U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, recently announced that he intends to hold three senior Biden Administration Defense Department nominees in response to the administration’s decision to stall the Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Road project. The nominees will be tasked with handling the country’s defense industrial base, including the domestic supply chain of critical minerals.
The Ambler Mining District is known for having a sizeable amount of untapped critical minerals and, according to the office of Sen. Dan Sullivan, the United States is reliant on other countries for 14 critical minerals and more than 75% reliant for an additional ten critical minerals. Sen. Sullivan argued that the Interior Department’s action to block the Ambler project is reckless and limits the supply of critical minerals, especially when tensions are high with China.
The three nominees are Dr. Radha Plumb, nominated to be deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, Dr. Laura Taylor-Kale, nominated to be assistant secretary of defense for industrial base policy, and Brendan Owens, nominated to be assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations, and environment.
The Ambler Road project began permitting during the Obama administration and received final federal approval in July 2020. In February 2022, the Interior Department filed to reopen the Record of Decision for the project.
