Free Republic

The race to a low-carbon future via electric vehicles already comes with a hefty price tag. But that price tag may enlarge even more in the coming months if the skyrocketing cost of lithium serves as any indication. What are the details? The cost of lithium carbonate — a key ingredient used in the manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries and other low-carbon energy resources such as solar panels — has jumped 95% already in 2022, and is up almost 500% year-over-year. According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a leading price reporting agency, battery-grade lithium carbonate (EXW China, ≥99.5% Li2CO3) was averaging...

President Obama recently said, “The most important lesson I’ve learned is you can’t change Washington from the inside.” That’s demoralizing to hear when a recession is bearing down on the economy—and it’s an inside job. The Congressional Budget Office has forecasted a fresh recession to hit next year if Taxmageddon, a nearly $500 billion tax increase, hits the nation and Congress and the President drive us off the “fiscal cliff.” President Obama has done nothing but ignore this warning. In a new report, Heritage’s J.D. Foster explains that the very fact that we can see a recession coming is shocking....

Mort Zuckerman, who publishes the New York Daily News when he's not socializing with Bill and Hillary Clinton, is warning Democrats against choosing Howard Dean as their standard bearer, calling the Vermont Democrat "an albatross" who is likely to lead his party "over the cliff." Zuckerman's paper - America's largest circulation daily tabloid - slammed the Democratic presidential front-runner in its lead editorial on Tuesday, saying several of Dean's recent comments make him seem soft on terrorism. Said the News: "It is astonishing that Democrats cannot see the doom that awaits if they nominate a candidate who said this about...

The Democratic Party has an albatross, and his name is Howard Dean, the candidate most likely to succeed in the party's fast-approaching Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary as he drives toward a presidential nomination. The former Vermont governor has risen above the monotonal drone of his rivals by capitalizing on the rage that many Democrats harbor toward President Bush, notably over the war in Iraq. The difficulty is that fury does not a successful campaign make. It also blinds. It is astonishing that Democrats cannot see the doom that awaits if they nominate a candidate who said this about...

Dean goes over the cliff Posted: December 17, 20031:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com "But the capture of Saddam Hussein has not made America safer."Wait a minute. Wait a minute. That was an amazing statement. We ought to stay and think on it a bit. The statement came from Howard Dean, who had carefully re-crafted his "big foreign-policy speech" delivered in Los Angeles on Monday to reflect circumstances after the capture of Saddam. So many people are saying stupid things, that the "stupid things people are saying" commentary is accumulating at a torrential rate. Bloggers are in overdrive – see Andrew Sullivan...

On the basis of political momentum, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is now the frontrunner for the Democrats' 2004 presidential nomination. And if history is any guide, he's in the process of leading the party to disastrous defeat. Dean has roared from obscurity by expressing--and fueling--the near-hatred that Democratic activists feel for President Bush and all his works, especially the Iraq war. The danger is that the party will put itself in the same position it occupied in 1972, 1984 and 1988--far to the left of mainstream American opinion--and it will lose the election in a landslide. Dean doesn't lead...

On the basis of political momentum, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is now the frontrunner for the Democrats' 2004 presidential nomination. And if history is any guide, he's in the process of leading the party to disastrous defeat. Dean has roared from obscurity by expressing--and fueling--the near-hatred that Democratic activists feel for President Bush and all his works, especially the Iraq war. The danger is that the party will put itself in the same position it occupied in 1972, 1984 and 1988--far to the left of mainstream American opinion--and it will lose the election in a landslide. Dean doesn't lead...