, both very important in Pennsylvania's thirteenth congressional district, we will continue to see more waste generated that contains valuable critical materials. We need to develop both a strategy and the capacity to recover these materials rather than sending the waste for processing to China who continues to dominate the supply chain. This is an economic and a national security imperative. We cannot afford to allow China to dictate the future of the global economy. These bills will improve our ability to recover our own critical materials and to help America back in control of these essential supply chains. Mister Buckingham, how will treating certain supply waste as an opportunity for recovering value rather than simple material to be remediated and disposed of, how will that help to strengthen our critical mineral supply?

Thank you, Representative, for the question. I think, you know, and that's what guides us here at DSA, I think we can make a tremendous impact in strengthening our critical mineral supply chains by recovering minerals from these waste streams. And and that's what guides us, you know, looking at uranium, for example, we import ninety-seven percent of our uranium. We have an abundant an untapped resource sitting in these legacy sites that we can

In follow-up, Mister Buckingham, would you agree that directing EPA to develop critical national mineral recovery strategy and coordinate federal efforts, as outlined in the Charm Act draft, will help identify regulations that might need to be revised in order to allow and incentivize critical mineral recovery.

Yes, Representative, I think that is imperative.

Thank you. Mister Kalnecke, in your testimony you mentioned that the path of least resistance is to send waste abroad for processing. Rather than to attempt to navigate the regulatory framework right here in the United States, how does this reality impact domestic processors?

Yeah, I mean, that's why I mentioned some of the regulations create challenges for for local producers domestic producers, because the the domestic or sorry, the foreign producers don't have those rules. They don't have record regulations. They don't have the

So it's not a level playing field, is what you're telling us.

It's exactly one hundred percent.

How will the BRACE Act improve your ability to receive, to store and process lithium ion batteries. And how will that in turn incentivize keeping the recovered critical minerals within our domestic supply chain?

It'll provide clarity on what those rules and regulations are, and then provide enforcement of those rules. I think that's the biggest thing is to level the playing field and ensure that the regulations that we all kind of operate under today. We have a Record Part B permit in our site and we operate under that permit, but everybody else doesn't, and and this will help people enforce the rules that are our local.

Will that clarity allow you to increase production, which you and I know is so important?

Absolutely. Absolutely. That clarity allows us to get investment to be able to do that.

The legislation that's under consideration today represents how seriously this committee is working toward the goal of a more robust domestic critical material supply and for both the state of our economic and our national security, as I stated earlier, I look forward to continue to work with this committee to move these bills forward. Thank you, Mister Chairman, and I yield the remaining time back to the committee. Thank you.

Gentleman yields. Chair now recognize the gentleman from California, Mister Peters, for five minutes for his questions.

Thank you, Mister Chairman. Uh, thanks to the witnesses. We do need to shore up our critical r- uh uh supply uh mineral supply chains. Uh, America faces mounting pressure to modernize our grid, to compete with China in AI, biotech and manufacturing. And barriers like our outdated permit system, uncertain tariff policies and stagnating s- scientific research are holding us back. At first we need to pass meaningful permit reform to make it easier and faster to source raw materials and recycled inputs. I also want to mention to the chairman, this has been a concern of Chairman Palmer's, uh he has proposed some clean air amendment uh, clean air amendments uh for permitting reform. Uh, as I promised him, we've spoken to the industry. I think we have language that industry to be satisfied with and that democrats could support. Uh, Chairman Guthrie also urged me to do that and look forward to working on, continue to work on that. I didn't want to let that go by, uh, since we're here talking about critical critical minerals. Uh, second, we need to be more thoughtful with our tariff policy. We can shore up domestic supply chains, but the US doesn't have access to all the minerals we need. And in those cases, we should be smart about working with our global allies, rather than imposing broad sweeping tariffs that ultimately raise uh prices for consumers and create bad blood. Third, we should be fostering innovation where permitting, reform and friendshoring still leaves gaps in our supply chain, we need to turn to novel solutions to fill the void. And recent innovation should change how we view critical mineral supply chains, and as we as we've heard this morning, there are companies that can pull critical minerals from the tailing piles and ponds left behind at former industrial and mine sites and turn wasted, sometimes hazardous, materials into valuable products. We should be proactive and we should incentivize the development of innovations like these. Meanwhile, we're still devote uh debating funding cuts that would be harder make it harder to develop the solutions we n we have been discussing. This week we will consider the energy and water appropriations bill for the twenty twenty-seven fiscal year. The bill proposes a forty percent cut to the Department of Energy's Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation program. That goes beyond all the cuts we've seen at the N National Science Foundation. And this basic scientific research is fundamental to developing innovative solutions to problems like the supply chain issues we currently face. Mister Buckingham, your company is the first of its kind to get a license to remove and recover uranium and other critical minerals from mining waste can you talk about how investments in technological innovations like yours can help us get the edge in our fight for critical minerals access?

Yes, thank you for the question, representative, and you know, it was uh, you know, quite the journey with the NRC cuz we were being regulated under the nineteen four atomic energy act and they didn't foresee a technology coming like ours. And so, you know, that took a lot of education. Um, Senator Lummis and Senator Kelly were were paramount in helping, uh, the advocacy for, um, you know, the commission addressing this issue, which ultimately resulted in a unanimous vote from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Um, and so, you know, once we received that license, uh, officially in September of last year, um, we were excited to get to work. Um, but you know, when you look at, uh, these abandoned uranium mine sites, seventy-five percent are on federal and public land. And so, you know, the the regulatory framework hasn't caught up with innovations like ours. And so, you know, for example, we're um we've submitted license applications to remediate a site in western Colorado. Well, we had to go do our premobilization notification with the NRC, which is a ninety day process. Then we have to do a plan of operations with the BLM uh, since because we're recovering the critical minerals, it triggers eighteen seventy-two mining loss. We're effectively being treated as a new mine. And then we also have to work with the state um DRMS in in Colorado for um a mine reclamation permit. And so there's a lot of redundancy. And in our NRC uh, you know, the environmental assessment that was conducted, there was a finding of no significant impact. In fact, the NRC said, we only make the environment better, but we're still having to, you know um, you know, and the staff have been amazing to work with in these different agencies, but the the framework doesn't allow that. But even after getting our NRC license, you know, that was a huge, you know, we saw a lot of private investment that we were able to attract. Um, cuz, you know, we were showing the ability that we are able to economically and sustainably recover these critical minerals.

In the bills we're sort of talking about today, are there particular uh provisions that you especially care about uh us passing?

For uh the the CHARM Act, the Legacy Mine Cleanup Act, and MRTI representative are are the bills that we strongly support and that we believe, you know, for our particular purposes will help uh unlock additional innovation and private sector investment in this space.

Is there anything that you wanna tell us is is undone by without if we pass these bills?

I I think they are all very strong steps. I think hearings like this are are a great discussion to, you know, there's there's much more to be done, but I I we believe they're very strong steps in the right direction.

Right, I think we all wanna develop policies that will encourage that kind of thing, and I hope we hope we can. It seems like a very constructive step forward. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.

Gentlemen, you know, this chair now recognizes the gentlelady from Iowa, Doctor Miller Meeks, for five minutes for her questions.

Uh, thank you so much, Chair Palmer and Ranking Member Tonko for holding this important legislative hearing. Today's hearing is about something deceptively simple. We have the material, we have the technology, we have the need, and yet we are still shipping critical minerals overseas to be processed and sold back to us. The United States built a recycling system around one question, how do we safely dispose of this? That was the right question for its time, It's the wrong question for this moment. The materials flowing through our waste uh streams today are the same materials our defense sector, our grid, and our manufacturing base depend on. This is a question of energy security and industrial competitiveness. The market is already trying to solve this problem. Commercial actors are s uh structuring contracts to recover and reuse these materials domestically. I passed a bill that allows the Ames lab to be able to do that with hard drives from the DOD. Companies are investing in new technologies to unlock value from existing waste streams and building the processing facilities we need to keep that value here at home. But our permitting system was designed for a different error, one where speed and efficiency were not strategic imperatives. Every month of delay is a month China is pulling further ahead. Mister Goldberg, we currently have a regulatory system designed, as I said, around the system of how do we safely dispose of this. The market is increasingly

Uh, thank you for your question. Um I think that a large part of the problem here is that the rules were developed back in the nineteen eighties and nineteen nineties before lithium ion batteries really existed and um as a result of that uh the uh the existing regulations And and mind you, um, for other types of batteries, uh, there are many different provisions that are specific to other kinds of batteries, uh, so it's to facilitate processing of those.

Yes.

But lithium ion batteries didn't exist back when the rules, uh, were were written and and they definitely need updating.

Thank you. Mister Buckingham, the United States has some of the most advanced materials processing research in the world. In Iowa, the Ames National Laboratory has done groundbreaking work on critical mineral separation and processing. But there's a persistent and frustrating gap between what we can demonstrate at the bench scale and what actually gets built at commercial scale here at home. What's sitting in that gap? Is it capital? Is it our regulatory system? Or is it something more fundamental about how we translate American innovation into American American industrial competitiveness?

Thank you, Representative, and and the the responses, all the above. the biggest enemy for an entrepreneur and innovator is time. And if you have to go through significantly redundant permitting hurdles, that time kills you. And the capital, typically with these venture, um, you know, funds are are backing new innovations, you've got two years of runway to get to the next milestone. And so if you're being slowed down by different permits, it's gonna be very hard to attract that capital and overcome that valley of death.

Would you say, uh, given, uh, your answer to the last question from Representative Peters about the numbers of, um, agencies that you had to go through having them done concurrently or rather than sequentially would certainly reduce that time and also reduce the amount of capital.

Streamlining would be huge. When we go clean up a site, you know, we're dealing with at least three different agencies and it's pretty much the same information for each one.

Uh thank you. Mister Goldberg, aluminum is uh one of the only materials designated as a critical uh across every federal agency and recycled aluminum already makes up roughly eighty-five percent of US production, but recovery for aluminum packaging remain well below their potential, representing an estimated one to two billion dollar annual loss to the economy. Part of that is collection, which my Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act aims to address, but part of it is that our material sorting technology has fallen far behind China and Europe. The material we do collect ends up being shipped overseas for processing. How might the CHARM Act and similar efforts incentivize the sorting and processing technology upgrades we need to actually capture the value of what we're collecting.

Uh, thank you again for your question. Um, I personally don't work a lot on uh aluminum issues, uh but uh at the same time I think that the CHARM Act in general uh provides a great framework for coordination of uh of agencies to address the recovery of uh of all types of uh critical minerals from uh from materials that uh that are uh currently viewed as waste.

Uh, thank you very much. I have two questions also.

The gentlelady yells, the chair now recognizes gentlelady from California, Miss Baragon, for five minutes for her questions.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Critical minerals are essential to our economy, our energy system, and many of the products Americans use every day. As we look for ways to strengthen domestic supply chains and recover more of these materials here at home, we also have a responsibility to ensure that recycling and recovery efforts are done safely and deliver real to workers and communities. So I look forward to hearing from the witnesses how we can advance both of these goals. Mister Buckingham, I um wanna start with you. Some of the bills before us, particulat- particularly the Legacy Mine Clean-up Act and EMERTI would support recovering critical minerals from contaminated sites and mining waste. What safeguards or accountability measures should Congress consider to ensure that these projects also deliver meaningful c- cleanup benefits to communities?

Yes, thank you, Representative, for the question. And, you know, I I would add for those bills, none of none of those bills change the cleanup standards or or the safety um precautions that must be taken for us when we approach these abandoned uranium mine sites. We have radiation safety officers, the system radiation safety officers, um there's a significant amount of sampling and containment that go into this, and we use, you know, the most rigorous standards both at our NRC licensed sites as well as our Superfund sites. uh to ensure that um we are meeting uh those safety standards as well as those clean up standards in those activities.

Great. Um, Mister Klaneke, the average person buying a car, a phone, or a computer, why should they care about battery recycling?

Well, they have a lot of value in the batteries that they carry. There's a lot of critical minerals now that are important for the the production of a new battery. And if we can recover those things, then at the end of the day, if you create a close-looped uh supply chain for these minerals, it will lower the cost of those devices. Right? If we don't have to source things from Australia or from maybe China or Africa or other place like that, it's gonna lower the cost to the consumer for these devices, whether it's a vehicle, a phone, whatever it might be.

So if a consumer has a phone and they do the recycling properly, prices down the line will go lower for them.

Absolutely.

And if they don't, they're gonna continue to go up.

They're gonna continue to go up because we're gonna depend on foreign sources for those materials to make those batteries.

Great, thank you. Mister Dunn, the BRACE Act is intended to make it

Yes, thank you for the for the question. Um, we must uphold these bedrock policies that we already have because there is a risk of h- to human health from the transportation and the processing. But there are other um additional measures that can be taken to ensure that we actually recover the minerals. Specifically, recovery rates requirements for lithium, nickel, and cobalt. Um, we can prioritize uh recovery within the United States to boost up those recycling facilities. And in addition, we can continue doing research on the emissions from the facilities, um, and look at, uh, contaminants such as PFAS that could contaminate surrounding communities.

Great, thank you. Uh, Mister Kleinecke, um, industry surveys have found shortages of skilled workers across the battery supply chain particularly technicians and manufacturing workers. DOE and the Department of Labor have worked to develop a battery workforce standards and apprenticeship pathways. But much of that effort has focused on manufacturing. Um, are there unique workforce needs in battery recycling and materials recovery that aren't receiving enough attention and what can Congress do to support them?

Thank you, Representative, that's a great question. I I think it's a it's an industry problem in whole, whether it's battery production itself or battery recycling, the the technicians required, just the people that build plants, right, we have to build assets to to be able to recycle and recover these critical minerals and having electricians pipe fitters things like, people that actually can do those trades as well as a as a real shortage in the United States. Um we're working obviously with the federal government on different training programs for battery recycling facilities. A lot of these facilities are chemical processing plants. It was mentioned earlier, hydropenetralurgical processing. So we're competing with the chemical industry in some respects for those operators and that talent. Um but I think having programs that are are really specifically focused on the training of operators for these facilities is absolutely critical going forward. And it starts Starts in grade school. It doesn't start in college.

Mm.

We need to start back in the grade school, high schools, and be able to attract and and real teach people what battery recycling is and the value of their their job.

Well, I'd love to see that lesson uh for grade school on this, so thank you so much for your testimony and all our witnesses.

Yes. Absolutely.

I yield back.

Thank you.

General Leite yields. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from New York, Mr. Lineworthy, for five minutes for his questions.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Um, New York may not have the large critical mineral mines found in but our manufacturers and advanced technology companies depend on these materials to make the products that power our economy and support our national security and as demand for these materials continues to grow it is important that we take an all of the above approach to strengthening domestic supply chains through mining and recycling recovery processing and refining here in the united states you know several of the bills before us look beyond traditional mining and focus on recovering. critical minerals from existing waste streams in legacy sites. And that is particularly relevant uh for Western New York and the Southern Tier, where a long history of manufacturing and industrial activity has left behind sites that may represent opportunities for clean-up and redevelopment and recovery of valuable materials and if done responsibly these efforts could help strengthen our domestic supply chains and create new economic opportunities for communities that I represent uh Mister Kleinecke, I if these waste streams in in legacy sites contain materials that can help strengthen domestic supply chains, what are the biggest barriers preventing that recovery today?

I think uh a couple of things, Representative, thank you for the question. I think when you look at the the supply chain that we have, the assets that we have, again, designing them to be able to do recovery of waste streams is something that's critical. There's a lot of technology out there that's been talked about today, about recovering things like uranium, same with nickel, cobalt, lithium. there's technologies out there to do that. I think one of the biggest hurdles is, again, the the permitting process and ensuring that that is a very defined process. Timelines are defined, the objectives are defined, once that's done, uh, having having the ability to have capital to do that. The government has done a tremendous job over the last five years in providing some grants, loans, things like that, support for the industry. I think that needs to continue. If you step back and look at what China's done over the last fifteen years, they've invested trillions, not billions, but trillions of dollars in the battery industry to build not only batteries but also the recycling infrastructure to be able to recover those critical minerals.

Yeah, and and every pound of material we can recover here at home is one less pound that we have to source overseas and I think that's that's something that we have to be laser focused on as we work to uh strengthen that domestic supply chain we need to be looking at every opportunity to reduce our dependence on those foreign sources uh you know staying with you sir China dominates significant portions of the global critical mineral supply chain. I if China were to significantly restrict exports of critical minerals or critical mineral processing capacity tomorrow what would be the most immediate impact on the American economy?

Uh it'd be a large impact representative. We we import over sixty percent of the batteries today that we need in our country. Sixty, six zero. So that's a large number of batteries that are coming from other countries including China. Um so it would significantly impact the defense industry, it would impact the automotive industry, It would impact our grid industry on how we store energy, as well as the big thing now, which is data centers. Data centers need batteries to continue to run. So it would have a tremendous impact in our entire economy.

That's deep trouble. How prepared is United States today to respond to that kind of supply chain crisis?

Yeah, I think I think the the US is working hard. Obviously, the administration today is very focused on in, you know, unleashing opportunities for companies to to develop the critical mineral supply chain. I think we have a long ways to go. Again, China has had a fifteen year plus head start on on us for this, but I think you have a a lot of entrepreneurs, you have a lot of companies, you have a lot of investment that's ready to be deployed uh to help build this infrastructure out and we need to continue to support that.

Well, thank you very much. Many of the opportunities discussed in these bills involve areas where EPA already has expertise including environmental cleanup and remediation and waste management uh Mister Goldberg what role could EPA play in helping to identify and recover

Uh, thank you for your question. Um, the the EPA reg the the regulations already uh contain a a number of uh provisions that are designed specifically for uh recovery of materials from uh of other types of materials.

Well, well thank you very much, I mean these issues are are more than just about critical minerals, they're about supporting manufacturers, creating jobs and ensuring that American businesses have access to the resources that they need to compete and to grow. And I look forward to working with my colleagues, hopefully on a very bipartisan basis, to advance these bills and strengthen America's critical mineral supply chains for the long haul and I yield back, Mister Chairman.

Gentleman Nils, Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Florida, Mister Soto, for five minutes for his questions.

Thank you, Chairman. You know, looking at uh the need for rare earth minerals, They're in just about everything, and and are critical to our way of life, uh whether it's cars or computers, cell phones, appliances, and other technology. And the demand is huge. When I look at my home state of Florida, um twenty percent of vehicles last year were either EV or hybrids, uh and solar uh was a huge uh solar panels were a huge purchase last year, uh among others, uh although we we do have to address the the lapse of those tax credits, but people continue to buy these things. So the we know the demand is huge and we can mine it, uh and we can recycle it. We only have one major rare earth mine site that does the processing Eagle Pass in California. A lot of it comes from China and other countries, and so we're working on bipartisan efforts to increase our mining capacity, um which is why I'm supportive of the you know, making sure we clean up abandoned mines like the Legacy uh mine clean up act uh which is a good start. But as we look at recycling uh today we're gonna be looking at used batteries at uh coal ash landfill recycling, among other things uh but the one that's most ready for prime time right now is is the recycling of uh of batteries. Uh so the brace act you know we we we started talking about it today establishes standards for used lithium ion batteries uh making sure that we establish how to store this sufficiently to protect public safety. Of course, um, how to get there is a really key issue. In Orlando we do mostly drop-offs with green tech, uh, in, uh, in the northern Orlando area. And then we see in Georgia and Covington, uh, uh, SEND elements, a major southeastern uh, commercial scale EV lithium battery uh, recycling plant. Um, we also see Charm, uh, where the EPA would develop national critical minerals, a recovery strategy, uh uh obviously very important for all these things um but the key is how do we classify and treat used lithium ion batteries. And I did wanna hear from the panel on it of our esteemed experts. I'll I'll start with Mister Kleinecke um give me some of the basics that my constituents could really kinda sort through as far as how do you think we should treat and classify lithium ion batteries for to benefit uh improving recycling.

Yeah, I think Mister Goldberg, I'm sorry Senator, thank you, or Representative, thank you for the question. Um, I think Mister Goldberg mentioned a few things about some of the, there are transportation regulations, there are fire codes, there are OSHA regulations on how we actually handle lithium ion batteries. So there's a lot of infrastructure or a lot of framework in place today on how we handle those materials and those batteries. Can it be improved? Absolutely. There's always opportunities to improve it. And you know, we can't go a day where we don't see there's been some fire in a in a uh waste facility right where there is someone is improperly disposed of batteries so addressing up front like you were asking the collection of batteries how they're collected how they're transported how they're stored things like that is something i think we gotta be better with the public in educating on what needs to happen you shouldn't throw a lithium-ion battery or phone in your your trash it's that's not where that battery should go we have a a collection network uh across the country where we allow people to actually they can buy a pale system and will we'll have the battery shipped to our facility and and properly processed. So there's opportunities there for that.

What parts of the BRACE Act do you think im- improve the situation?

Uh, br- the BRACE Act in my mind, it it provides some very c- clear guidelines on how collection, how we should manage actually the transport of lithium ion batteries. It actually also kinda helps you understand what the the classification of a lithium ion battery is versus a solid waste. So that's why we're kinda trying to ask for some of those exemptions.

Thank you. Doctor Dunn, where would you like to see improvements to the brace act uh just top top lines on this microphone

thank you thank you for the question the waste classification and permittings that already exist uh we believe should should stay they're there for a reason because there is a a risk uh to human health from these products and we can do both abide by these regulations and also support our recycling facilities. At the moment a lot of the issues they're seeing is a lack of feedstock, and um we will see that increase around twenty thirty when most of the EVs that you're mentioning uh start to retire. And so that really uptick is um essential to to really boosting their profit, and as much as we can prioritize have the having batteries processed in the US and have those minerals recovered, um the better the industry will see be supported. And we can do that without um creating exemptions in bedrock environmental policy.

Thank you for both your perspectives and I yield back.

Gentleman yields. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey, Mister Menendez, for five minutes for his questions.

Thank you, Chairman. I appreciate today's conversation centered around increasing critical mineral circularity through recycling and recovery. That goal is especially important for batteries which power our daily lives and which rely on mineral resources that we must recover and reuse as much as possible. Extended Producer Responsibility, or EPR, is one policy approach to address battery disposal challenges. In twenty twenty four New Jersey passed a first of its kind EPR law for electric vehicle batteries to incentivize the recycling and sustainable management. Because these batteries contain valuable critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel, collecting and recycling them can help us create a strong domestic supply of critical minerals. while reducing human health and environmental harms. That is why the Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act directed the EPA to collaborate with the Department of Energy to develop an EPR framework for states that will address recycling goals cost structures for mandatory recycling reporting requirements product design collection models and transportation of collected material. Doctor Dunn, it is my understanding that you have been engaged in conversations with the EPA and DOE on this effort. So let me ask you. How can EPR help boost EV battery recycling in the US and lower the risk of batteries being mishandled or landfilled?

Thank you for the question. Yes, extended producer responsibility holds the producer responsible for ensuring those batteries are recycled and collected, um and those materials are recovered, and that's essential when the the recycling isn't always profitable. These batteries are dispersed through the nation, and they're also dangerous if they're not stored properly. So creating this kind of program really reduces the cost to public health and um and increases the mineral recovery. This will boost the recycling um facilities, increase their feedstock, and also ensure a domestic supply.

I appreciate that. And by ensuring that producers are responsible for managing EV batteries, EPR can help create a comprehensive and efficient system. Meanwhile, it can also increase, as you mentioned, critical feedstock for battery recyclers and ultimately bolster our domestic supply of critical mineral minerals to meet our need for clean affordable energy. Doctor Dunn, in your testimony you mentioned the importance of high recovery rates in the lithium ion battery recycle recycling recycling. We're gonna just keep going. Uh, making sure that we capture as much critical mineral content as possible. How do minimum mineral recovery rates help maximize the environmental benefits of battery recycling?

Thank you, it's a tongue twister for me as well.

I appreciate it, I like the idea.

Um, recovery rates are essential. It it basically creates a minimum threshold of the lithium, nickel, manganese, cobalt that are in the batteries. That means that the recovery isn't dependent on market um market uh volatility, which we are seeing in these critical minerals because of the extreme increase in demand and uncertain supply. Um, this isn't a a new idea, it was enacted in the European Union. Um, they have, uh, ninety percent required recovery of nickel and cobalt, uh, fifty and then eighty percent for lithium. And this is also something that's being taken up by Colorado.

Right.

Um.

And sort of building off of this, can minimum, uh, mineral recovery rates paired with EPR help shield recycling companies from the volatility of global mineral prices?

Yes, I believe so, because then the producer of the battery is, um, paying for the recycling.

Right. And from like in a from a US perspective, this is probably the most efficient means of getting these critical minerals back into our system, through recycling gain recycling. Recycling, well I'm just gonna I don't know what's happening. Um, but as opposed to sort of trying to restart Amer- American manu uh production, exploration, et cetera, right? So this is actually the most efficient means that we can explore, produce.

Yes, it's extremely efficient. I mean, we have all these uh minerals within our economy that most of and some of them that we've imported and we can um recover them and add them to our domestic production.

And finally I wanna return to my point about New Jersey's leadership in battery EPR and why we should continue to build on the progress that states are already making. Can you talk about um preserving state leadership uh on this front, the importance of it?

Yes, um many states have recognized the need for this kind of policy. It started with consumer electronic batteries because of

Appreciate that. Thanks so much. And you're back.

Thank you, gentlemen. Um, the chair now recognizes himself for five minutes for questions. Uh, I wanna raise some points that really haven't been raised thus far, uh, in regard to, um, China's uh control of of practically the entire process for um rare earth elements and and critical minerals. Uh they've they've already controlled ninety percent of the world's processing for heavy rare earths, and which allows them to basically control the cost and availability of of critical elements uh for not just the United States but the entire Western Hemisphere. Um, so They've they control the mining, the separation, the processing and uh recycling and refining o on the final uh stage for critical mineral scenario developments that that, like I said, the US and the rest of the world depend. Um. One of the things that that I wanna run by uh you and uh particularly uh you, Mister Kornecke, is extracting lithium

Yes, Representative Paul, thank you for the question, yes, we do possess that.

And and we and we can do this without harming the environment. Okay.

Mm.

Also, we've talked a lot about batteries, but um

Mm.

uh we get if we can recycle magnets that are used in automobile manufacturing um turbines uh we could recover neodymium um scrap alloys, we could recover gallium and and germanium, do we have the ability to do that? Mister Clark.

Yeah, sorry, yeah, we do have the capability to do that. There's a number of companies out there that have started uh to actually look at deploying capital in the United States to to be able to recover the the rare metals from from uh magnets.

On a uh another topic, uh it's not it's the same topic, but but uh my concern is is that China is is using um front companies to buy up our our e-waste and and uh particularly batteries um and like uh dead car batteries, things like that to uh an extent that I think it is uh,

Absolutely.

Mm.

I think that's the that's one of the number one priorities is banning the export of these materials, whether it's a battery or a gigafactory scraps, we have lots of of gigafactories in the United States that are producing batteries, ban the export of those waste materials as well because they are they are going outside the country today. China will pay a lot of money for those materials, and I think having a a robust framework to to ban the export of that would help our industry tremendously. And keep those minerals here. Like I mentioned in my testimony, we pay a lot of money for those minerals to bring them here to build a battery in the United States and we just let them go to China.

Well, it it would also um keeping them here uh would create a marketplace that I think would incentivize people to remove them from areas uh that that are that are potentially harmful to people. Mister Bu- Buckingham, what are your thoughts on it?

Yes, uh thank you, Mister Chairman. I think it is essential that we keep our our minerals here. We don't have a problem of geology or supply here in the United States. We have issues with uh processing and getting those uh up to the level to compete with China. um and and a streamlined and um well-defined permitting process and I think that's what we need to be able to uh to unleash further production

Doctor Don.

in the PGI.

Thank you for your question. Um I do believe that that we can invest in our infrastructure here and incentivize the recovery, and that will uh lead to a lot more domestic supply and really fill the gap of feedstock that is necessary.

Thank you. Mr. Goldberg.

Uh, thank you again for your question. Um, there are already certain uh uh restrictions on export of hazardous wastes um uh from the United States, but I I think that um you know uh i- for example with China, that they have taken the position that the black mass is not a uh a waste at all, if it meets certain standards. And so they're sort of uh opening the door uh to to uh exports of the material. So there are definitely things, more things that the US could be doing to to ensure that the critical minerals stay within the country.

Yeah. Uh, we already banned certain products from being exported to China but they're going through non-aligned nations and and front companies to purchase them. The chair now recognizes someone from Ohio, Mister Lansman, for five minutes for his questions.

Thank you, Mister Chair, thank you all for being here. Um, it's clear from everyone's comments that there's uh agreement about the domestic recovery and recycling of critical minerals, and how important it is for our economy, jobs, national security, and our energy security. Uh, with a few exceptions, most of these bills in front of us today propose bipartisan ideas to expand critical mineralry recovery and recycling. And although many are, you know, works in progress and need additional guardrails, I appreciate my colleagues' efforts to work uh with us to get these drafts to a better place. And along those lines, uh I wanted to focus on three areas uh with my questions. One is costs, what w- what uh this work does to uh reduce costs for consumers and businesses how to ensure we're doing that uh you know to the to the extent we can. Uh, the second is around investments and the third is competition, uh, uh, particularly with China. The first question is for uh, Doctor Dunn, uh, the advancing critical mineral uh, recycling recovery work does help to reduce the need to mine new minerals. Uh, it also helps us tap into important resources that would otherwise be wasted, and end up in landfills. In the long run, how would increasing the amount of domestic recycled materials help bring down costs of critical minerals.

Thank you for the question. Um, it really speaks to affordability. When we recover uh a lot of the minerals within our economy, we create a secondary supply. And that will help um keep prices low for these minerals and also prevent price spikes, due to supply and demand changes or any geopolitical risk.

Yeah, I think the latter is really important because everything's here already, and that that that in and of itself makes such a huge difference. Many critical minerals are key components of batteries for costs cutting clean energy technologies such as energy storage, solar panels and electric vehicles. As part of the one big beautiful bill, uh there were over five hundred billion dollars in cuts to uh key investments in clean energy uh work uh these clean energy tax credits helped create strong domestic demand in the united states for critical minerals uh which is essential to our critical uh mineral supply chain uh also to doctor dunn how did these cuts hurt companies looking to invest in rebuilding american leadership in this area

thank you for that question yeah our reduced investment in um electrification and manufacturing in this country has really it it will result in probably less EVs on the road and therefore less uh uh end of life batteries going to recycling. In addition, the reduced investment in the manufacturing of these batteries in the US means that that scrap is not going to these recycling facilities um as I said before, one of the big hurdles that recyclers have to get through is the lack of feedstock at the moment because a lot of the batteries have not retired yet. they're relying on a lot of manufacturing scrap. And um by slowing the the progress towards a clean economy and the manufacturing here in the uh US, it's hurting the recycling companies.

Yeah, man, I suspect we're gonna see a big dip in the number of batteries being recycled here. Uh, Mister Buckingham, this one, the last one's for you. Um, the an area where I think we can all agree is that reducing our reliance on China for critical mineral processing,

Yes, thank you, representative, and I think it's all about bringing down that total cost of production, and that's how we win, is by being economically competitive. You know, in the case of abandoned uranium mines, being able to recycle uranium that would otherwise be discarded and have that enter the fuel cycle um you know is is directly passed on to the consumers. And then in you know typical mineral processing, we're competing, for example,

Thank you. Mister Chair, you're back.

Gentlemen yields. I'd like to thank our witnesses for being here today, and uh you should note that members may have additional questions for you. I'll remind the members that they have. ten business days to submit additional questions for the record and ask the witnesses to do their best to submit responses within ten business days upon receipt of the questions. I ask you now consent uh consent to insert in the record the documents included on the staff hearing documents list. Without objection, that will be the order. Without objection, the subcommittee is adjourned.