DFC CEO Ben Black Speaks on Economic Statecraft in the Age of U.S. Energy Abundance

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) CEO Ben Black delivered a keynote address at the 2026 Securing America's Future Energy Summit. CEO Black highlighted the significance of modern-day economic statecraft and DFC's role in strengthening and diversifying critical mineral supply chains for America and our partners around the world.

Remarks as delivered:

"From the earliest days of our Republic, America's founders like Alexander Hamilton recognized that our ability to produce essential goods, sustain industry, and be a financial player, were essential to securing America's global position. That principle guided the United States through its most defining moments of the last century.

"After World War II, the United States invested in rebuilding its allies through the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan rebuilt war-torn Europe's productive capacity and transformed European nations into participants of the American system. Although it is often overlooked, over 70 percent of Marshall Plan funds were spent on procuring U.S. goods and services. In exchange for capital investment, America was granted first priority to develop critical minerals.

"The success of America's investment in Europe limited growing threat of communism, hardwired international markets for U.S. businesses, and contributed to decades of global stability and growth. In the decades that followed, America seemed to forget the lessons of successful economic statecraft. We assumed that globalized system of integration that provided only cheap goods would sustain American influence abroad. As a result, we outsourced supply chains and let American technical manufacturing languish.

"Today we are confronting the consequences of those choices across critical sectors as diverse as pharmaceuticals, shipping and logistics, technology and telecommunications, financial services, and especially critical minerals. The United States is 100 percent import-reliant on 12 key minerals and more than 50 percent reliant on another 29.

"Rare earths, graphite, cobalt, and lithium are the building blocks of every advanced weapons system, electric vehicle, semiconductor fab, and grid-scale battery that American industry and our military depend on. These minerals exist in abundance across the allied world, but too much of the supply chain now runs through China.

"As everyone in this room knows, that's not because the resources are Chinese, but because China made deliberate, decades-long investments to capture strategic supply chains. Beijing controls 70 percent of critical minerals refining, including 90 percent of the world's rare earths refining.

"When Sino-Japanese tensions escalated in 2010, China cut off rare earth exports overnight. Every allied nation that relies on Chinese mineral processing faces the same risk. Fortunately, President Trump recognized the threat of dependency early on when he created DFC in his first term, to counter China's Belt and Road Initiative. We are the international deal arm of the United States Government, and think of us as the investment deal team.

"Our reauthorization in 2025 was a pivotal moment of transformation for this agency. We now have 205 billion dollars of investment capacity and a greater ability to deploy debt, equity, and political risk insurance across the capital stack. DFC can also invest in energy, critical minerals, and technology anywhere in the world and address chokepoints wherever they exist.

"So, how is DFC addressing these challenges? Simply doing more mineral deals is an incomplete solution. Building a refinery without power creates a facility China can undercut. Investing in a mine without infrastructure to move the ore leaves critical resources stranded. One-off orphan investments build isolated assets that become easy targets.

"Instead, DFC investments will mobilize private capital to build economic ecosystems, anchored to U.S. capital markets, insulated against adversary control, and structured to generate strong returns for the American taxpayer. Energy is central to that strategy.

"Under President Trump's leadership, the U.S. has become the world's largest producer of both oil and natural gas. The future processing, refining, and manufacturing necessary to diversify supply chains can - and should - be powered by America's abundant energy supply. Across the world, we see significant opportunities to build energy infrastructure that advances US strategic objectives and provides reliable, affordable energy for our allies and partners.

"In Europe, LNG infrastructure can supply a secure alternative to Russian gas. And in Argentina, shale development driven by best-in-class American companies can help translate President Milei's early economic gains into long-lasting growth. Energy investment becomes even more transformative when paired with logistics infrastructure. The roads, rail lines, and ports that move materials - must be co-financed as part of the same integrated strategy.

"Building both energy and transportation infrastructure ensures a project can reach commercial scale. Crucially, it is exactly this type of large-scale investment that is both vital to advancing U.S. strategic interests and highly transformative for our partners' economic development.

"Across all priority sectors, DFC's financial products are uniquely suited to capital intensive projects. Our ability to derisk investment and crowd in private financing can unlock pools of capital that dwarf our own balance sheet. It's what distinguishes DFC's approach from our adversaries and ineffective models of the past.

"Chinese investments have no independent private sector participation and lack the price signals so necessary to instill discipline that make projects truly commercially viable. The Chinese model extracts resources and exports the value. In contrast, when we mobilize private capital, we build enduring markets. When we invest, we are investing in our partners economic future and their people.

"If in the future, the DFC exits an investment, and private sector capital endures, that's how we know we've succeeded. The U.S.'s greatest export is the American free market system and its legacy of success. It promotes American Prosperity, which is the engine that drives worldwide strength, growth, and goodwill. Thank you!"

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About the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)

The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is the international investment arm of the United States Government and central to U.S. economic statecraft. DFC mobilizes private capital to advance U.S. foreign policy and economic development. Our investments deliver strong returns for American taxpayers, drive meaningful economic development for our allies and partners, and secure supply chains to counter and outcompete our adversaries.

About Securing America's Future Energy (SAFE)

SAFE is an action-oriented, nonpartisan organization committed to transportation, energy, and supply chain policies that advance the economic and national security of the United States, its partners, and allies. SAFE's expert staff works with the Energy Security Leadership Council (ESLC), a peerless coalition of Fortune 500 CEOs and retired four-star military officers, to drive secure, resilient, and sustainable policy solutions.