Thursday, May 19, 2011

Electric Vehicles are NOT the answer to energy independence...Why does this have to be so hard???

Resources are not unlimited---this forms the foundation for the definition of economics.  Essential natural resources ("Rare Earth Minerals") used in the manufacture of electric cars come primarily from mines in China. The more electric vehicles we produce the more dependent we become on China for a critical element.  We move to these vehicles to escape dependency from one commodity (oil) and find ourselves captive to another...How come things cannot be easy...

The Rare-Earth Crisis
"...One argument I’ve heard is “national security,” the idea being that electric vehicles would make the United States less dependent on imported oil. Be careful what you wish for, however, because if electric cars become a mainstay, we may be trading one dependence for another that is even more troubling. Ninety-five percent of the world’s output of rare-earth metals today comes from one country: China. By some estimates, demand will outstrip supply within five years. At least with oil we know there are fifty years of oil reserves readily available. Moreover, oil is produced all over the world, limiting the monopoly power of any one country...." Source: Freakonomics

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