Saturday, April 21, 2018

No Blood for Solar Panels!

For a large part of my adult life, liberals have cried "no blood for oil" to condemn reliance on oil for our economic health. That problem seems to be receding, but will competition for rare earths replace the central role of oil?

This is interesting:

The [2018 United States Geological Survey] has provided a sobering wake-up call. Assuring access to 42 vital minerals and rare earths that the USGS identifies as critical now ranks high on the list of national security and economic security issues in the 21st century. ...

The American public likes solar power. ...

Do you like your clean energy depending on the whims of the Communist Party in Beijing? That's the mob that approved the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre of 2,000 pro-democracy demonstrators.

You have to admit that there is some dark humor in the fact that the push for "cheap and clean" renewable energy sources to replace fossil fuels has just created the need to compete for the rare elements that allow us to build solar panels, electric cars, and windmills.

And smart phones, for that matter. Will there be blood shed for gallium so you can freely Snapchat?