House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hears bipartisan calls to boost domestic critical-mineral recovery

WASHINGTON — The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment held a hearing to review seven bills and discussion drafts aimed at expanding domestic recovery and recycling of critical minerals for batteries, defense and energy technologies.

Chairman Palmer opened the session by urging Congress to leverage EPA expertise in remediation and recovery and said the bills would "eliminate unnecessary barriers to the growth of a strong domestic recycling industry" and "establish EPA as a leader of interagency efforts to recover critical minerals." He said the measures are intended to help shore up supply chains that are currently reliant on foreign sources.

Ranking Member Rep. Tonko said Democrats support recycling but warned against proposals that would weaken environmental protections. "Turning a battery into its raw materials and then back into a battery is not an easy process," he said, adding that worker and community safety must not be sacrificed as recycling expands.

Four witnesses described industry and technical opportunities and the regulatory hurdles preventing wider domestic recovery. David Klonsky, president and CEO of Service/Serba Solutions, said domestic processors can recover a high share of materials but are hampered by U.S. regulatory treatment of intermediates. "Black mass is a very valuable product," he said, urging Congress to exclude it from the definition of solid waste so it can move and be processed more efficiently inside the United States.

Grayson Buckingham, co-founder and CEO of DISA Technologies, described technology his company uses to treat legacy uranium mine waste and recover uranium and other minerals while reducing the mass that must be disposed of. Buckingham said federal cleanup rules often treat recovery as secondary to disposal, which undermines investment incentives for remediation that also yields recoverable minerals.

Dr. Jessica Dunn of the Union of Concerned Scientists urged policies that combine high recovery rates with environmental safeguards. She highlighted state and international examples, including Colorado and the European Union, where extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs and recovery-rate standards have raised collection and mineral recovery.

Aaron Goldberg, an environmental attorney, told the committee that many federal hazardous-waste rules were written decades before lithium-ion batteries were widely used and that those rules can unintentionally restrict on-site storage, the classification of black mass and land-disposal pathways for recycling residues.

Members pressed witnesses on specific topics: how EPA determines whether materials are "solid waste," whether treating black mass as a commodity would safely expand domestic processing, how to ensure battery collection and safe transport, workforce needs for hydrometallurgical and recycling plants, and whether export limits should be used to retain valuable feedstock domestically.

Witnesses repeatedly urged clearer, consistent federal standards and improved interagency coordination. Dr. Dunn and others recommended EPR, minimum recovery-rate standards and battery labeling to make recycling safer and more economically viable. Buckingham and Klonsky asked for regulatory changes and streamlined permitting to attract private capital to remediation and recycling projects.

The hearing included several named proposals, among them the Legacy Mine Cleanup Act (H.R. 3717), and discussion drafts addressing battery recycling, mineral-recovery strategies and reclamation of mining waste. Members said the next steps will include drafting bill language and continued interparty negotiation.

The Subcommittee heard no formal votes during the session. Members submitted additional questions for the record and indicated the committee will continue working on the proposals.