Faced with volatile prices for materials crucial to many of their most promising clean energy products, US corporations are quietly investing in alternative technologies and retooling their manufacturing processes to reduce demand for “rare earths”.
The measured approach to rare earths described by corporate officials contrasts with the shrill headlines demanding national stockpiles and urgent federal funding for US-based mines in order to address the country’s reliance on China for most of its supplies.
“It has clearly got our attention but it is not a showstopper by any means,” says Pete Savagian, engineering director of electric machines at General Motors