More from Power Hungry...

More from Robert Bryce's book "Power Hungry" --Chapter 13.

In this chapter, I learned that all hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius are manufactured with rare earth materials called lanthanides. In fact, these rare materials are used heavily in solar panels and wind turbines too. And without these materials, there can be no hybrids, wind turbines, or solar panels. Guess who has a de facto monopoly on lanthanides? China. And guess who also has a lot of the lithium for those high tech batteries in hybrid vehicles? China. (Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia also have lithium.) So, while we hear from environmentalists about the evils of imported oil from countries that hate us, depending on “green” technology will have us dependent on rare earth materials from at least some countries that don’t like us—China and Bolivia. We would be back in the same boat. Incidentally, the above is another reason why solar panels and wind mills are manufactured in China. They have the raw materials and the cheap labor. So when Obama spoke about “green” collar jobs making solar panels and wind mills…well, those jobs would actually be created in China.

U.S. lifts moratorium on new solar projects.

DENVER — Under increasing public pressure over its decision to temporarily halt all new solar development on public land, the Bureau of Land Management said Wednesday that it was lifting the freeze, barely a month after it was put into effect.

The bureau had announced on May 29 that it was no longer processing new applications to build solar power plants on land it oversees in six Western states after federal officials said they needed first to study the environmental effects of solar energy, a process that would take two years.

But amid concerns from the solar power industry, members of Congress and the general public that the freeze would stymie solar development during a particularly critical time for energy policy, the bureau abruptly reconsidered. (Read More.)

I wonder if groups that currently oppose drilling at ANWAR or off-shore would be willing to fast-track development of drilling for the same reason that this decision was reversed by the BLM; Namely, “a critical time for energy policy.” I think that the BLM made the right decision by foregoing expensive and time consuming environmental impact studies. This same approach should be adopted for oil and gas development in the lower 48 at the very least. It’s ironic that environmental impact studies would have bogged the building of environmentally friendly solar panels.