Sec. 10121. Energy critical materials program
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The Secretary shall carry out a cross-cutting program of research, development, demonstration, and commercial application to assure the long-term, secure, and sustainable supply of energy critical materials sufficient to satisfy the national security, economic well-being, public health, and industrial production needs of the United States. This program may be carried out primarily by an Energy Innovation Hub established under section 206 of the Department of Energy Research Coordination Act ( 42 U.S.C. 18632 ).
In carrying out this program, the Secretary shall focus on areas that the private sector by itself is not likely to undertake because of technical and financial uncertainty and support activities to— identify, develop, and test alternative minerals, metals, and replacement materials that— can be substituted for energy critical materials and maintain or exceed current performance; or enable new component and system design options that lessen the need for energy critical materials; particularly those alternative materials with existing production sources within the United States and not subject to substantial supply disruptions; engineer and test diverse applications that— accelerate recycling and use of recycled energy critical materials; use alternative materials; or seek to minimize energy critical material content; develop innovative technologies and practices to diversify commercially viable and sustainable domestic sources of energy critical materials, including technologies for recovery from waste streams, more efficient recovery of coproducts and byproducts, and reduction of energy intensity, environmental impact, and costs of the extraction, production, separation, alloying, and processing of energy critical materials; improve the understanding of the performance, processing, and adaptability in engineering designs using energy critical materials; develop advanced theoretical, computational, and experimental tools necessary to support the crosscutting research and development needs of diverse critical materials stakeholders; ensure that relevant facilities are available and equipped to assist in carrying out the direction of the program; advance new mapping and analytical technologies and techniques that identify and characterize domestic critical materials resources; and improve the understanding of energy critical material supply chains, risks from supply disruption, supply restriction, volatility in demand, and ability to substitute.
In carrying out the program under subsection
(a)the Secretary of Energy shall coordinate and leverage resources and expertise across the Department and from— Federal agencies; National Laboratories; academic institutions; private sector entities, including small businesses; nongovernmental organizations; and other relevant entities or individuals. In carrying out the program, the Secretary shall encourage multidisciplinary collaborations of participants, including opportunities for students and post-doctoral staff at institutions of higher education. In carrying out the program, the Secretary shall collaborate, to the extent practicable, on activities of mutual interest with the relevant agencies and nongovernmental organizations of foreign countries with interests relating to energy critical materials. Within 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act and biennially thereafter, the Secretary shall prepare and submit to the appropriate Congressional committees a plan to carry out the program. The plan required under paragraph
(1)shall include a description of— the research and development activities to be carried out by the program during the subsequent 2 years; the expected contributions of the program to the creation of innovative methods and technologies for the efficient and sustainable provision of energy critical materials to the domestic economy; the expected activities of the program to mitigate the adverse environmental and health impacts of the extraction, processing, manufacturing, use, recovery, and recycling of energy critical materials; and how the program is promoting the broadest possible participation by academic, industrial, the public, and other contributors. In preparing each plan under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall consult with appropriate representatives of industry, institutions of higher education, Department of Energy national laboratories, professional and technical societies, other Federal agencies, States, tribes, the public, and other entities, as determined by the Secretary. To the maximum extent practicable, the Secretary shall ensure that the activities carried out under this subtitle are coordinated with, and do not unnecessarily duplicate the efforts of, other programs within the Federal Government. Not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this Act the Secretary of Energy shall conduct a review of activities carried out under this program described in subsection
(a)to determine the achievement of technical milestones established in subsection (e). Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Energy shall establish and operate a Critical Materials Consortium (referred to in this section as the Consortium ) for the purpose of supporting the program under subsection
(a)by providing, to the maximum extent practicable, a centralized entity for multidisciplinary, collaborative, critical materials research and development. If an Energy Innovation Hub, consistent with section 206 of the Department of Energy Research Coordination Act, that is focused on energy critical materials exists on the date of enactment of this Act, then the Secretary shall leverage the personnel and expertise of such a Hub to manage the Consortium for at least a 3 year period following the establishment of the Consortium. The members of the Consortium shall be representatives from relevant Federal agencies, the National Laboratories, institutions of higher education, private sector entities, multi-institutional collaborations, and other appropriate entities. The Consortium shall— develop and implement a multi-year program plan which includes the determination of technical goals and milestones and prioritizes leveraging of the user facilities, high performance computing capabilities, and expertise of the Department of Energy and the National Laboratories; and submit an annual report to the Secretary of Energy summarizing the activities of the Consortium which includes an evaluation of the Consortium’s role in the achievement of technical milestones determined in subparagraph (A). The Consortium established under this subsection shall receive support for a period of not more than 5 years, subject to the availability of appropriations. Upon the expiration of any period of support of the Consortium, the Secretary of Energy may renew support for the Consortium, on a merit-reviewed basis, for a period of not more than 5 years. Consistent with the existing authorities of the Department, the Secretary of Energy may terminate the Consortium for cause during the performance period. The Secretary shall support construction of a facility that provides an integrated, rapidly reconfigurable research platform to further enable research and development activities throughout the supply chain for energy critical materials. There are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Energy $135,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2021 through 2025 to carry out this section.
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Sec. 10121
Energy critical materials program
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