America Drills More-but Still Thinks Too Small

Highlights

• A March 25th House hearing on energy dominance revealed a critical gap: while lawmakers push faster permitting for oil, gas, and coal, they ignore America's structural dependence on foreign-processed critical minerals, with China controlling 85-90% of rare earth refining.
• Both parties miss the bigger picture—Republicans focus on drilling expansion while Democrats highlight renewable permitting delays, but neither addresses the fragmentation between land access, mineral development, and processing capacity needed for true industrial power.
• As electrification, AI, and defense systems drive explosive demand for materials, America's lack of a coherent strategy connecting production to supply chains means the country expands output while importing dependence on the minerals that actually define geopolitical power.

---

A March 25th hearing of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources (opens in a new tab) was meant to showcase America’s push for “energy dominance.” Instead, it exposed a deeper problem: Washington is accelerating production while ignoring the materials that actually underpin industrial power.

The legislative package focused on familiar terrain—oil, gas, and coal. Lawmakers proposed faster permitting, fewer duplicative reviews, extended coal payment schedules, and expanded access to federal resources. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which oversees 245m acres of public land and 700m acres of mineral estate, framed this as essential to economic growth and national security.

They are not wrong—at least in part.

Permitting is indeed the choke point. Testimony confirmed that fee-funded processing has shortened drilling approvals to roughly 100 days in some cases. Industry-backed reforms to streamline “split estate” permitting and reduce regulatory overlap could further accelerate development. For investors, the message is clear: Washington increasingly understands that permitting speed determines supply.

Coal, too, is staging a quiet return. Witnesses warned of tightening supply as legacy reserves deplete and leasing lags. More striking was a secondary theme: coal is no longer just fuel. It is emerging as a potential source of critical minerals, with early-stage projects extracting rare earth elements from coal and waste streams .

Yet here lies the contradiction.

Despite repeated invocations of “national security” and “mineral resources,” the hearing barely engaged with the central geopolitical reality: America’s dependence on foreign-processed critical minerals. China still dominates roughly 85–90% of rare earth refining. The United States, for all its production, remains structurally exposed.

Instead, the debate split along familiar lines. Republicans pushed for expanded drilling and an “all-of-the-above” strategy. Democrats countered that record U.S. production has not insulated consumers from global price shocks and warned that renewable permitting is now mired in opacity and delay. Both sides are right—and both are incomplete.

The real issue is not energy scarcity but policy fragmentation. Production is rising. Permitting is improving. But strategy is absent.

There is no coherent alignment between land access, mineral development, processing capacity and industrial policy. Even where critical minerals surfaced—such as extraction from coal—they appeared as side notes, not central objectives.

This matters. Electrification, artificial intelligence, and defense systems are driving explosive demand for materials, not just energy. Control of those materials—not barrels or tonnes—will define economic and geopolitical power.

America is drilling more. It may even mine more. But until policymakers connect land policy to supply chains—and supply chains to industry—the country will continue to expand output while increasing its import dependence.

For now, Washington is moving faster. It is not yet thinking bigger.