Public Policy & NGOs
Here's a look at documents from public policy and non-governmental organizations
Featured Stories
National Parks Conservation Association: Victory - Court Ruling Halts Destructive Data Centers Adjacent to Manassas National Battlefield Park
WASHINGTON, April 1 -- The National Parks Conservation Association issued the following news release on March 31, 2026:
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VICTORY: Court Ruling Halts Destructive Data Centers Adjacent to Manassas National Battlefield Park
NPCA applauds today's ruling, which affirms that the Prince William Board of Supervisors did not follow the law in their efforts to fast-track development of this ill-conceived, destructive project.
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RICHMOND, Va. - Today, the Court of Appeals of Virginia upheld an earlier court ruling voiding land rezoning changes essential to the construction of the Prince William
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WASHINGTON, April 1 -- The National Parks Conservation Association issued the following news release on March 31, 2026:
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VICTORY: Court Ruling Halts Destructive Data Centers Adjacent to Manassas National Battlefield Park
NPCA applauds today's ruling, which affirms that the Prince William Board of Supervisors did not follow the law in their efforts to fast-track development of this ill-conceived, destructive project.
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RICHMOND, Va. - Today, the Court of Appeals of Virginia upheld an earlier court ruling voiding land rezoning changes essential to the construction of the Prince WilliamDigital Gateway. These court rulings halt development of the Gateway, a massive, destructive data center project which poses serious threats to nearby Manassas National Battlefield Park.
In January, the National Parks Conservation Association joined the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, Piedmont Environmental Council, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation in filing an amicus curiae brief in this case, in the interest of stopping construction of the Prince William Digital Gateway for good.
The National Parks Conservation Association has long opposed the Prince William Digital Gateway, which, if constructed, would be one of the largest data center complexes in the world. Years of noisy and polluting construction would lead to enormous permanent buildings overshadowing the park's landscape indefinitely. This project would have ruined the park's serene atmosphere that nearly half a million visitors flock to every year to escape the hustle of the surrounding area and learn about our nation's history.
Manassas Battlefield Park, established in 1936, protects the site of two pivotal battles of the American Civil War and provides much-needed green space for local communities in rapidly industrializing Northern Virginia.
In recent years, remains of Union soldiers have been found at the park. In 2021, then-superintendent of the park Brandon Bies called proposals for data centers adjacent to the park "the single greatest threat to the park in nearly three decades."
Kyle Hart, National Parks Conservation Association Senior Mid-Atlantic Program Manager, released the following statement in response to the court's ruling:
"No one goes to a national park to see data centers. National park advocates were never going to sit idly by and watch developers build one of the world's largest data center complexes in the shadow of Manassas National Battlefield Park. This is hallowed ground where thousands of men fought and died in the American Civil War, and we will always rise to protect it."
"We applaud today's ruling, which affirms that the Prince William Board of Supervisors did not follow the law in their efforts to fast-track development of this ill-conceived, destructive project. Constructing and operating this massive data center complex would have devastating consequences for this iconic piece of American history and set terrible precedent for heavy industrial development near our national parks.
"It is our sincere hope that developers take this ruling as a sign to reconsider their plans for the Prince William Digital Gateway in favor of alternatives that would not harm America's most treasured places. Building it here is not an option."
Emily Thompson, Executive Director of the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, said:
"We applaud this ruling. America's national parks and public lands represent the very best of this nation. Unrivaled in their natural beauty and significance, these vast and glorious spaces of refuge, recreation, and reflection define our history. But just like oil and gas drilling and the recent draconian cuts to essential funding and staff from the National Park Service, the boom in building data centers--which will consume wide swaths of land and devour energy resources--threatens our parks and public lands. This ruling will help prevent this at Manassas National Battlefield Park."
"This project would have sacrificed more than 2,000 acres of historically significant land around the Manassas National Battlefield Park for the industrial development of one of the largest data centers in the world," said Elizabeth Merritt, deputy general counsel at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. "The Manassas battlefield and its environs have faced repeated development threats over recent decades, but today the courts again made clear that the site must be preserved so that each generation can learn from the complex and multilayered history it holds for the American people. We were pleased to see that the ruling placed special emphasis on transparency, because adequate public notice is critical to ensuring that the public can meaningfully participate in the decision-making process around projects like this in the future."
Chris Miller, President of the Piedmont Environmental Council, said:
"This is a huge win for local communities, national parks, and the environment. PEC has been concerned about the huge potential impacts of the rezoning of thousands of acres of land adjacent to the Manassas National Battlefield Park and Conway Robinson State Forest, as well as private lands with significant environmental, historic, scenic and cultural resources nearby. PEC provided direct testimony to Prince William County and served as an amicus in this case to highlight those concerns.
"This 2,000+ acre project-- one of the largest data center proposals in the world--planned for 37 data centers and 14 substations. The failure to properly notice the public hearings on the proposed development is indicative over a rush to judgement and a failure to adequately assess the impacts on local, regional, state and national resources, ranging from historic and cultural sites to water quality.
"At a minimum, this project would have required two to three gigawatts of power, equivalent to the current energy used by ALL current data centers in Northern Virginia combined. It is important to note that environmental footprint for the energy infrastructure is many times greater, as much as one hundred times greater, than the footprint of the data centers alone."
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Original text here: https://www.npca.org/articles/11368-victory-court-ruling-halts-destructive-data-centers-adjacent-to-manassas
[Category: Environment]
National Parks Conservation Association: Committee Chooses Gulf Coast Oil Drilling Over Wildlife Protection, Threatening Park Species
WASHINGTON, April 1 -- The National Parks Conservation Association issued the following news release on March 31, 2026:
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Committee Chooses Gulf Coast Oil Drilling Over Wildlife Protection, Threatening Park Species
The Endangered Species Committee met for the first time since the 1990s today and granted an unprecedented exemption, which will jeopardize the future of threatened and endangered species management in the Gulf.
The congressionally mandated committee, created to be used under extraordinary circumstances, was granted the authority to make rare exemptions to Endangered Species
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WASHINGTON, April 1 -- The National Parks Conservation Association issued the following news release on March 31, 2026:
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Committee Chooses Gulf Coast Oil Drilling Over Wildlife Protection, Threatening Park Species
The Endangered Species Committee met for the first time since the 1990s today and granted an unprecedented exemption, which will jeopardize the future of threatened and endangered species management in the Gulf.
The congressionally mandated committee, created to be used under extraordinary circumstances, was granted the authority to make rare exemptions to Endangered SpeciesAct protections. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum convened today's meeting, which included the Secretaries of Defense, Agriculture, EPA, and others.
The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) condemned today's action as reckless and pointed to threats that it poses for wildlife in the Gulf Coast and park-adjacent wildlife habitat across the country. NPCA urges the Trump administration to reject and reverse today's action.
Statement by Bart Melton, Wildlife Program Director for the National Parks Conservation Association:
"Despite science on the best approaches for protecting threatened and endangered species in the Gulf from the worst impacts of oil and gas development, today the Administration threw caution to the wind and lifted protections for some of America's most at-risk species. In a 30-minute meeting without any public engagement, the administration chose near-term financial gain over America's conservation heritage.
Today's haphazard decision could lead to the extinction of species from Kemp's Ridley sea turtles to Rice's whales. These species and others that depend on national park habitat in the Gulf are apparently now on their own for survival. It's hard not to wonder what park species the administration will choose to sacrifice next without asking the public for their opinion."
Statement from Melissa Abdo, PhD, Sun Coast Regional Director for the National Parks Conservation Association:
"More than seven million people visited Gulf Islands National Seashore last year--not to wade through contaminated water, stumble upon dead marine life, or watch industrial pollution and black tar clumps creep onto the coasts they love. Visitors don't flock to the Florida Keys to see dying fish, and they certainly don't travel to Florida's coastal parks to watch gas flares light up the night sky.
"The threats to our coastal national parks and marine sanctuaries--and to the Everglades and the drinking water millions of Floridians depend on--are not hypothetical. They are real, accelerating, and will only intensify under this reckless decision. We've already seen what happens when disaster strikes. The Deepwater Horizon explosion, the worst oil spill in U.S. history, caused irreparable harm to the Gulf, cost taxpayers over $15 billion, and left scars the region is still struggling to recover from.
"Worse still, this decision places even our most extraordinary and imperiled wildlife in the crosshairs. The Gulf is the only home on Earth for the enigmatic and critically endangered Rice's whale--the only whale species endemic to the United States. A key scientific breakthrough came in 2019, when a stranded individual in Everglades National Park allowed researchers to study the whale and confirm it as a distinct species, a once in a generation opportunity to better understand and protect this whale. Yet only a handful of years later, here we are-- on a policy precipice that will push this species, and so many others, closer to the brink. The Rice's whale has become a poster child for the Gulf's remarkable marine life, and this decision puts that entire living heritage in clear and present danger.
"If there is one thing Floridians overwhelmingly agree on--across party lines, across communities--it's this: offshore drilling has no place near our shores. We cannot afford to repeat history, and we cannot gamble with our coasts, our wildlife, or our water."
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About the National Parks Conservation Association: Since 1919, the nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) has been the leading voice in safeguarding our national parks. NPCA and its more than 1.9 million members and supporters work together to protect and preserve our nation's most iconic and inspirational places for future generations. For more information, visit www.npca.org.
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Original text here: https://www.npca.org/articles/11369-committee-chooses-gulf-coast-oil-drilling-over-wildlife-protection
[Category: Environment]
Environmental Defense Fund: Trump Administration Once Again Mandates Continued Operation of Costly, Unreliable and Highly-Polluting Colorado Coal Plant
NEW YORK, April 1 -- The Environmental Defense Fund posted the following news release:
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Trump Administration Once Again Mandates Continued Operation of Costly, Unreliable and Highly-Polluting Colorado Coal Plant
EDF Statement from Tomas Carbonell, Distinguished Counsel & AVP, U.S. Legal and Regulatory
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(WASHINGTON) The Trump administration issued a second illegal emergency order mandating Unit 1 of the Craig coal plant - a highly-polluting, aging facility that was commissioned over 45 years ago - to operate for an additional 90 days past its original planned retirement date at the end
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NEW YORK, April 1 -- The Environmental Defense Fund posted the following news release:
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Trump Administration Once Again Mandates Continued Operation of Costly, Unreliable and Highly-Polluting Colorado Coal Plant
EDF Statement from Tomas Carbonell, Distinguished Counsel & AVP, U.S. Legal and Regulatory
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(WASHINGTON) The Trump administration issued a second illegal emergency order mandating Unit 1 of the Craig coal plant - a highly-polluting, aging facility that was commissioned over 45 years ago - to operate for an additional 90 days past its original planned retirement date at the endof 2025. The order will add to the multimillion-dollar costs of keeping the coal plant online, which will continue to be passed on directly to families and businesses. Yet the owners of the Craig unit recently said that it hasn't been called upon to produce electricity over the duration of the first emergency order, undermining the administration's claims that the plant is needed to meet emergency needs.
According to analysis from Grid Strategies, the cost of keeping the Craig unit operational for the last 90 days is at least $20 million, and the costs could balloon to $85 million if it's kept online for a full year. When it was first forced to delay retirement, the unit suffered a costly mechanical failure that kept it offline until late January. The owners of the plant have made clear that ratepayers are ultimately going to pay the cost of compliance with these orders, stating, "members and customers must pay those costs even though neither Tri-State nor Platte River are experiencing these shortages." Both owners are challenging the Department of Energy's order, saying there is no emergency, and that the mandate violates their Constitutional rights by effectively taking private property.
"Colorado families are being forced to bankroll a failing coal plant that even its owners say isn't needed," said Tomas Carbonell, Distinguished Counsel & AVP, U.S. Legal and Regulatory at Environmental Defense Fund.
"If this old coal plant is doing nothing but incurring costly repairs and there is plenty of power on the grid, then why is the Trump administration mandating that it stay online? This illegal order is just a wasteful charade that burdens families and businesses already facing rising electricity bills. Colorado and the broader region have plenty of affordable, reliable and clean energy options, thanks to careful state and local planning."
In addition to the Craig unit, other coal plants targeted by these mandates have either broken down or haven't produced electricity when they were supposedly most needed. One of the Indiana coal units, which the administration ordered to keep operating last December, has been broken down since July of last year. The J.H. Campbell coal plant in Michigan, which has been operating under such emergency orders since May 2025, was partially shut down last summer. And the Centralia coal plant in Washington hasn't been running at all because there have been plentiful hydropower resources. However, the Trump administration has re-extended the orders for all five coal plants anyway, despite the high costs of keeping these old, unreliable plants operational - costs which ultimately fall on ratepayers.
Last week, public interest groups, including EDF, filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the Craig order, saying DOE exceeded its authority in overriding utility and state decisions to retire the Craig unit and failed to show evidence of an "emergency." The State of Colorado also challenged the order. Public interest groups have challenged orders delaying coal plant retirements in Washington, Michigan and Indiana as well.
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With more than 3 million members, Environmental Defense Fund creates transformational solutions to the most serious environmental problems. To do so, EDF links science, economics, law, and innovative private-sector partnerships to turn solutions into action. edf.org
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Original text here: https://www.edf.org/media/trump-administration-once-again-mandates-continued-operation-costly-unreliable-and-highly
[Category: Environment]
Engaged for a Collaborative Future: AGU and Partners From Around the World Meet in Berlin for the Earth, Space and Environmental Sciences Global Data Resilience Convening
WASHINGTON, April 1 -- The American Geophysical Union issued the following news release:
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Engaged for a Collaborative Future: AGU and Partners From Around the World Meet in Berlin for the Earth, Space and Environmental Sciences Global Data Resilience Convening
BERLIN, Germany -- Engaged for a collaborative future: AGU and partners from around the world meet in Berlin for the Earth, Space and Environmental Sciences Global Data Resilience Convening
As actions and threats mount to defund, remove, and modify scientific datasets, AGU hosted the Earth, Space and Environmental Sciences Global
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WASHINGTON, April 1 -- The American Geophysical Union issued the following news release:
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Engaged for a Collaborative Future: AGU and Partners From Around the World Meet in Berlin for the Earth, Space and Environmental Sciences Global Data Resilience Convening
BERLIN, Germany -- Engaged for a collaborative future: AGU and partners from around the world meet in Berlin for the Earth, Space and Environmental Sciences Global Data Resilience Convening
As actions and threats mount to defund, remove, and modify scientific datasets, AGU hosted the Earth, Space and Environmental Sciences GlobalData Resilience Convening to strategize long-term measures needed to build a more resilient and robust data enterprise and secure continued access to it for public and private sectors ensuring a viable foundation for solutions and safeguards.
Gathering a diverse cross section of experts and leaders from international research institutions, think tanks, universities, governmental and non-governmental organizations, the first-of-its-kind convening was made possible with the generous support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
The Earth, Space and Environmental Sciences Global Data Resilience Convening follows AGU's creation last summer of the Data Resilience Project, a broad, global initiative that addresses the governance and technical architecture needed for a more resilient global data network.
"We stand at an inflection point. We have engaged in triage efforts to ensure data continues to be usable and accessible. But we clearly now have arrived at a moment where we must fundamentally reimagine data organization and maintenance for long-term viability and growth," said AGU President-Elect Ben Zaitchik.
The convening recognized that the recent damage caused by defunding, removing, or altering datasets historically supported by the US federal government goes far beyond borders impacting the entire global ecosystem of critical research data and observational platforms. AGU and its collaborators are focused on the opportunity to enhance the continuity and integrity of the knowledge systems that not only scientists use, but engineers, public safety officials, health experts, policymakers, and wide arrays of industries and communities globally rely on every day.
The Berlin convening leveraged the insights of nearly 100 cross-disciplinary experts to create an actionable roadmap toward a sustainable and resilient future. This includes defining best practices to ensure rescued data sets can properly communicate with one another and be successfully integrated into reimagined new systems.
Participants agreed to continue working on shared governance, a flexible technical framework, and better ways to make data interoperable, accessible, and transferable, all leading towards a more resilient global data system.
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AGU (www.agu.org) is a global community supporting more than half a million professionals and advocates in Earth and space sciences. Through broad and inclusive partnerships, we advance discovery and solution science that accelerate knowledge and create solutions that are ethical, unbiased and respectful of communities and their values. Our programs include serving as a scholarly publisher, convening virtual and in-person events and providing career support. We live our values in everything we do, such as our net zero energy renovated building in Washington, D.C., and our Ethics and Equity Center, which fosters a diverse and inclusive geoscience community to ensure responsible conduct.
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Original text here: https://news.agu.org/press-release/agu-global-data-resilience-convening/
[Category: Science]
Democracy Forward: Court Delays the Reinstating of Voice of America Staff While the Case Proceeds
WASHINGTON, April 1 -- Democracy Forward, an organization that says it advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy and public education and regulatory engagement, issued the following news release on March 31, 2026:
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Court Delays the Reinstating of Voice of America Staff While the Case Proceeds
A federal court granted the Trump-Vance administration's request to pause the effects of its order requiring the U.S. Agency for Global Media to bring Voice of America (VOA) staff back to work, allowing employees to remain on administrative leave for now, while the case proceeds.
The
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WASHINGTON, April 1 -- Democracy Forward, an organization that says it advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy and public education and regulatory engagement, issued the following news release on March 31, 2026:
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Court Delays the Reinstating of Voice of America Staff While the Case Proceeds
A federal court granted the Trump-Vance administration's request to pause the effects of its order requiring the U.S. Agency for Global Media to bring Voice of America (VOA) staff back to work, allowing employees to remain on administrative leave for now, while the case proceeds.
Thedistrict court had previously ruled that the administration's actions to dismantle USAGM, suspend broadcasts, and place more than 1,000 employees on administrative leave were unlawful. However, today's decision delays the implementation of that ruling.
The coalition of plaintiffs includes federal worker unions, individual employees, and press freedom organizations. The four union plaintiffs representing USAGM employees are the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), and The News Guild CWA. The seven individual employees include VOA White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara, VOA press freedom editor Jessica Jerreat, and Kate Neeper, USAGM's director of strategy and performance assessment. The two press freedom organizations are Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) and Reporters Without Borders, Inc. (RSF USA).
Counsel for plaintiffs includes Democracy Forward, Government Accountability Project, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP, Democracy Defenders Fund, Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic - Yale Law School, AFSCME, AFGE, AFSA, and Zuckerman Spaeder LLP.
Plaintiffs issued the following joint statement:
"The district court has already made clear that the Trump-Vance administration's actions to dismantle Voice of America and sideline its journalists are unlawful. Today's decision delays, but does not change, that reality. Every day that VOA remains sidelined is a loss for press freedom, for workers, and for audiences around the world who rely on independent, fact-based journalism. We brought this case to defend the rule of law and the integrity of a critical public institution, and we will continue fighting to ensure that VOA staff can return to work to fulfill their mission."
Plaintiffs brought this case to stop the Trump-Vance administration's unlawful effort to dismantle USAGM, silence independent journalism, and strip workers of their jobs in violation of federal law and the First Amendment.
The case is Widakuswara et al. v. Lake et al.
Read the decision here (https://democracyforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/VOA-3.31.26.Stay-Order.pdf) and read more about this case here (https://democracyforward.org/work/legal/stopping-the-trump-administrations-unlawful-attempts-to-dismantle-voice-of-america/).
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Original text here: https://democracyforward.org/news/press-releases/court-delays-the-reinstating-of-voice-of-america-staff-while-the-case-proceeds/
[Category: Political]
Democracy Forward: Court Blocks Trump-Vance Administration's Unlawful Mass Termination of Noncitizens' Parole Status
WASHINGTON, April 1 -- Democracy Forward, an organization that says it advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy and public education and regulatory engagement, issued the following news release on March 31, 2026:
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Court Blocks Trump-Vance Administration's Unlawful Mass Termination of Noncitizens' Parole Status
Ruling Restores Lawful Status for Hundreds of Thousands Who Followed the Rules
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Boston, Mass. -- A federal court blocked the Trump-Vance administration's mass termination of noncitizens' parole status, which serves as temporary permission to live legally
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WASHINGTON, April 1 -- Democracy Forward, an organization that says it advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy and public education and regulatory engagement, issued the following news release on March 31, 2026:
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Court Blocks Trump-Vance Administration's Unlawful Mass Termination of Noncitizens' Parole Status
Ruling Restores Lawful Status for Hundreds of Thousands Who Followed the Rules
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Boston, Mass. -- A federal court blocked the Trump-Vance administration's mass termination of noncitizens' parole status, which serves as temporary permission to live legallyin the United States, for hundreds of thousands of people who entered the country lawfully. Parole is a longstanding authority under federal law. The decision grants critical relief in Sileiri Doe et al. v. Department of Homeland Security et al., a nationwide class action brought by immigration advocates and affected individuals.
Starting in 2023, the CBP One mobile application was required for non-citizens seeking asylum or other immigration relief to schedule appointments at ports of entry and obtain parole status. In April 2025, the Trump-Vance administration abruptly terminated their parole en masse, revoking work authorization and threatening detention and deportation without individualized review or explanation.
Plaintiffs in the case include the Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts and individuals from Venezuela, Cuba, and Haiti who entered the United States lawfully after they secured an appointment at the border using the government's CBP One mobile application and were granted parole after inspection by immigration officials. Democracy Forward and the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute represent plaintiffs in this case.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled that the administration's blanket revocation of parole--carried out through a mass email instructing recipients to leave the country within days--was unlawful. The court vacated the terminations and ordered the government to restore parole status to all class members.
The ruling rejects the administration's attempt to strip lawful status through an unexplained en masse decision. The court's decision restores stability for families who relied on their lawful parole to work, secure housing, access health care, and pursue asylum or other legal relief.
"For many Venezuelan families, this decision brings long-awaited relief after months of fear and uncertainty," said Carlina Velasquez, President of the Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts (VAM). "These are individuals who followed every step required of them, trusted the system, and built their lives here only to be told they had to leave everything behind. Today's ruling restores not only their stability, but also their dignity and hope. It is a powerful reminder that behind every policy are real families who deserve fairness, humanity, and respect."
"Today's ruling is a clear rejection of an administration that has tried to erase lawful status for hundreds of thousands of people with the click of a button," said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. "Our clients followed the law: they waited, registered, were inspected, and were granted parole under the law. The Trump-Vance administration's effort to tear that status away overnight was unlawful and cruel -- and today, the court rejected that harmful and destabilizing policy. Democracy Forward will continue to be alongside communities targeted by abuse of power and fight to ensure the rule of law protects everyone in America."
"We applaud the Court's decision today," said Georgia Katsoulomitis, Executive Director of Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. "With just an email, the Department of Homeland Security stripped our immigrant families, neighbors, and workers of their parole status, causing immense fear, instability, and disruption to our society. Their parole status and their ability to live in the United States has finally been restored. Our daily work is dedicated to protecting due process and fighting for the ability of every member of our community to thrive, and this decision is a significant victory for our immigrant neighbors and for the values that we must protect in our society."
The legal team at Democracy Forward in this case includes Ally Scher, Brian Netter, Catherine Carroll, and Cortney Robinson Henderson.
Read the court's decision here (https://democracyforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026.03.31-DE-48-Judge-Allison-D.-Burroughs_-MEMORANDUM-Part-1.pdf) and read the original complaint here (https://democracyforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/1-1.pdf).
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Original text here: https://democracyforward.org/news/press-releases/court-blocks-trump-vance-administrations-unlawful-mass-termination-of-noncitizens-parole-status/
[Category: Political]
Peterson Institute for International Economics Issues Commentary: Geology is Not Destiny - Brazil Must Establish an Infrastructure to Exploit Its Critical Minerals Wealth
WASHINGTON, April 1 -- The Peterson Institute for International Economics issued the following commentary on March 31, 2026, by senior fellow Monica de Bolle:
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Geology is not destiny: Brazil must establish an infrastructure to exploit its critical minerals wealth
The US drive for critical minerals from its trading partners is now a top economic and foreign policy priority. In February alone, the United States signed 11 memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with mineral-rich countries, four of which are in South America: Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, and Paraguay. Brazil has yet to yield to mounting
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WASHINGTON, April 1 -- The Peterson Institute for International Economics issued the following commentary on March 31, 2026, by senior fellow Monica de Bolle:
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Geology is not destiny: Brazil must establish an infrastructure to exploit its critical minerals wealth
The US drive for critical minerals from its trading partners is now a top economic and foreign policy priority. In February alone, the United States signed 11 memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with mineral-rich countries, four of which are in South America: Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, and Paraguay. Brazil has yet to yield to mountingpressure from the United States, but an agreement is certain, with the current government or with the next administration after general elections at the end of 2026.
Brazil is one of the most mineral-rich countries in the world. But does it have sufficient leverage to negotiate a framework with Washington to meet its own economic and developmental goals? In a recent online discussion at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the reaction was unanimous: "No."
Critical minerals are a set of metals and nonmetals essential to industries such as high tech, defense, and energy. But their sourcing poses economic or security challenges. They include rare earth elements, battery metals, specialty semiconductors and compounds, and industrial inputs. These materials are central to electric vehicles and batteries, wind turbines and high-performance magnets, advanced electronics and data center infrastructure, defense systems, and green energy technologies.
The chokepoint in global critical minerals supply chains lies in the capacity to transform these resources into usable materials
Brazil holds about 95 percent of the world's niobium reserves, which is used in the manufacturing of steel alloys, superconductors, electronic and petrochemical equipment, and advanced batteries. Brazil also has substantial deposits of rare earth elements and graphite. Less than 30 percent of the country's territory has been geologically mapped, and the Amazon region is estimated to host sizeable deposits of many critical minerals identified in the 2025 list compiled by the US Geological Survey. And yet, as participants in my discussion at PIIE noted, none of that may matter much unless Brazil can solve the existential problems in the global critical-minerals race: separating, refining, and processing these materials.
The debate around critical minerals has for years been framed by questions of who has the ore and how much they have. That framing, however, is increasingly obsolete. The real chokepoint in global supply chains lies not in what exists underground, but in the capacity to transform these resources into usable materials across the supply chains of multiple products and sectors. In other words, the chokepoint is not concentrated upstream, but in the midstream and downstream of supply chains. These are the stages that China dominates globally.
China's control over critical mineral processing is the product of decades of deliberate industrial policy. While other countries exported raw ore, China built the infrastructure, technical expertise, and heavily subsidized capacity to refine and process it. The result is a global structural dependency that no amount of new mine discoveries will quickly reverse. As Cullen Hendrix, senior fellow at PIIE, observed during our online discussion, the United States and its partners are confronting "a perfect storm for critical mineral demand in a context where existing supply chains are largely dominated by China, especially at the processing stage."
Demand for these minerals is being spurred by three distinct drivers: First, the global green energy transition's demand for lithium, graphite, nickel, and rare earths. Second, artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and data centers are consuming many of the same inputs. Third, and perhaps most consequential, modern warfare as exemplified by the Iran war, has become, as Hendrix said, "a competition in applied material science: Drones, cruise missiles, and fifth-generation fighter aircraft are, in a very real sense, bundles of critical minerals in kinetic form."
Brazil has many advantages that make it an attractive strategic partner for the US, the EU, and China
Against this backdrop, Brazil's position as a strategic partner for the United States and the European Union looks compelling on paper. It has substantial mineral reserves, a mature mining sector, an electrical power grid that is nearly 90 percent renewable, and limited refining and processing capabilities. Processing and refining critical minerals are extraordinarily energy intensive, underscoring Brazil's apparent comparative advantage. Performing those operations in the country would have a substantially lower carbon footprint than in many other mineral-rich countries worldwide. This so-called "green premium" is increasingly valued by European buyers seeking to meet their own decarbonization commitments. Not surprisingly, the recently approved EU-Mercosur trade agreement features a detailed chapter on critical minerals.
But Brazil has many challenges in exploiting its advantages. Bruna Santos, director of the Brazil Program at the Inter-American Dialogue, outlined its advantages. "Brazil is one of the few countries that's large enough to matter, that has diversified enough to be relevant across supply chains, and is politically autonomous to negotiate," she said. Brazil's tradition of non-alignment, and its deep economic ties with both Beijing and Washington, is itself a form of leverage, he said. Accommodating both may be difficult, however, given the United States' stated strategy of securing Latin America for its own economic and national security interests.
Brazil will need to build up financing, industrial policy, and local technological prowess to take advantage of its wealth of critical minerals
"Brazil's leverage only matters if it can solve its bottlenecks," Santos said. "Otherwise, we will waste the moment." Those bottlenecks are institutional, infrastructural, and financial, she explained, adding: "Mining projects are capital-intensive and exposed to commodity price volatility. Processing capacity requires not just investment but a supporting industrial ecosystem with skilled labor, logistics, technology transfer, and stable regulatory frameworks."
China would be eager to work with Brazil, Hendrix said, citing the example of Indonesia, which banned the export of unprocessed nickel ore in 2020. Its move prompted Chinese firms to relocate their processing facilities to Indonesia itself, moving in behind the export ban and shifting midstream activity to where the ore was being extracted. Hendrix cited this as evidence that China "has been willing to negotiate and meet the ore producers where they are," conditional on those countries being large enough to have real bargaining power. "Brazil, with its continental scale and diversified export base, clearly meets that threshold," he said.
Whether Brazil would pursue similar policies is an open question, and panelists suggested that softer approaches may prove equally effective. More immediately actionable is the financing architecture. To facilitate investments, Santos argued for moving beyond isolated project-by-project investments toward a more systematic financing pipeline. She called for diversifying the financing base to include the US Development Finance Corporation as well as Brazil's national development bank, BNDES, and a broader multilateral pool that includes Japan, Canada, Australia, and European partners.
The central piece of legislation to govern its critical minerals approach was outlined by Pedro Guerra, chief of staff to Brazil's vice president and minister of development, industry, and commerce. He cited a bill before the National Congress that would establish the National Policy on Critical and Strategic Minerals (PNMCE) and create the Committee on Critical and Strategic Minerals (CMCE), linked to the National Mining Policy Council. The legislation is organized around three pillars: taxonomy (defining the critical and strategic minerals), governance (integrated management structures with transparent targets), and financing (new instruments designed to address collateral constraints and price volatility).
The panel agreed that the United States lacks credibility in its offer of partnership. Santos stated bluntly that every US ally in the region is "pricing US political risk into their long-term calculations." This is certainly the case in Brazil, which the United States hit with 50 tariffs on its exports to the United States for reasons that had little to do with trade but which were aimed at helping Brazil's embattled former president, Jair Bolsonaro, who is now in prison. Santos argues that US policy volatility makes it difficult for a country of lesser economic and geopolitical clout to accept the high short-term costs of fulfilling agreements in exchange for promises of long-term resilience. Processing infrastructure requires long time horizons and stable demand signals. If the anchor partner's commitments are uncertain, the risk premium rises and the investment case deteriorates.
The central lesson of this discussion was that for critical minerals, geography determines opportunities, but institutions like financing, industrial policy, and local technological prowess determine who seizes them.
The lesson for supply chain resilience is clear. Brazil has the endowments to be a genuine partner for the United States. Whether it seizes that opportunity depends less on what lies beneath its soil than on what its institutions, and the United States, are willing to build above it.
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Original text here: https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/2026/geology-not-destiny-brazil-must-establish-infrastructure-exploit-its
[Category: Economics]
