Out in the Mojave Desert in California is the Mountain Pass mine that opened in 1952, once the world’s foremost supplier of valuable rare earth minerals — 17 elements deemed critical to modern society. In 2002 the U.S. government and major manufacturers said it no longer made sense to acquire rare earths from a U.S. source subject to stringent environmental regulations. Instead, the hard business of extracting useful minerals was exported to other countries, where environmental damage was safely out of sight. China happily obliged. When Mountain pass mine went broke it was purchased out of bankruptcy by a group, you guessed it, that included a Chinese owned firm. Money and profits are what forced all of this to happen. We have spent all our lives extorting other countries at the expense of our own independence. The bottom line is this, we can, if we have too. In a liberal run country, the greenies will beat this horse to death and tell us to use wind power or the sun. I don't know you'll have to ask AOC, she has all the answers.