Alexander C. Kaufman

For weeks now, the country-music star John Rich has waged a very public battle against a proposed gas-fired power plant near his home in Nashville. The Tennessee Valley Authority, the largest public energy provider in the United States, says the new plant will keep blackouts at bay and prices low; Rich, along with environmental groups who have vocally opposed the project, is worried about “water contamination, destroyed farms, noise and air pollution.

Resources have always determined power. The British empire’s command over coal helped expand the realm to the ends of the earth. The United States entered World War II as a dominant oil power and for decades consolidated control over global supply. This century, power could be built on batteries, solar panels, and artificial intelligence. And China has a grip on the minerals—rare-earth elements, lithium, graphite—needed to make them.