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China uses disinformation campaigns to stoke protests against proposed mines

Chinese REE mining driven by heavy subsidies, low wages, dirty emissions, and poor environmental standards

Needed Response: Reducing Demand by Ending Green Energy Subsidies and Mandates. The more the United States embraces green energy technologies, the worse off it will be geopolitically and economically. Demand for green energy would fall if there were not huge government subsidies, grants and mandates, because green energy is more expensive and less reliable than traditional energy production.

As the push to adopt rare earth-intensive energy technologies intensifies, those concerned about U. S. energy security could find that the tradeoff involves swapping one form of dependence for a much more perilous one. In addition, the diversion of scarce rare earths to green energy technologies means that there is less available for critical aerospace and military technologies.

Their names sound as if they are part of some science fiction universe: yttrium, dysprosium, samarium, neodymium. They are rare-earth elements (REEs)—little-known but crucial ingredients in much modern US military aerospace technology.

Take lasers. Lockheed Martin is working on a small, high-power laser weapon that the Air Force Research Laboratory wants to test in a tactical fighter aircraft by 2021. Its active gain medium is a flexible optical fiber infused with a rare-earth element such as erbium or neodymium.

Zaagman, 20 --- writer, speaker, and executive coach who focuses on how China and its organisations engage the world (13 Nov 2020, Elliott, “Biden’s clean energy plan versus China’s green tech dominance; The US might be able to construct a clean-energy supply chain without relying on China, but it won’t be easy,” https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/biden-s-clean-energy-plan-versus-china-s-green-tech-dominance, JMP))

However, a number of observers in Washington worry that in pursuit of tackling the climate crisis, a Biden administration would weaken its hand in challenging China’s growing assertiveness. Many critics of the Obama administration, in which Biden played a leading role in foreign affairs, were not pleased with how US-China relations were managed during that time. As they see it, China’s rising aggression was insufficiently countered by the US, in an attempt to gain cooperation from the PRC on the Iran nuclear deal and Paris Agreement on climate change. As America recommits to combatting climate change, there is a concern that they will once again will give up too much to China at the expense of the interests of America and its allies.

The rare earth industry is also crucial to the United States’ clean energy future. As Manish Negam, an analyst at Credit Suisse, emphasizes clean technologies such as solar panels and wind turbines, as well as electric vehicles, would be the worst hit by any supply chain disruptions. If the U.S. is serious about transitioning to a low-carbon economy, as it should be, then we must realize that doing so without a reliable supply chain of rare earth minerals is literally impossible. Mark Mills of the Manhattan Institute recently published a study outlining the material requirements of the clean energy transition; he found that any major expansion of clean energy technologies will require an unprecedented increase in rare earth mining, yet the U.S. is 100 percent reliant on imports for some 17 critical minerals, and 50 percent reliant for a further 29.

Aside from the recent relief package proposal, there are other encouraging signs of a political evolution on this matter. For example, the bipartisan Reclaiming American Rare Earths (RARE) Act, introduced in the House on Sept. 1, offers a comprehensive framework of tax incentives to stimulate more investment into the U.S.-based rare earth reserves and mineral production, as well as a series of grants for mining and mineral recovery projects. Similarly, Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska.) American Mineral Security Act is another step in the right direction, and is likely what the Senate Energy Committee relief package is referring to. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs are also playing an important role. From Alaska to Texas, companies and startups are advancing mining development, and a site in Colorado will be the first non-China facility for refining rare earth ores, a crucial process that has been outsourced to China for decades. The latter in particular, a joint venture between Japan, Australia and the U.S., also shows the potential for international collaboration with like-minded countries on rare earth exploration. Moreover, a mountain in Wyoming called Bear Lodge is America’s largest known deposit of rare earth minerals, with approximately 18 million tons that could supply the U.S. for years to come, although extraction has proven a challenge.

Preserving our environment and protecting our air, soil, and water is a shared value among people of all political stripes. But the environmental policies the Biden administration has proposed would do significant harm to the economy and national security, as well as undermine well-meaning efforts to protect the environment.

America’s abundant, affordable supply of energy is the driving force that makes modern life possible. The Biden administration’s “rush to green” agenda threatens to disrupt this energy supply and give China and our international competitors the upper hand. Indeed, the negative economic and national security implications of President Joe Biden ’s “Green New Deal” future threaten our very way of life.

Moving the world to 100-percent renewable energy under a Green New Deal, or the Paris climate accord, will require at least a twelvefold increase in the not-so-green practice of hardrock mining, according to a new study backed by prominent environmental consultants.

"The current global supply of several critical metals is insufficient to transition to a renewable energy system," a new study released Thursday by Leiden University in the Netherlands and environmental consulting firms Metabolic and Copper8 concludes.

As the U.S. economy strives to decarbonize amid escalating geopolitical tensions, President Joe Biden in February 2021 requested a review of the United States’ vulnerabilities in critical mineral and materials supply chains. Critical minerals, such as cobalt, lithium, and nickel, are core inputs for clean energy technologies and EV batteries. The subsequent report [PDF] issued by the White House in June unveiled an unsettling reality: critical mineral supply chains are concentrated in a few nations, heightening U.S. vulnerabilities. The report also shed light on China’s aggressive use of industrial policies to promote domestic production and establish dominance in the global market share of critical mineral supply chains. Data from the 2022 U.S. Geological Survey shows that the United States is 100 percent import-dependent on twelve critical minerals and more than fifty percent import-dependent on thirty-one additional minerals. China is the largest source of imports for twenty-six of the fifty minerals classified as critical by the U.S. government. This predicament has undeniably emerged as a national security concern for U.S. policymakers.

From Washington’s vantage point, the amalgamation of onshore, nearshore, and friend-shore initiatives helps to curb China’s dominance in critical minerals supply chains. However, Beijing views those regional partnerships and critical mineral mini-alliances as manifestations of a united Western containment strategy against China. As both Washington and Beijing persist in their endeavors to optimize the security of their respective critical minerals supply chains, if not adeptly managed, the potential for their broader strategic rivalry to escalate and spill over the Indo-Pacific region looms ominously.

The clean energy technologies sector is expected to increase demand for REEs considerably, because strong magnets are critical in the construction of direct drive wind turbines and permanent magnet motors for electric vehicles (DOE 2019; Hanejko 2020).

Direct drive wind turbines currently make up a small fraction of the total wind energy capacity in the United States. However, their high efficiency and relatively low maintenance requirements compared to other turbine technologies have put direct drive wind turbines in consideration for large-scale offshore wind installations.

Climate change is presenting humans with an unprecedented challenge: the need to wean ourselves off of a group of valuable natural resources; not because of scarcity or cost, but because of their long-term global pollution impacts. Although the combined capabilities of wind, solar, hydropower, and geothermal technologies have the potential to harness near limitless amounts of energy from our environment, they are not free from the limitations of resource availability.

On the contrary, the clean energy transition will require economic mobilization on a scale not seen since the industrial revolution, and will strain the global production of silicon, cobalt, lithium, manganese, and a host of other critical elements (Behr 2019).

Moving the world to 100-percent renewable energy under a Green New Deal, or the Paris climate accord, will require at least a twelvefold increase in the not-so-green practice of hardrock mining, according to a new study backed by prominent environmental consultants.

"The current global supply of several critical metals is insufficient to transition to a renewable energy system," a new study released Thursday by Leiden University in the Netherlands and environmental consulting firms Metabolic and Copper8 concludes.

An energy system powered by clean energy technologies differs profoundly from one fuelled by traditional hydrocarbon resources. Solar photovoltaic (PV) plants, wind farms and electric vehicles (EVs) generally require more minerals to build than their fossil fuel-based counterparts. A typical electric car requires six times the mineral inputs of a conventional car and an onshore wind plant requires nine times more mineral resources than a gas-fired plant. Since 2010 the average amount of minerals needed for a new unit of power generation capacity has increased by 50% as the share of renewables in new investment has risen.

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Even as Chinese rare earth players cement their footholds in international markets, other countries are slowly making progress in rebuilding their rare earth supply chains. They have a singular purpose: to loosen China’s grip on these precious metals.

In striking a multitude of recent deals, Western nations and their allies trying to rely less on China for purified rare earths, which go into everything from iPhones to EVs to semiconductors. This marks a huge realignment in trade—one that goes by names like “friendshoring” and “nearshoring.”

Critical minerals have become the new frontline of the rivalry between the world’s two superpowers.

The United States looked to have taken a giant leap in this arms race late March with the signing of a cooperation agreement with Japan covering various minerals for electric car batteries.

Progress towards an energy transition appears to be significantly lagging the optimistic projections and any reduction in government mandates and subsidies could make many investments unprofitable, and at least some elements of the energy transition appear to be driven by irrational exuberance – Michael Lynch, Energy Policy Research Foundation, 2022

The loudening insistence that renewables should displace, not just supplement, fossil fuels and nuclear energy in the power sector has some undeniable problems.

Nobody loves the Biden administration’s new EPA regulations to force huge amounts of electric cars onto the power grid more than the beleaguered coal industry.

Electric cars and the overarching goal of electrification will surely surge U.S. electricity demand, a sector that has been flat at 4,100 terawatt hours since the Great Recession 15 years ago (see figure).

Subsidies for clean energy will become politically, or financially, untenable

Electric cars require six times the minerals that conventional oil-based cars

A bipartisan bill set to be introduced in Congress this week would offer a tax credit for establishing rare-earth magnet production in the U.S., a crucial component for the clean-energy transition. MP Materials efforts to build a local supply chain demonstrate the challenge for American producers.

The bill, to be introduced by Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R., Pa.) and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D., Calif.), includes a $20-a-kilogram credit for U.S.-made magnets, while manufacturers sourcing 90% of their component parts from U.S. producers could be entitled to a $30-a-kilogram credit, according to a draft seen by The Wall Street Journal. The credit is planned to be phased out by Dec. 31, 2035.

Does the Inflation Reduction Act Require Critical Minerals to Be Sourced Domestically?

Yes, to some extent. The Inflation Reduction Act explicitly requires domestic sourcing of critical minerals only for its electric vehicle tax credits. Other clean energy technologies (such as wind and solar) do not need to use domestically sourced minerals to qualify for the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) or Production Tax Credit (PTC). However, the act offers an additional 10% bonus credit to incentivize companies to incorporate U.S.-sourced critical minerals in all types of clean energy components.

DOE, 23 (APRIL 4, 2023, “Biden-Harris Administration Invests $16 Million to Build America's First-of-a-Kind Critical Minerals Production Facility,” https://www.energy.gov/articles/biden-harris-administration-invests-16-million-build-americas-first-kind-critical-minerals, JMP))

WASHINGTON, D.C.— As part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $16 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to bring critical mineral supply chains to America and reduce reliance on competitors like China. The funding will support projects in West Virginia and North Dakota for the development of a first-of-a-kind rare earth element and critical minerals extraction and separation refinery. Rare earth elements and other critical minerals and materials are key to manufacturing clean energy technologies right here in America that will help the nation reach the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.