By Ronald Stein for CFACT.org
In a rapidly changing world stage, America’s obsession with climate change, Net Zero emissions, and eradicating fossil fuel products, while transitioning to just electricity from renewables that manufacture nothing for humanity, are exposing kinks in our national security armor.
Voters, policy makers, and legislators need to focus on what that is doing to our military, and for our military preparedness, our national security, and our ability to prevent nuclear war.
From the shores of California’s 4th largest economy in the world these are a few chinks in its armor that expose obvious national security concerns for America:
China dominates the rare earths market used in advanced commercial and military technology, and net-zero emissions goals in wealthy developed countries.
The mining in China, Africa, and Brazil for the exotic minerals and metals required for wealthy countries to achieve their net-zero emission goals controls the earths most precious exotic minerals and metals. Those materials support wind turbines, solar panels, and EV batteries.
With in-state refinery closures, two of which occurring under Newsom’s watch, California can look toward Asia’s 88 new refineries for manufactured oil derivatives that are the basis of most every product being used by mankind, as well as the manufactured fuels used by every transportation infrastructure, and the military.
California is the only state in contiguous America that imports most of its crude oil demands for the state, from foreign countries. That dependence, via maritime transportation from foreign nations for the state’s crude oil energy demands, has increased imported crude oil from 5 percent in 1992 to almost 60 percent today of total consumption.
Total California imports from foreign countries were more than double that of exports from California ports, with China being the number one “trading partner”.
How is it possible that the Californian economy, and America, has allowed itself to become so dependent on authoritarian countries like China, Russia, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia over the 30 years since the end of the Cold War? The weaponization of energy by China and Russia have been extensively discussed in the three books co-authored by Ronald Stein and Todd Royal, including the 2022 Pulitzer Prize nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations – Helping Citizens Understand the Environmental and Humanity Abuses That Support Clean Energy.
Today, the lion’s share of raw materials for wind turbines, solar panels, continue to come from China, and China-invested or China-run African, Asian and Latin American mines that are notorious for child labor, horrendous working conditions, and virtually no concern for the environment or human lives.
Even though America has bounteous oil, gas, and coal at home we have made most American mineralized and mining areas off limits – and the administration has rejected almost every proposed mining project it’s seen. America lacks the critical materials that go into wind turbines, solar panels, batteries, and weapons only because the lack of environmental regulations and labor laws in foreign countries make these materials very cost effective to just import, rather than produce them at home.
Our government leaders believe that zero emissions at any cost is more important than the environmental and humanity abuses that support “clean” energy. Despite the Biden administration’s declaration that EV battery materials from China may be tainted by child labor, made with materials known to be produced with child or forced labor, America remains supportive of exploiting those in developing countries that support the “green” movement of wealthy countries.
President Joe Biden and California’s Governor Newsom continue to support subsidies to procure EV’s and build more wind and solar, when those subsidies are providing financial incentives to the developing countries mining for those “green” materials, that promotes further exploitations of poor people in developing countries.
I personally thought that Biden and Newsom had higher moral and ethical standards that would stop them from financially encouraging the exploitation of the poor in developing countries
Biden has done an excellent job of relinquishing “CONTROL” for the “green” materials to China and is actively relinquishing “CONTROL” of the crude oil supply to OPEC and Russia! Unbeknownst to President Joe Biden, is that China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin are great War historians of WWI and WWII, and both know that the countries that controls the minerals, crude oil, and natural gas, controls the world!
California and Federal subsidy incentives and mandates to dismantle our proven energy and transportation infrastructures are unrealistic, and reckless as they bet our entire economic and national security on net-zero energy and transportation technologies that have no track record of working at the scale of a city, state or nation,.
Reliance on our adversaries, while the push for renewables for “just electricity”, that only generate electricity but cannot manufacture any products for the 8 billion on this planet, may be popular in politics, it is problematic in practice. That reliance on foreign sources is highly detrimental to our national security, economy and very existence.
American policies and practices that undermine hydrocarbons as a fuel source also destroy the production, availability and affordability of more than 6,000 fossil fuel derivative products essential to health, life and livelihood such as medicines, medical equipment, fertilizers, asphalt, wax, ink, clothing, recreation equipment, water pipes, antifreeze, dyes, paint, enamel, beauty products, contact lenses, telephones, sporting equipment, tires, rubbing alcohol, and nearly everything “synthetic”.
An absurd American government belief is that last year’s Inflation Reduction Act gave America’s renewable-energy industry a long, green signal.
Low carbon energy, i.e., renewables and fusion, only generate electricity, but wind, solar, and nuclear manufacture nothing for humanity.
Fossil fuels, on the other hand, manufacture everything for the 8 billion on this planet, i.e., products, and transportation fuels.
In fact, all the parts and components for wind, solar, and nuclear are made with the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil! Thus, ridding the world of oil will eliminate wind, solar, and nuclear!
The oil, gas, and raw material suppliers from Russia and China could well become the globally dominant force in the world over a fossil fuel-disarming America and West. God help America!
Ronald Stein is an engineer, senior policy advisor on energy literacy for CFACT, and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations.”
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