Energy Dependence Doubled by Chinese

Here is just another disaster waiting to happen to our energy supply - not that solar energy is much of a factor, yet, but still the Chinese are using their resources to extract as much capital as possible from everyone else. In it's self, not a bad idea for them as we would do the same thing if it were our resource.

But in the face of our energy demand, that increases every year for manufacturing and personal use, Obama and his kind demand we stop coal production, stop drilling for oil and refuse to allow more nuclear power plants or trying to shut down the plants we have now have in favor of "green" energy sources. These sources, now or in the future, do not supply anywhere near our demand for energy.

It seem it doesn't matter what happens to our economy as long as Barack Obama's agenda is pushed forward. This, of course, is not lost on the Chinese.


Rare Earth Dependence
Source: H. Sterling Burnett, "Rare Earth Dependence," Public Broadcasting, August 19, 2011.

Increasing the United States' reliance on a "clean" energy, as touted by President Obama, is a risky policy that leaves Americans dependent on China for supplies of critical energy resources, says H. Sterling Burnett a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis.

Key components of every green energy technology -- from wind turbines to high-tech batteries -- are made from of a small class of minerals known as the rare earth elements, and other rare minerals. These elements are abundant, but, for the near future, they are found in economically exploitable concentrations only in the People's Republic of China.

With 97 percent of the global market, China has a de facto monopoly on the trade in these rare elements. And China has already shown itself willing to use its virtual monopoly on rare earths to extract favorable political outcomes from foreign nations.

The production of solar cells relies on the rare element tellurium. However, the only tellurium mine on Earth is in China. As a result, China is increasingly dominating the market for solar manufacturing.

In 2003, China produced only 1 percent of the world's solar panels but by 2009 its share rose to 43 percent. By contrast, since 2003, U.S. production of solar panels fell from 14 percent to just four percent of the world's total. China is increasingly choosing to sell finished green products to the world, rather than exporting its rare earths in raw form. It has eliminated export tax rebates for rare earth elements while increasing the export taxes to as much as 25 percent.

Further, China decreased its export quota by 40 percent between 2009 and 2010.
The push to adopt rare earth-powered energy technologies involves swapping one form of dependence for a much more restrictive one, says Burnett.