If only Deb Haaland’s blank stares could power vehicles
Washington Examiner
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Where do electric vehicle batteries come from? Interior Secretary Deb Haaland seems to think maybe they come from the Rare Earth Fairy.
This was the takeaway from her wide-eyed and persistently clueless testimony this week before the appropriations subcommittee on the interior and the environment. Under questioning from Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), himself a former interior secretary, Haaland repeatedly gave the impression that she knows nothing about the department she heads or the ramifications of the policies she is pushing through it. Her repeated blank stares and hesitant, sheepish answers suggested she was only for the first time hearing crucial facts related to the nation’s natural resources.
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“Are you aware that China controls, by proxy production, the supply chain of critical minerals that are critical to both the [electric vehicle] world and defense?” asked Zinke. “Are you aware, by multiple studies, that in order to satisfy the present requirements of [electric vehicles] and critical minerals to defense, it would take an increase of 2,000% of mining for 20 years?”
Again and again, Haaland thanked Zinke for sharing his information as if she had never heard it before. But these were more than fun facts. The Biden administration gives a great deal of lip service to energy independence and simultaneously makes policies aimed at a so-called clean energy transition. But the two are not compatible. The latter involves pushing everyone toward using windmills, solar panels, and electric vehicles, among other things. Yet at the same time, under Haaland, the Interior has been blocking domestic mining projects, without which any clean energy transition is just a fairy tale.
We noted previously, concerning California’s folly of pursuing electric-only vehicle sales by 2035, that “it is wishful thinking to believe that California,” and most other states for that matter, “will be able to produce enough electricity by 2035 to charge all the cars it is trying to force its residents to buy.” But as we pointed out, this isn’t even the biggest problem. A study by Scientific American found that even if the world’s production of lithium were to triple overnight, it would only provide enough of that metal to maintain — not even to build but just to maintain — the batteries of an all-electric American vehicle fleet. Keep in mind that this would be to the exclusion of the entire rest of the world, which presumably would want some of that lithium.
And it isn’t just lithium, either. Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) pointed to a World Bank study that shows demand for the metals involved in electric vehicles alone — copper, nickel, cobalt, and a host of others — would rise so rapidly that it is hard to imagine ever meeting demand. For example, the world would have to produce in the next 25 years the same amount of copper as it has in the last five millennia.
In short, a green energy future is probably impossible under the best circumstances. And unfortunately, the circumstances are far from the best.
The first obstacle is the Biden administration itself. Haaland, as Zinke pointed out, has recently blocked off mining in northern Minnesota’s Duluth Complex, one of the world’s largest undeveloped mineral deposits. Given the scarcity of domestic lithium mining — there is only one lithium mine in the entire country — a pro-electric vehicle policy only increases American dependency on China and decreases its energy independence.
That might be inconvenient under normal circumstances, but senior members of the Biden administration believe the United States might find itself at war with China very soon. And in the nearer term, China is already aiding Russia’s war against Ukraine, which could soon force President Joe Biden to impose economic sanctions. Where will Biden’s electric vehicle materials come from once that happens?
Is Haaland up to the task of figuring this out? Given her clueless and hesitant responses this week, one must ask: Is Haaland ignorant of the Biden administration’s mining policy, its energy policy, its defense policy, or (most likely) all of the above?
One could say Biden’s left hand doesn’t know what his right hand is doing. But more likely, this is a reflection of the true nature and goals of the modern environmentalist movement. This isn’t about saving the planet; it’s about destroying capitalism and lowering human living standards.