President Joe Biden is for the children.
At least, that’s what he says in his “plan for a Clean Energy Revolution and Environmental Justice” and in his executive order on “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.”
Climate change activists have said much the same. But by their own metrics, there are a few problems.
Biden’s proposal to transition away from hydrocarbons such as oil, natural gas, and coal involves significant logistical, environmental, and economic challenges that flow from the acquisition, chemical processing, and refining of rare earth minerals that are essential for green energy. Moreover, the mining techniques used to obtain the minerals used in wind turbines, solar panels, and electric vehicles could put the children Biden champions in a compromising position.
Those are just some of the major takeaways from a 287-page report from the International Energy Agency titled “The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions” that calls attention to the massive costs and environmental impact of green energy materials. It is the climate change policies advanced through the Biden White House, as opposed to climate change per se, that jeopardize the health, wellness, and safety of the most vulnerable populations.
After analyzing Biden’s proposed transition to green energy, IEA concludes that demand for lithium would rise by 4,200%, graphite by 2,500%, nickel by 1,900%, and rare earth metals by 700%. The idea that this demand could ever be met is a fantasy. But the green energy initiatives that are already well underway will have significant economic, environmental, geopolitical, and ethical ramifications that are a harsh reality. As the IEA report explains, that’s largely because the Democratic Republic of Congo and the People’s Republic of China “were responsible for some 70% and 60% of global production of cobalt and rare earth elements respectively in 2019.”
The report also notes that Chinese companies have made significant investments in Australia, Chile, the Congo, and Indonesia. China’s emerging dominance over green energy supply chains could give it significant leverage over the United States. That’s the geopolitical side.
On the environmental side, the extraction and transportation of massive rocks and other materials is much more energy-intensive than what is required for fossil fuels that can be shipped and moved at much less cost and with a smaller footprint. But here’s the real kicker for political figures and climate change activists who have settled on “net zero emissions” by 2050. The IEA report shows that whatever emissions might be saved by driving electric cars would be canceled out by the emissions generated as a consequence of the mining used to obtain the materials that go into electric cars!
The switch from fossil fuels to green energy makes no sense, either economically or environmentally. But what about the children?
Bonner Cohen, a senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research in Washington, D.C., has some insight into that question. “The clean, green future envisioned by the Biden administration for our children will not be possible without cobalt, which is used in batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and as backup power for wind turbines and solar arrays,” Cohen told the Washington Examiner. “Sixty percent of the world’s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where child labor is used in the mining of cobalt. Children there are sent into the mines as young as age seven. What about these children? Their lives are being sacrificed so that Wall Street investment houses and purveyors of green energy can make out like bandits from an industry already awash in taxpayer subsidies.”
In the spirit of the times, Biden claims “people of color” are “more likely” to suffer from climate change than their white counterparts. But as Cohen points out, it’s those very people who will be among the first victims of his climate change policies.
Kevin Mooney (@KevinMooneyDC) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is an investigative reporter in Washington, D.C., who writes for several national publications.
