Trump’s trade talks made it clear: on critical minerals, China holds the cards.

The U.S. needs more than stockpiles and subsidies - we need to rebuild market infrastructure so the U.S. and allies can compete.

New @FT piece from Daleep Singh (w/ me contributing). 🧵 1/ China dominates critical minerals not just through production — but by controlling markets.

U.S. firms operate in a global pricing system designed by and for China’s industrial policy.

2/

1/ I wrote for NYT on a 3-prong strategy for climate progress under Trump.

-innovation & industrial strategy
-pragmatism on fossil fuels
-expand interests that benefit from decarb

This same approach led to IRA/IIJA.

But it does not pass the purity test for activist groups. 2/ In the context of the IRA & IIJA, the goal of this strategy wasn’t to turn red seats blue. It wasn’t to make GOP politicians climate hawks.

It was to create durable incentives for decarb that would outlast an administration. 

It's working.

A 1000 word op-ed is not a place for detailed policy prescriptions.

Luckily, one thing I pushed for is links to a bunch of our work at @employamerica and @IFP.

Here’s a thread with some of the biggest ones (not all because we’ve written a LOT of them).

https://twitter.com/arnabdatta321/status/1865747649808506958

1/ @IrvingSwisher, @vebaccount and I have written over a dozen research reports, blog posts, and outside pieces on how the SPR can be used to alleviate oil market volatility.

You can find them all here: employamerica.org/tag/spr/

1/ Some nonprofits are circulating a letter to Democratic offices arguing that the Manchin-Barrasso permitting bill would introduce a “dangerous new precedent” by expediting fossil fuel lawsuits above others. 

The problem? 

Their main claim is objectively wrong. 🧵
2/ They argue that Manchin-Barrasso goes further than other expedited reviews: 

"would be the first time Congress granted a specific subset of possible litigants with a legal right to accelerated review for cases that do not involve an immediate threat to a person’s welfare."

Next in our series exploring lithium, w/ @vebaccount and @alexbhturnbull1: to boost production & competition, secure the supply chain, and reduce price volatility, the USG should help establish a benchmark contract for lithium tied to a physical reserve. employamerica.org/researchreport… 2/ To achieve ambitious decarbonization goals, industrial producers need reliable access to commodities like lithium. Unfortunately these markets aren't very deep and are dominated by China, resulting in exposure to price volatility and coordination problems.

1/ New from @vebaccount @IrvingSwisher and me: How the DOE can structure SPR acquisition to maximize domestic oil production. It's the third of our Contingent Supply Series exploring the use of the SPR to stabilize oil markets. employamerica.org/researchreport… 2/ With the Biden Administration set to announce actions to lower gas prices (and respond to the OPEC+ cut), we argue for @ENERGY to set up a facility to sell put options directly to producers, and structure it in a manner to maximize domestic crude oil production.

DOE just dropped an NPRM changing the reg for direct purchase acquisition. Historic step, gives flexibility to acquire petroleum in a manner best aligned with the statute.

https://twitter.com/IrvingSwisher/status/1551954327459319823

The most impactful change would be dropping the "shall use" requirement for market-index pricing, to a "may use". They can now engage in fixed-price contracts. Why is this important?

THREAD (1/n): @ChrisCoons intro'd a great bill to strengthen supply chain resilience and revive America’s manufacturing, (w/ @MarkWarner, @SenatorBennet, @AmyKlobuchar, @SenatorWarnock, @ChrisVanHollen, @SenGaryPeters). Link: coons.senate.gov/news/press-rel… (2/n): The Industrial Finance Corporation Act follows the best tradition of government corporations like the Reconstruction Finance Corporation or the TVA, by working with private actors to marshal resources to achieve big, public goals.

THREAD (1/n): The Ohio AG sued the Treasury Department challenging a provision of the American Rescue Plan that prevents states that receive direct aid from lowering their net tax revenues. I wrote a piece for @Slate about the implications: bit.ly/2NMuW9U. (2/n): The provision is common-sense: the federal government is contracting to share the burden of revenue loss from COVID-19, and the condition prevents states from releasing their share of that burden. In short, “we’re here to help fill fiscal gaps, not to pay for tax cuts.”

THREAD (1/n): Sometime soon, Leader McConnell will release his plan for economic stimulus moving forward. It’s too late. Even with an extension, many states will not be able to reprogram their computers in time to avoid a lapse in the $600 payments. (2/n): That $600 payment has kept families in their homes, prevented child hunger, and capped a rise in poverty. Without an extension, 32,003,330 unemployed workers will see upto 60-70% income cuts overnight. And the fault of that is entirely on Mitch McConnell.

THREAD (1/n): With the spate of recent stories and podcasts on automatic stabilizers, I thought it would be worth a thread about a less discussed benefit of automatic stabilizers: as a forcing mechanism to improve administrative capacity and response for an economic crisis. (2/n) The general benefits of automatic stabilizers: they are faster and more targeted. If the proposals in Recession Ready by @hamiltonproj (@jayCShambaugh, @Hboushey, @RyanDNunn) had been in place, stimulus would be going into the economy right now, to the hardest hit folks.

THREAD 1/n: @SenatorBennet just released a fantastic, comprehensive reform proposal for unemployment insurance (UI). He’s been working on it for months, it’s not intended to be a response to the COVID crisis, but should be considered as we think about UI reform moving forward. 2/n: Check it here: bit.ly/2UxVn2n.