From a February 10, 2022, Sinclair Broadcast Group national segment

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JENNIFER GRANHOLM (ENERGY SECRETARY): The future is electric and this administration is moving toward it at lightning speed. 

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SCOTT THUMAN (SINCLAIR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT): It is the latest plug by the Biden administration to go green, announcing $5 billion to help states build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations along America's highways.

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PETE BUTTIGIEG (TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY): EVs are for everybody. And the good news is 48 states have already designated EV corridors. 

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THUMAN: This surge of excitement that even the prospect of more stations will help drive more Americans to buy electric and dramatically lessen the long-standing reliance on gas and oil. 

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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: So wherever you live, charging an electric vehicle be quick and easy, which means even more of good-paying jobs producing batteries, materials, and parts. 

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THUMAN: While going green is certainly the future and can lessen our dependence on fossil fuels here in the U.S., critics worry another kind of reliance will grow. 

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BEN LIEBERMAN (SENIOR FELLOW, COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE): So we’re going from energy dominance in coal, oil, and natural gas, to dependence on the minerals required to utilize alternatives to fossil fuels.

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THUMAN: A recent report by the U.S. Geological Survey indicates America's increasingly dependent on China by more than half of the key minerals used in electric vehicle batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines from there, and many way with worse environmental standards for digging and processing. A growing problem as America races to meet President Biden's goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. 

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LIEBERMAN: If you do think EVs are a good idea, if you do think wind energy is a good idea, you better start thinking about mining as also being a good idea. Because you can’t have one without the other.

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SEN. MARTIN HEINRICH (D-NM): Well they don’t all have to come from a foreign country. One of the things that we can do immediately is start recycling critical minerals. So we just need to set the policies to make sure that we're in control of our own destiny. 

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THUMAN: Though some complain the administration, in the spirit of going green, has over-regulated, making mining in the U.S. too difficult