Peter Cook

There is bipartisan appreciation for critical minerals. But Dems are stuck on the defensive. Effective policy needs to be more than anti-Trump and the challenges the US faces means we cannot pick and choose strategies. We need an all-of-the above approach and we need to act on it

Excited to share an op-ed by @wang_seaver and myself in @heatmap_news on the state of play of critical mineral policy in Congress The gist: Democratic policymakers need to get more sophisticated with their critical mineral strategy heatmap.news/ideas/democrat…

New from myself & @PeterCookBTI in @heatmap_news “Democrats must start alleviating national critical mineral constraints now, in the middle of a Trump presidency, to position the U.S. industrial base to produce impressive economic and technological results in 2028 and beyond.”

This is the level we need discussions to get to if we are going to develop realistic goals for each supply chain and the policies that can achieve them We hope this serves as a primer on the state of play for each critical mineral and as a prompt for more in-depth discussions

But fully overcoming critical mineral vulnerabilities also requires tailored policies for each individual supply chain We can never mine enough chromium to become self sufficient. Meanwhile we already process a lot of zinc that could yield germanium if we upgrade our smelters...

We need to get more specific with our critical mineral strategy. Thats why @TheBTI put together our report that maps out the best strategy for different commodities based on factors like supply chain gaps, geologic resources, and technical barriers 🧵 thebreakthrough.org/issues/energy/…

The U.S. Critical Minerals list now has 60 entries. And it keeps growing. The goal over the next decade can't be to add more. It should be to take minerals off. A new @thebti report lays out how:

"NEPA’s defenders face a changed reality. The legal and institutional framework that once guaranteed meaningful public engagement has been dismantled. In its place is a system defined by discretion, inconsistency, and uncertainty." thebreakthrough.org/issues/environ…

China’s total installed flexible, dispatchable electricity generation capacity exceeds 1905 GW, including 1267 GW of coal power. In contrast, the country’s all-time peak electricity load record from July 2025 was 1506 GW. Significant new solar and wind additions must be understood in the context of a grid that has already overbuilt enough coal to kill God. I talk about this and more in today’s new @DecoupleMedia podcast episode with @Dr_Keefer on the flip side of China’s green electrostate narrative.

Everyone's talking about the electrotech stack--batteries, PV, chips, drones--as the essence of 21st-century power. But China's dominance in all of them traces back to something mundane: 15 million tons of produced aluminum per year. Read @wang_seaver: breakthroughjournal.org/p/the-aluminum…

In a new piece, I emphasize how the ability to build new upstream metallurgical and chemical plants is crucial to industrial competitiveness and the downstream ability to mass produce drones, batteries, or electric cars. In other words, what if it’s all the aluminum tech stack?

Despite a bad reputation, "glyphosate has delivered net environmental benefits, largely by displacing more toxic herbicides and enabling practices that reduce soil erosion, water and air pollution, energy use, and crop losses." Read @danrejto: breakthroughjournal.org/p/glyphosates-…

Check out the full article below: breakthroughjournal.org/p/mining-needs…

Global competitors like Canada are tackling their own permitting inefficiencies all while new deposits and trade deals open up around the world. The US needs permitting reform to stay competitive. Miners have no reason to tolerate a dysfunctional system if they can go elsewhere

Permitting reforms discussions in Congress have started back up. The debate has focused mostly on energy - but the mining sector stands in just as much need of reform to address reviews that average 4 yrs and lawsuits that avg 3 yrs to resolve - longer than the energy sector 🧵

Unlike during the 1970s oil crises, the ongoing supply shock is happening as the US is already a global energy superpower, and as our two political parties absolutely refuse to collaborate on national energy policy. Not great! My latest @thedispatch: thedispatch.com/newsletter/dis…

"On average, mining lawsuits take nearly three years to resolve, exceeding times experienced by the energy and infrastructure sectors." Mining needs permitting reform too, via @TheBTI open.substack.com/pub/thebreakth…

Let’s be clear how much the frame on the aluminum “long green march” story in China has now shifted, from “renewables are cheaper than coal so China is now moving heavy industry to where renewables are!” to “I built a plant here to use cheap coal mined 8 miles down the road, and now the govt is making me buy renewables certificates for 30% of my power needs” As I do think it’s useful for the climate folks and what I’ll call the "China futurist" folks in this convo to understand what these plants in Xinjiang + Inner Mongolia look like, I’m going to show each of them here while I lay out some thoughts. 🧵 Tianshan Aluminum, Xinjiang 44°25'N 86°04'E