The Pandemic Has Made Industrial Policy Palatable Even to Republicans

The Mountain Pass Mine in California has a long history tied to America’s industrial fortunes. It was born out of prospecting for uranium in the 1940s Atomic Age. Through the 1960s it was responsible for much of the global production of europium, an element that ended up in color televisions and fluorescent lights. Today it has the distinction of being the U.S.’s only active source of rare earths, that 17-member suite of peculiar minerals—largely controlled by China—needed to make the magnets used in everything from electric vehicles to wind turbines to ballistic missiles.

The mine’s present-day status has also made it one player in what’s being framed as an existential American conversation about the resilience and future of the world’s largest economy. The discussion prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic and supply chain turmoil that’s come with it builds on the defensive protectionism that yielded the trade wars of the past two years. This time the talk is all about playing offense.