Rare earths supply is a green problem

Al Gore and greens in America have used the nation’s dependency on foreign oil as a lever to push for hybrid cars and alternative energy sources, especially renewables like solar and wind.

The problem is that America is simply switching from one dependency to another. Instead of sending billions of dollars to Saudi Arabia for oil, the push toward renewable technologies shifts the dependency to China, which holds a near monopoly on the supply of rare earths which are used in wind turbines, rechargeable batteries and solar panels, not to mention its many uses in hybrid vehicles:

awkward

The recent panic over China using rare earths as a political bargaining chip highlights the issue of plunging blindly into a green vision of the future. At least with oil there are plenty of alternative sources. If OPEC tried to do what China did with rare earths the Canadian oilsands among others would be happy to pick up the supply slack, despite what cowardly Greenpeace hippies might think. Oil is fungible, rare earths are not and will not be so until America and/or Australia begin serious production of their own to compete with China.

Rare earths have long been an inconvenient truth for greens. The reason China has led the world in production is not because it’s the only place on the planet to find rare earths, but that it is one of the few places on the planet willing to do the dirty, eco-unfriendly work that America and other nations refuse to do.

China knows how to play the geopolitical game, they have already positioned their next tightening of supply in western-friendly terms - the 2011 forecast is lower because they want to ‘clean-up’ the mining operations to improve safety. Uh-huh, and I have a nice beach front property in Utah for sale.

The message for Big Green in America is simple - there can never be energy independence unless the country is willing and able to product what it needs for itself or from reliable, friendly neighbors. If greens really care about the notion of reducing dependence on foreign supplies the best thing they could do is get out of the way and stop the endless lawfare campaigns against industry.