Most Lithium comes from South America and Australia and has for some time. I do not believe that Lithium has ever had the geopolitical issues that other rare earth metals such as cobalt have had.

There's no good reason to use lithium for utility-scale power storage. We need it for transportation because it has the best power compared to its weight. Utility storage doesn't care as much about weight, and there are plenty of better options.

The best way for it to beef up someone's bank account is for us to play our cards right and use it to compete on the global market.

Only if demand levels off. Demand will not level off

Li-On batteries have drastically decreased their prices over the last 10+ years.