We Are Now Dependent Upon a Whole Different Country For Energy – And They Don’t Like Us Either

Thanks Barrack!  All this idiotic talk of making us energy independent was horse-pucky.  We could have drilled, nucleared, and gassed our way to independence, but instead you wanted wind, solar, and electric vehicles.

Sure, those things reduce our dependence on the middle east, but now we’re even more dependent on the far east.

The New York Times is reporting that now, China is blocking rare earth exports to Japan over a a fishing boat captain.

Sharply raising the stakes in a dispute over Japan’s detention of a Chinese fishing trawler captain, the Chinese government has placed a trade embargo on all exports to Japan of a crucial category of minerals used in products like hybrid cars, wind turbines and guided missiles.

They are also used in the manufacture of solar panels, magnets, and many other parts and pieces necessary for the production of  Obama’s green energy.  How important is China in the green energy area?

China mines 93 percent of the world’s rare earth minerals, and more than 99 percent of the world’s supply of some of the most prized rare earths..

Looks pretty important.

Not only does China hold a major portion of our debt, but they now have a stranglehold on an important natural resource that the green energy movement has made us all too dependent upon.  Of course American companies could just buy the rare earth minerals directly and manufacture what we need, right?

American companies now rely mostly on Japan for magnets and other components using rare earth elements, as the United States’ manufacturing capacity in the industry became uncompetitive and mostly closed over the last two decades.

Oh, that’s right, due to high corporate tax rates and uncompetitive union pay .. we can’t.  Unions, taxes.. who’s special interests are those?  Yup, the Obarrassment.

Even if we did manage to rebuild some sort of manufacturing capability to build the components we need, we would still be held hostage by China.  What happens when we catch a Chinese spy and want to try him?  Oops, no rare earth minerals for us.

If you think this is just a green energy problem, look at how Congress and the Defense Department are reacting to China’s new found power (emphasis added).

The House Armed Services Committee has scheduled a hearing on Oct. 5 to review the American military dependence on Chinese rare earth elements.

The Defense Department has a separate review under way on whether the United States should develop its own sources of supply for rare earths, which are also used in equipment including rangefinders on the Army’s tanks, sonar systems aboard Navy vessels and the control vanes on the Air Force’s smart bombs.

..

“We are going to be 100 percent reliant on the Chinese to make the components for the defense supply chain,” Mr. Green said.

This is no small problem and turning to green energy has apparently made us no less dependent upon countries that hate us.  Just one more unintended consequence of the Obama administrations ill-thought policies.