Another roadblock in left's war against energy

Legal Insurrection: 

Metal Shortages and Escalating Costs May Short-Circuit Green Energy Schemes 

GM Electric Battery Engineer: “We have neither the raw materials nor the manufacturing capacity” to support massive transition away from fossil fuels.

 In the wake of the explosion in gas prices, Biden and his posse pushed the need to transition to electric vehicles to “reduce reliance on fossil fuels.”

Apparently, politicians and green justice advocates forget that, like oil, components of electric batteries come from the Earth.  Therefore, they are subject to supply chain challenges, shortages, and rising prices.

A good example is nickel.  The price of this electric battery component is surging, as it turns out Russia is a key supplier of the metal.

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Bob Galyen, who engineered the battery for the General Motors EV1 (the first mass-produced electric vehicle) underscores problems with other critical electrical battery components as well as the fact this country refuses to tap into its own extensive resources.

Simply building and selling electric cars, or providing subsidies for the people who make and buy them, isn’t enough. Electric cars need batteries the same way combustion cars need fuel — and the metal in those batteries can be just as precious and hard to get as gas. People like Galyen are worried the US simply isn’t ready for that switchover, or doing enough to get ready.

The United States sources about 90% of the lithium it uses from Argentina and Chile, and contributes less than 1% of global production of nickel and cobalt, according to the Department of Energy. China refines 60% of the world’s lithium and 80% of the cobalt. Those metals are critical for electric vehicles.

Galyen said he’s struggled to get the United States to create a long-term plan for electric batteries, instead watching as priorities shift depending on what political party holds the White House. The Biden administration has pushed for electric vehicles, yet halted mining projects in Arizona and Minnesota that would boost domestic supply of electric vehicle materials.

“We have neither the raw materials nor the manufacturing capacity,” Galyen told CNN Business. “If the wrong country goes to war with us, we don’t have enough batteries to support our military.”

I will point out that many of the elite laughed off President Donald Trump’s bid to purchase Greenland from Denmark. It turns out that Greenland has many of the resources necessary to support the electrical vehicle industry.

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The obsessive focus on CO2 omits the problems with other possible resources.   It should also be noted that fossil fuels are an important supplier of fertilizer for farming as well as fule for farm equipment to make the farms productive.