{"id":691912,"date":"2026-10-24T01:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T01:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=691912"},"modified":"2026-10-24T01:20:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T01:20:00","slug":"us-designates-helium-a-critical-material-in-reindustrialization-push-to-avoid-single-point-of-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=691912","title":{"rendered":"US Designates Helium A Critical Material In Reindustrialization Push To Avoid &#8220;Single Point Of Failure&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden\">US Designates Helium A Critical Material In Reindustrialization Push To Avoid &#8220;Single Point Of Failure&#8221; <\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p>America&#8217;s reindustrialization depends on securing reliable, conflict-free supplies of critical materials, including rare earths and other critical metals, most of which are produced and processed overseas.<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration has made rebuilding and strengthening domestic critical material supply chains a national security priority. Its <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.energy.gov\/articles\/energy-department-designates-helium-critical-material-strengthen-american-manufacturing\">designation<\/a> of helium as a critical material<\/strong> on Friday morning\u00a0extends that effort to now include the industrial gas used for\u00a0semiconductor manufacturing and many other applications.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Energy Department&#8217;s decision earlier today makes the <strong>20th critical material designated by the agency and brings the industrial gas within the Energy Act of 2020&#8217;s critical materials framework, including closer government monitoring.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Energy Secretary Chris Wright wrote in a statement, &#8220;President Trump is bringing back America&#8217;s manufacturing industry, and that means making sure <strong>we have the materials needed to build things in America again<\/strong>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a data-image-external-href=\"\" data-image-href=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/inline-images\/2026-10-23_13-15-44.png\" data-link-option=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/inline-images\/2026-10-23_13-15-44.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"2ddb9bae-c690-40ca-9386-a6f336b62b8d\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/inline-images\/2026-10-23_13-15-44.png\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Wright continued, &#8220;<strong>Helium is essential to producing the semiconductors<\/strong> and advanced technologies that power our economy. By designating helium as a critical material, we are <strong>taking another step toward securing our supply chains<\/strong>, creating American jobs, and ensuring the United States leads the world in energy and technological innovation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Helium is\u00a0recovered as a byproduct of natural gas processing and faces\u00a0growing geopolitical risks in the Gulf area.\u00a0Qatar&#8217;s exports have been severely curtailed by Iran&#8217;s closure of the Strait of Hormuz and attacks on Qatari infrastructure, while Russia imposed temporary export controls in April.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>good news<\/strong> is that the US remains one of the top\u00a0helium producers in the world,\u00a0supplying 81 million cubic meters in 2025, or about 43% of global output. It exported 38 million cubic meters that year.<\/p>\n<p>Helium is critical to applications ranging from chipmaking to\u00a0medical imaging to\u00a0quantum computing to\u00a0magnets to space rockets.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Assistant Energy Secretary Audrey Robertson warned that shortages could become a &#8220;<strong>single point of failure<\/strong>&#8221; for strategically important industries. The Canadian Press quoted her in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>We need to make sure that we can build those here. And helium is one of those components that could be a single point of failure, where we cannot let that happen<\/strong>. That&#8217;s why we&#8217;re designating it within our statutory authority, but I think why it&#8217;s important is not necessarily for our birthday parties,&#8221; Robertson said in an interview. &#8220;It&#8217;s really towards the future of American competitiveness and energy security, which we believe is national security.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Designating helium as a critical material under the Energy Act of 2020 brings it within DOE&#8217;s framework for developing, demonstrating, and commercializing critical material technologies to support America&#8217;s reindustrialization efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>new designation<\/strong> could help qualifying helium projects access government financing, technical assistance, and partnerships, similar to support provided to rare earth miners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>      <span class=\"field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden\"><a title=\"View user profile.\" href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/users\/tyler-durden\" lang=\"\" class=\"username\" xml:lang=\"\">Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden\">Fri, 10\/23\/2026 &#8211; 21:20<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/inline-images\/2026-10-23_13-15-44.png\" title=\"US Designates Helium A Critical Material In Reindustrialization Push To Avoid \" \/><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US Designates Helium A Critical Material In Reindustrialization Push To Avoid &#8220;Single Point Of Failure&#8221; America&#8217;s reindustrialization depends on securing reliable, conflict-free supplies of critical materials, including rare earths and other critical metals, most of which are produced and processed overseas. The Trump administration has made rebuilding and strengthening domestic critical material supply chains a&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=691912\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">US Designates Helium A Critical Material In Reindustrialization Push To Avoid &#8220;Single Point Of Failure&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-691912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-border-security","category-immigration","category-immigration-reform","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=691912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=691912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=691912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=691912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}