DOE Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation Awards $75 Million for Five Projects to Extract Minerals from Coal and Coal-Based Feedstocks: It Follows Earlier Announcement to Spend $134 Million to Shore Up REE Supply Chains

     The U.S. Dept of Energy’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation announced awards of $75 million to five energy projects for the extraction of critical minerals from coal and coal-based feedstocks. These include the extraction of rare earth elements (REEs). These awards are part of the funding for the DOE’s Mines & Metals Capacity Expansion – Piloting Byproduct Critical Minerals and Materials Recovery at Domestic Industrial Facilities. The funding will be used to develop pilot projects. The recipients are listed below.

“American industrial facilities have the potential to produce valuable critical materials from coal and coal byproducts,” said Assistant Secretary of Energy (EERE) Audrey Robertson. “By investing in these facilities, we can increase domestic critical materials production and help mitigate the financial risk of commercial deployment.”    

     This funding is a part of the nearly $1 billion in funding announced last year to advance and scale mining, processing, and manufacturing technologies across key stages of the critical minerals and materials supply chains. It follows the announcement on June 2 to spend $134 million to bolster rare earth element supply chains. The two projects listed below plan to extract REEs from industrial waste, the first from bauxite ore waste, and the second from “domestic industrial waste-derived feedstocks.”

References:

 

DOE’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation Awards $75 Million to Accelerate Critical Minerals and Materials Recovery from Coal and Coal-Based Feedstocks. U.S. Dept. of Energy. July 1, 2026. DOE’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation Awards $75 Million to Accelerate Critical Minerals and Materials Recovery from Coal and Coal-Based Feedstocks | Department of Energy

DOE’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation Announces $134 Million To Bolster Rare Earth Element Supply Chains. U.S. Dept. of Energy. June 2, 2026. DOE’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation Announces $134 Million To Bolster Rare Earth Element Supply Chains | Department of Energy

Highlights from Energy Institute’s 2026 Statistical Review of World Energy: U.S. Leads 2025 CO2 Emissions Increase, Accounting for Nearly 30% of Global Increase: 10% Increase in Coal Consumption is a Key Source: 3% Rise in Electricity Demand Contributed

      Some key highlights of the Energy Institute’s Statistical Review of World Energy from Reuters are given below. Global CO2 emissions rose by 1.1%, global oil consumption rose by 1.3%, and global electricity demand rose by 3%. This simply shows that the world still needs more energy.

     The key highlights given in the actual report are below:

     The following graphs are all from the report.

     Renewables led energy supply growth by a significant margin. However, growth in total fossil fuels nearly doubled that of renewables.

     North America, especially the U.S., led the increase in CO2 emissions by a wide margin. In fact, it was the only global region to show an increase in emissions.

     Global energy demand growth was dominated by the Asia-Pacific region.

     China continues to lead in electrification, having surpassed the U.S. and the E.U. between 2010 and 2015.

     Total energy supply in the world continues to be dominated by fossil fuels: oil, natural gas, and coal. Europe leads in non-fossil fuel share of total energy, followed closely by Central and South America, and distantly by North America.

     U.S. oil and gas exports continue to grow, both via LNG and pipelines.

     The U.S. dominates in total clean hydrogen production and blue hydrogen production. Asia dominates in green hydrogen production, followed distantly by Europe. Blue hydrogen leads in clean hydrogen production at 70.7% compared to 29.3% for green hydrogen.

     The U.S. dominated increases in coal consumption, followed distantly by China and non-China Asia Pacific.

     Global lithium production is skyrocketing. Rare Earths production is also climbing. Other energy transition minerals, such as cobalt, are climbing at a slower rate.

 

    

References:

 

US leads global CO2 emissions increase in 2025, report finds. Reuters. June 29, 2026. US leads global CO2 emissions increase in 2025, report finds

2026 | 75th edition. Statistical Review of World Energy. Energy Institute. June 2026. Statistical-Review-of-World-Energy-PDF-Report.pdf