Highlights

• President Trump's executive orders suspend key clean energy initiatives.
• The orders elevate critical minerals as a strategic national security priority.
• The orders aim to streamline permitting and fast-track domestic mineral extraction, particularly for:
  • Rare earths
  • Lithium
  • Cobalt
  • Uranium
• The energy transition appears split, with traditional fossil fuels and critical minerals positioned at the center of a potential new industrial strategy.

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A wave of new executive orders from President Donald J. Trump has rattled the clean energy establishment. These orders suspend key components of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), freeze offshore wind leasing, and openly target electric vehicle subsidies. Legal experts are already bracing for courtroom battles over funding freezes and regulatory rollbacks. But amid the chaos, one overlooked sector stands to gain: critical minerals.

According to attorney Ethan Shenkman (opens in a new tab), buried within directives that many see as gutting Biden-era climate policies is a parallel campaign to “unleash domestic energy production,” including rare earths, lithium, cobalt, and uranium alongside oil and gas. The orders invoke Defense Production Act (DPA) powers, create pathways for emergency permitting, and prioritize domestic mineral extraction as a matter of national security. The moment is fraught but full of opportunity for the rare earth and strategic materials industry.

Winners and Losers in the "Energy Dominance" Pivot

While the administration’s sudden freeze on IRA and IIJA funding has alarmed clean energy investors, the shift realigns U.S. federal energy policy around fossil fuels, nuclear, hydropower, and select “critical” low-carbon assets. That includes biofuels, geothermal, and most notably, strategic minerals essential for energy storage, military systems, and grid hardware. Trump’s memo doesn’t just support mining—it aims to strip away permitting delays and environmental reviews that have throttled U.S. production for decades.

However, the scope is selective: wind, solar, and battery storage are excluded from the emergency project list. So while companies developing permanent magnet supply chains or domestic REE separation capacity might now gain streamlined approvals, utility-scale renewables are being sidelined. This deepens the split between energy transition sectors and adds regulatory whiplash to an already uncertain investment landscape.

A Legal and Industrial Knife Fight Looms

Legal scholars cited in Environmental Forum point out that Trump’s spending pauses may violate the Impoundment Control Act, which requires the executive branch to spend congressionally appropriated funds unless Congress agrees otherwise. This raises the stakes for hundreds of millions in previously committed clean tech funds now in limbo.

However, that same legal ambiguity may enable fast-tracked mineral projects. Agencies have 30 days to submit lists of “planned or potential actions” to increase the domestic energy supply, including uranium and critical minerals. That opens the door for mining companies in Alaska, Wyoming, Texas, and Nevada to leap ahead in the federal queue.

Still, questions persist:

• Will the permitting reforms include full NEPA streamlining, or be choked by agency-by-agency rewrites?
• Will the push to rescind Obama- and Biden-era environmental justice and carbon cost policies eliminate key regulatory hurdles—or expose projects to future legal vulnerability?
• Can these orders withstand court scrutiny in a divided judiciary?

Rare Earth Sector on Alert—Time to Strike or Time to Wait?

For the rare earth industry, this is a precarious moment of opening. On one hand, the language around “energy emergency,” the DPA, and critical minerals could embolden federal agencies to cut red tape and issue permits long blocked by procedural inertia or environmental opposition. On the other hand, the uncertainty around funding continuity and the hostility toward large swaths of the clean energy sector could chill broader market enthusiasm and delay capital formation.

Industrial strategy without industrial investment is just politics, and the U.S. still lacks a vertically integrated rare earth supply chain—from mine to magnet. What the Trump executive orders do offer is rhetorical and legal cover for bolder steps:

• Fast-track permitting for refining and alloying facilities
• Tax incentives for rare earth processing, akin to fossil fuel infrastructure support
• Use of emergency procurement authority to guarantee DoD off-take agreements
• Elimination of duplicative or politically motivated environmental rules

But these remain potentialities. Without implementation—funded, coordinated, and legally secure—Trump’s pivot could simply reinforce upstream mining while leaving midstream and downstream gaps vulnerable to Chinese dominance.

The Energy Transition Has Split—and Rare Earths May Define the New Center

Trump’s executive orders have thrown the energy transition into disarray. Offshore wind and EVs are under siege. Climate policies are in retreat. But the rare earth and critical minerals sector—long ignored or caught between conflicting narratives—has been unexpectedly elevated as a central pillar of “energy dominance.”

The question now is whether industry stakeholders will seize the window to build processing plants, finalize offtake agreements, and push for enforceable industrial policies, or whether this will go down as another rhetorical turn with no enduring infrastructure to show for it.