Move Over OPEC: The Next Foreign Embargo May Be A Green One by China!

Guest Post from Ron Stein, P.E.

It seems that no one remembers the Oil Embargo of 1973, just 50 years ago, as America’s National Security is now with China’s monopoly of critical Minerals!

In 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed an oil embargo against the United States, triggering a crude oil crisis that sent the U.S. economy into a recession.

Move over OPEC, today, the “green” revolution to occasionally generated electricity from wind and solar has the world on the cusp of a Green Embargo by China that may trigger a financial crisis that could send the U.S. economy into a recession.

Fifty years ago, in the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis in 1977, the Department of Energy (D.O.E) was established to lessen our dependence on foreign locations for America’s energy independence, but today, with its 14,000 employees and a 2024 budget of $52B, the D.O.E. continues to remain dead silent and has allowed foreign nations to take control of California, and for China to monopolize the supply chain of minerals and metals for America to achieve it’s “green” policies.

California: The fourth-largest economy in the world has increased its imports of crude oil from 5 percent in 1992 to almost 60 percent of total consumption today.

California is home to 9 International airports, 41 Military airports, and 3 of the largest shipping ports in America. California’s growing dependency on other nations for crude oil poses a serious national security risk for America!

China: For the transition to a “green” revolution reliance on electricity, the D.O.E. has remained silent while wind, solar, and electric vehicle policies have made America increasingly dependent on rare earth minerals and metals mined for those batteries under atrocious slave labor and environmental conditions in other countries that the D.O.E. and bureaucratic policymakers accept and encourage!

China controls a stranglehold of 80% of the global supply monopoly on rare earth minerals and metals, with the Congo in Africa a 90% source of vital cobalt.

Graphite: On a total component basis, graphite accounts for about 25% to 28% of an EV battery. Turkey has the largest reserves of graphite, followed by Brazil and China. Together, these three countries account for 66% of the estimated world graphite reserves.

Environmentalists’ vision just toward the wealthier countries on this planet that can afford the cost of regulations for the environmental movement, large batteries for electric cars, trucks, buses, and electricity generated occasionally by wind turbines and solar panels is tunnel vision that is hypocritical, unethical, and immoral.

• China controls a stranglehold of 80% of the global supply monopoly on rare earth minerals and metals.

• The Congo in Africa is a 90% source of vital cobalt.

• Lithium: The Lithium Triangle, which covers parts of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile, holds more than 50% of the world’s supply of lithium.

• Graphite: On a total component basis, graphite accounts for about 25% to 28% of an EV battery. Turkey has the largest reserves of graphite, followed by Brazil and China. Together, these three countries account for 66% of the estimated world graphite reserves.

Today, a typical EV battery weighs 1,000 pounds and contains:

• 25 pounds of lithium,

• 60 pounds of nickel,

• 44 pounds of manganese,

• 30 pounds cobalt,

• 200 pounds of copper, and

• 400 pounds of aluminum, steel, and plastic.

• Inside are over 6,000 individual lithium-ion cells.

It should concern everyone that all those “blood minerals” come from mining at locations in the world that are never seen by environmentalists, policymakers, or EV buyers.

• For instance, to manufacture each EV auto battery, you must process 25,000 pounds of brine for lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore for cobalt, 5,000 pounds of ore for nickel, and 25,000 pounds of ore for copper. All told, just one Tesla EV battery requires the processing of more than 500,000 pounds of materials somewhere on the planet.

• A battery for a heavy-duty electric truck can weigh up to 16,000 pounds, which is 16 times more than the Tesla battery! A single truck battery requires 8,000,000 pounds of earth to be dug up. That’s astounding – digging up 8 million pounds of earth for each truck battery!

EVs are heavily subsidized in multiple ways: through direct federal and state tax benefits to purchasers, through government loan incentives to manufacturers, and through added production costs passed on to gasoline vehicle purchasers.

Both China and Africa have minimal labor and environmental laws, resulting in extensive environmental degradation and humanity atrocities that support “clean” EV batteries. Both Lithium and Cobalt, the major components of the EV battery, are noted on The Periodic Table of Endangered Elements as having limited availability or experiencing a rising threat from increased usage.

It appears that it is both unethical and immoral to continue financially encouraging China and Africa to exploit “their” poor with yellow, brown, and black skin and financially supporting environmental degradation to “their” landscapes just to support clean EV batteries in “our backyards”!

The D.O.E.’s silence has become deafening as America approaches three and a half years into the Biden presidency—a presidency that from the outset promised an “all-government” regulatory onslaught to force a transition away from fossil fuels and to “green” electricity. The regulatory onslaught on fossil fuels has provided incentives for China to attain control of America’s green movement toward electricity!

China is positioned to influence lithium-ion battery production worldwide adversely. China has monopoly control over processed graphite, an essential component of almost all lithium-ion batteries. Virtually all processed graphite, natural and synthetic, is made in China and then exported to the battery makers worldwide.

These batteries are used universally in electric and electronic devices, from cell phones and watches to EVs and huge grid-scale backup batteries; they also have numerous essential military uses.

China is just now beginning to implement an export control program for processed graphite. By controlling exports, China could, to a significant degree, adversely influence lithium-ion battery production, such as by raising prices to selected producers or even blacklisting entire countries.

Thus, the potential adverse impact of the Chinese monopoly power is enormous. What they will do remains to be seen, but the threat is very real.”

Much has been written about China’s market power in other crucial materials like cobalt and rare earths. However, these cases are weak compared to its monopoly in processed graphite.

China is a major player in both cases, coincidentally producing about 70% of processed cobalt and 70% of rare earths. Numbers like this are nothing like monopoly control, as many other suppliers exist. China consumes most of its production because it makes a lot of lithium-ion batteries. It is a net importer of rare earths.

China’s stranglehold monopoly on the global supply of rare earth minerals and metals for the “green” movement to EVs and generating electricity by wind and solar is a clear and potential “embargo” danger to the American and World economies.

To reiterate, move over OPEC, the next foreign embargo may be a “Green” Embargo by China!

Please share this information with your friends to encourage energy literacy conversations at the family dinner table.

Reposted from America Out Loud News with permission of the author.

Ronald Stein, P.E. is an engineer, energy consultant, speaker, author of books and articles on energy, environmental policy, and human rights, and Founder of PTS Advance, a California based company.

#Graphite #EVs #China #Mining #RareEarths