Critical minerals and the U.S. industrial strategy: resource security, environmental justice, and the contradictions of decarbonization

The United States has rapidly implemented a critical minerals industrial policy to support the clean energy transition and to advance national and economic security, using the Inflation Reduction Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and Defense Production Act to strengthen domestic supply chains and reduce reliance on China. This review examines whether this strategy represents decarbonization, a new phase of green industrial policy, green extractivism, a geopolitical resource-security approach, or a contradictory project that advances climate goals while perpetuating inequalities. Drawing on 65 peer-reviewed articles, books, and policy reports, the Critical Minerals Justice Dilemma framework clarifies persistent tensions among decarbonization, supply security, industrial competitiveness, environmental justice, and geopolitical resilience. Evidence from Indigenous sovereignty research, conflict mapping in the Americas, and political economy analysis shows that U.S. policy accelerates green extractivism, overrides Tribal consent through crisis-driven measures, uses techno-legal solutions that undermine democratic governance, and shifts environmental and social burdens to Global South sacrifice zones. The analysis identifies three main gaps: limited theorization of racial capitalism and settler colonialism in domestic contexts, insufficient attention to epistemic justice, and a lack of demand-side political economy. The findings suggest techno-optimistic views on green transitions do not address structural inequalities. Achieving a just strategy requires prioritizing Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, Indigenous co-governance, and demand reduction as central political imperatives rather than technical solutions. Decarbonization within racial capitalism continues to reproduce extractivist inequalities.