Posted on 06/20/2011 8:00:35 PM PDT by curth
Over the past few weeks, I’ve written about the risks of dependence on foreign resources that will come with the “green” energy revolution, at least in the direction favored by the Obama administration. Elements required for critical components such as lithium batteries for electric cars cannot be found in massive quantities within the US, and a number of the rare-earth elements needed for these components are mainly found in China — which can be fairly described as an economic competitor of the US at the very least. Today’s report from the Financial Times should drive that point home and send up red flags on “green” mandates, both literally and figuratively:
Prices of some rare earth metals have doubled in just three weeks amid heavy stockpiling in China that has raised fears over global supplies.
China produces more than 90 per cent of the world’s rare earths, 17 elements used in hybrid cars, fluorescent lights and many high-tech applications. …
Japan and the US, the world’s biggest importers of rare earths, have repeatedly voiced concerns to China, while complaints from industrial users of rare earths have been growing. Last year, China cut their exports by 40 per cent and temporarily banned exports to Japan during a political dispute.
American policymakers should keep China’s treatment of Japan in mind. By making our economy entirely dependent on rare-earth imports from China, the US will be handing Beijing a big, fat veto on American policy, especially in — but not necessarily limited to — foreign policy. Politicians will scoff, but no one wants to be in Congress or the White House when a trade dispute (or anything else) sends the country into recession. You can ask Democrats in 2010 about that, or Republicans in 2008, for that matter. China understands how to wield its power, and it won’t shy away from doing so with the United States.
Ironically, one of the top political rationales to use government mandates and influence to convert personal transportation onto the electrical grid is the notion of energy independence. That’s a fallacy at the most basic level, as there is no domestic energy resource abundant and reliable enough to handle the electrical demand from adding millions of cars to the electrical grid except for fossil fuels and nuclear power, none of which environmental activists want to allow. But with China in control on the manufacturing side, we can’t even be assured the ability to build the machines in the first place, let alone fuel them, unless we agree to give China a veto on American policy.
People complain about the autocratic and arbitrary nature of OPEC and the greed of oil speculators, but at least that energy infrastructure has some built-in safeguards. First, that market does not have a shortage of resources, nor does it have a shortage of producers. The US is sitting on tens of billions of barrels of oil (perhaps hundreds of billions) that we could access if we had the political will to do so, plus almost unlimited natural gas, coal, and so on. Speculators affect the market somewhat disproportionately in part because the US refuses to access its own reserves, creating a mild, artificial scarcity. Rare-earth elements really are scarce, and they are mainly controlled by only one producer nation. OPEC will look like a country club in comparison to China’s central control of critical “green” energy elements.
GE and other corporations looking to cash in on the Obama administration’s green-energy policies want the White House to take action to guarantee reliable domestic sources of rare-earth elements. Unfortunately, we have no real proven reserves of these elements in the US, so it will take the kind of exploration and mining that the EPA is attempting to stop in coal and natural gas to find it — if it exists. To produce it on the scale needed if it indeed exists at all, we would have to roll back decades of EPA obstacles to American energy production. As the Financial Times noted, the only reason China has its proven reserves is that Beijing imposes only “lax environmental standards” to make rare-earth mining cheap enough to be profitable.
Why not do that for the energy resources we already know we have — and at least with natural gas, will produce a clean energy that can power the American economy for centuries while we work on other energy forms for the future? Isn’t that smarter than signing up to be a puppet of Beijing?
Thorium is found fairly well distributed over the Earth.
Rare Earths are also found fairly well distributed over the Earth.
The problem with making use of them arises in processing the ore since there are residual radioactive particles hither and yon. Mining isn't really a problem either, nor is downstream use of the separated elements.
The lack of supply has to do with the development of safe ore crushing operations. China was less careful. They have contaminated broad areas with radioactive debris as a consequence. Their mines are shutting down.
We have an old refurbished mine and extraction operation opening up this summer.
Hey, it's summer, it's opening up!
Who would have guessed? Now’s the time to push electric-battery cars ... say like a Government Motors Dolt! Yes, we got them fancy Phd Doctors working for the government on this I’m sure.
You must be some crazy write winger. I’m listening to AM radio and Summer Breeze makes me feel fine.
Those battery-powered cars are going to get v-e-r-y pricey (not that they aren’t already).
The US has several deposits of rare earths but we’re letting China bleed us dry.
I looked up what thorium turns into (thorium series) and none of the results of radioactive decomposition are rare earths.
But they say thorium and uranium are abundant in the tailings from mining rare earths, so what is the connection there
The United States does have significant deposits of rare earth elements, but the envirowackos have blocked mining these deposits, even with the United States having more stringent regulations than China. So where are we getting rare earth for things like ring gyros (part of inertial guidance systems)? China.
From what I understand.....Afghanistan has HUGE amounts of Lithium which the Russians were very interested in. I will try to post links later as my browser is all messed up in FireFox.
The list, ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
The list, ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
Drill, Baby, Drill and Mine, Baby, Mine; Serious Consequences
by Sarah Palin on Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 10:41am
Although the Left chooses to mock the mantra of “drill, baby, drill,” and they ignorantly argue against the facts pertaining to the need for America to responsibly develop her domestic supply of natural resources, surely they can’t argue the national security implications of relying on foreign countries to extract supplies that America desperately needs for industry, jobs, and security. Some of the countries we’re now reliant upon and will soon be beholden to can easily use energy and mineral supplies as a weapon against us.
The solution? Simply, please don’t elect politicians who cast votes that lock up our plentiful supplies. Please consider the case of China bending us over a barrel as it develops rare earth minerals while we ban mining. Please consider Venezuela and Russia and Saudi Arabia and Brazil (as we subsidize their off-shore drilling) and all other energy-producing countries as the Left locks up ANWR, NPR-A, and other American lands that are teeming with our own needed energy supplies.
“Drill, baby, drill and mine, baby, mine.” Yep, the mantra may be mocked by the Democrats, but serious consequences ensue when we let the Left make us rely on foreign countries to feed us energy. The joke is on us if they win.
“Why not do that for the energy resources we already know we have — and at least with natural gas, will produce a clean energy that can power the American economy for centuries while we work on other energy forms for the future?”
Because b. hussein o. doesn’t WANT to do what’s best for America - he intends to bring us down.
“Isn’t that smarter than signing up to be a puppet of Beijing?”
Not for BHO it isn’t.
Once people finally get this, instead of always being puzzled, everything the Traitor in Chief does will make perfect sense.
You are right, Thorium doesn’t come from REE, and REEs don’t come from thorium.
The most important REE ore is MONAZITE and its main chemical formula is [(Ce,La,Y,Th) PO4].
REEs are associated with thorium in this mineral
This is a little off topic, but I recently heard that all of our U.S. electrical transformers are made in China and that if a solar storm were to knock out our grid, it would be a long long long time before those transformers could be replaced since we do not keep a large supply for backup. Don’t know for sure, just thought I would throw that idea out there.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.