-Front Line: U.S. Seeks to Manufacture Critical Rare Earth Materials-
The United States is facing a critical shortage of product made from rare earth materials that are essential in manufacturing important components for more than 200 products, including high-tech consumer products such as cellular telephones, computer hard drives, electric and hybrid vehicles, flat-screen monitors and televisions, and significant defense applications such as electronic displays, guidance systems, lasers, and radar and sonar systems..
..Efforts to Address the Shortage Efforts are under way in the United States to address this problem. In June, Energy Capital Economic Development (ECED) announced the opening of the Wyoming Innovation Center (WyIC), a 5,500-square-foot coal commercialization facility in Gillette, Wyoming. WyIC’s first tenant is the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).