{"id":1642690,"date":"2022-09-16T12:06:29","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T16:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1642690"},"modified":"2022-09-16T12:06:39","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T16:06:39","slug":"rep-donalds-introduces-cobalt-act-aims-to-add-more-american-jobs-while-boosting-national-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rep-donalds-introduces-cobalt-act-aims-to-add-more-american-jobs-while-boosting-national-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Donalds Introduces COBALT Act, Aims to Add More American Jobs While Boosting National Security"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frep-donalds-introduces-cobalt-act-aims-to-add-more-american-jobs-while-boosting-national-security%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1642690&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/GettyImages-1294462411.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<h5>Daniel Baldwin, OAN White House Correspondent<br \/>UPDATED 8:48 AM PT \u2013Friday, September 16, 2022<\/h5>\n<p><span>Florida Republican Congressman Byron Donalds introduced the <\/span><i><span>Cobalt Optimizes Batteries and Leading Technologies <\/span><\/i><span>(COBALT)<\/span><i><span> Act of 2022<\/span><\/i><span>. The bill would aim to establish domestic cobalt refining in the U.S. by authorizing the Department of Defense to purchase cobalt from domestic refineries via appropriated funds. Cobalt is a performance-enhancing mineral which is used in electric vehicle batteries, super alloys in jet engines, and permanent magnets in missile engines.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201c\u200b\u200bMuch of our nation\u2019s and the world\u2019s cobalt supply comes from China through slave and forced child labor, which ultimately empowers the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and turns a blind eye to its inhumane treatment of African people, said Donalds in a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/donalds.house.gov\/news\/email\/show.aspx?ID=Z7EYZGTPUA2D6\"><span>press release<\/span><\/a><span>. \u201cOur dependence on foreign countries, such as the CCP, for our domestic cobalt supply is a matter of national security. I am proud to sponsor the COBALT Act, which aims to put America first by pursuing self-sufficient pro-American solutions and promoting domestic energy independence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/donalds.house.gov\/uploadedfiles\/cobalt_act.pdf\"><span>COBALT Act<\/span><\/a><span> explains that the National Defense Stockpile \u201clacks sufficient cobalt reserves, falling from 13,000 tons during the Cold War to only 333 tons today.\u201d Additionally, it points out that China currently supplies 72% of global refined cobalt. Former Senior Policy Analyst Joanna Miller says this is a problem.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cAll the key resources for the [cobalt] starting materials are in China and all that technology to refine the key starting materials,\u201d Miller explained. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have those key starting materials for your military equipment, for your medicines, you\u2019re gonna be dependent on foreign countries forever.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cChina currently refines 70% of the world\u2019s cobalt,\u201d Miller continued. \u201cSo what they have the ability to do is trim supply or, or spike up the prices, um, based on manipulating the market. In terms of where demand is going, if you just saw last week, there was a story about Lockheed Martin\u2019s F 35 fighter jets being canceled by the Department of Defense because they found that the cobalt that was in the jet propulsion engines was coming from China.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Specifically the bill calls for the Department of Defense to use $800 million of the already-authorized from the Defense Production Act Fund during the fiscal year 2024 through fiscal year 2028. The DoD would award purchases to companies that meet specific criteria such as being owned and operated in the U.S.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cCobalt is incredible,\u201d said Miller. \u201cIt\u2019s an incredible critical mineral, because it\u2019s crucial for super alloys and jet engines, next generation semiconductors, and even electric vehicle batteries. And our military is starting to use more electric vehicles. So it\u2019s crucial for national security.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The bill asserts that global demand for cobalt is going to increase as time passes. Specifically it cites the International Energy Agency predicting a demand jump from \u201c6 to 30 times higher than today\u2019s levels\u201d by 2040 along with a \u201ccobalt supply deficit by 2030.\u201d Miller says this bill should receive bipartisan support while promoting an America First policy agenda.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201c[Democrats] love electric vehicles,\u201d said Miller. \u201cAnd so cobalt is a key element in electric vehicle batteries. So they\u2019re going to be receptive on that front, but the Maga Republicans care about \u2018made in USA,\u2019 because they don\u2019t want our supply chains in China anymore,\u201d Miller continued. \u201cBecause if you saw during the pandemic, even our best friends will cut us off from supplies when an emergency hits to prioritize the needs of their own people as they should, but our country doesn\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Daniel Baldwin, OAN White House CorrespondentUPDATED 8:48 AM PT \u2013Friday, September 16, 2022 Florida Republican Congressman Byron Donalds introduced the Cobalt Optimizes Batteries and Leading Technologies (COBALT) Act of 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1209,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1642690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1642690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1642690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1642690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1642690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1642690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1642690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}