Rare Earths Redux

Back in 2010 I had several pieces on rare earths. Just to repeat, the largest store of these elements are in the US, namely a mine in California. The California government shut the mine down and this opened the door for China which had the second largest supply. Thus if we have any problem perhaps we should do what we did for a century, open the mine! But I suspect California would prohibit it and the 9th Circuit Courts would uphold it. Welcome to our Brave New World!