[ Editor’s note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Energy . ]
By Steve Milloy
Real Clear Energy
People disagree on climate science and …
[ Editor’s note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Energy.] By Steve Milloy Real Clear Energy People disagree on climate science and the magnitude and effects of climate change. That said, there is one thing on which we should all be able to agree: Joe Biden’s climate plan will put America at the mercy of its superpower rival, China. Joe Biden’s climate agenda involves replacing the coal and gas plants powering our electrical grid with wind and solar farms. He also wants to replace gasoline-powered cars, buses and trucks with electric vehicles. A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), “ The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions,” lays out the national security implications of this plan. The technologies involved in wind and solar power and electric vehicles are much more reliant than their conventional alternatives on metals and minerals including copper, lithium, nickel, manganese, cobalt, graphite chromium, molybdenum, zinc, rare-earths and silicon. Wind and solar technologies require about three to eight times more of these materials per megawatt of electricity than coal and natural gas plants. Electric cars require about five times more of these materials than conventional cars. Putting aside the very significant issue of how the world could possibly ramp up the production of these essential materials in the quantities that would be required not only by the U.
