This week: New Cool Superconductor; Still Selling Sustainable Funds; Peak Shale Oil 

Welcome back. The minerals, metals and rare earths needed for the green and digital transitions are shaping up to be the oil of this century—complete with a race to secure raw materials and production capacity at home or in friendly locations.

China has the early lead, dominating production of many critical materials including lithium and rare earths. Over the past years, it secured deposits around the world and invested heavily in the domestic manufacturing of clean technologies such as electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels.

Western nations have now made it a top priority to secure a supply of these materials. The West has been tempted by the economic opportunity but also chastened by the recent semiconductor shortages, Europe’s efforts to replace Russian energy imports and Beijing’s support for Russia after it invaded Ukraine.

President Biden and former President Donald Trump both signed executive orders for critical minerals and the U.S. has had recent success in starting to build local supply chains. The EU’s latest effort—a Critical Minerals Act—aims to kick-start mining, processing and recycling in the region. Highlights of a leaked draft include a buyers club, accelerated permitting for strategic projects and ambitious production targets for 2030.

The policy is “a bit like we did in the '60s” says Simone Tagliapietra at Bruegel, an economic think tank in Belgium. He says unlike the bloc’s more successful alliance to promote local production of EV batteries, the act is more focused on setting grand targets and a grand plan rather than fixing the issues preventing corporate investment, such as high energy prices.

There is one area where the act is right on the money—accelerating permitting. It has been a key challenge for companies investing across geographies and sectors including mining, processing, power lines, solar, wind and batteries.

However the EU's ambitious permitting reforms might also be the biggest hurdle to getting political agreement on the act. Limiting or overriding local opposition is rarely a vote-winning stance. U.S. permitting reforms, meant to follow the Inflation Reduction Act , remain stalled.

It also seems we may get a G-7 critical minerals buyers club of the Group of Seven advanced democracies to secure supply from mineral rich countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The topic is apparently on the agenda when President Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meet in Washington.

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U.S. scientists at the University of Rochester report that they have created a new superconductor that can operate at room temperature and a much lower pressure than previously discovered superconducting materials, writes Aylin Woodward.

They say they have produced the first commercially accessible material that eliminates the loss of energy as electricity moves along a wire, a breakthrough that could mean longer-lasting batteries, more-efficient power grids and improved high-speed trains.

The U.S. era of shale oil growth may be nearing its peak, as there are growing signs frackers have drained their good wells. 

Big energy companies talked up an orderly transition this week in Houston, however they also seem reluctant to drill more, despite high prices flooding them with cash.

Spring is arriving almost three weeks ahead of schedule in some parts of the U.S. because of warmer temperatures

Tesla cuts U.S. prices on its Model S and Model X trying to boost demand.

China’s BYD has become one of the top global sellers of electric passenger cars and is now plotting a $20 billion push into battery-electric commercial vehicles in China, Europe and Japan.

GM's slower-than-expected rollout of the GMC Hummer EV and the Cadillac Lyriq are slowing the company's electric-vehicle breakout year.

Wellsville, N.Y., is a former oil-boom town pivoting to making wind turbines parts.

Washington state's first auction of its greenhouse-gas cap-and-trade market was a sellout. (Bloomberg)

How much should rich nations help rebuild Pakistan? (Financial Times)

New analysis by MIT engineers shows an ocean carbon capture system could be economically feasible. (Anthropocene)

Ninety-nine percent of the world's population exposed to unhealthy levels of tiny particle air pollution. (The Hill)

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