There’s an underrated way the Biden administration is empowering our greatest adversary, Communist China — while presenting the appearance of countering it.
And it’s even causing some Democrats heartburn.
Casting global warming as “the single-most existential threat to humanity we’ve ever faced,” the Biden administration has called for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.
To pursue this goal, the White House has sought to spur a radical transformation in power generation and usage – from conventional energy sources like oil and natural gas, to alternatives like wind and solar.
It’s backed bills containing hundreds of billions of dollars in funding and incentives, and used executive and regulatory powers to accelerate the development and deployment of “clean” technologies from electric vehicles to heat pumps, and remake the entire power grid.
There are many issues with this revolutionary effort.
It’s arguably economically unfeasible, practically untenable, and plain undesirable if not even environmentally dubious.
It’s a recipe for higher energy prices and hardship – while we ignore our incredible energy advantages.
But it gets worse: China would appear to be the main beneficiary of our greening.
We will not only be reliant on it to try and meet the Biden administration’s probably unattainable goals – giving it leverage over us – but likely subsidize its stranglehold on us.
That’s because China – the world’s leading polluter by the way – dominates in clean energy, controlling the materials and manufacturing the components key to producing the wind turbines, and solar panels, and lithium-ion batteries that Biden’s alternative energy transition depends on.
China’s the leading producer of 30 of 50 minerals, including rare earth metals, the U.S. government deems critical, particularly for energy.
Rare earths are pivotal to items from EV motors to wind turbines. We’re 95% net import reliant on these materials. China produces 70% of rare earths globally. It controls the rare earth “value chain.” America has one active rare earth mine thanks to environmentalist hamstringing.
China’s also the world’s largest refiner of other key elements to clean energy technologies like copper, cobalt, nickel, and lithium. We have zero refining capacity for many of these materials.
The upshot is that:
- 10 of the top 15 global wind turbine manufacturers are Chinese.
- China’s share in each of the five key manufacturing stages of solar panels exceeds 80%.
- And China dominates in every aspect of the lithium-ion battery value chain.
The Biden administration wants to force a rapid green transformation by mandating that power plants dramatically curtail emissions, and that we magically increase EV sales 10x – most importantly through committing $369 billion in green funding and incentives through the “Inflation Reduction Act” – though some estimates suggest it’s actually $1.2 trillion worth of largesse.
Thing is, we’re reliant on China up and down the supply chain – particularly because the greens don’t want America doing the “dirty” work in mining and refining the materials critical to onshoring “clean energy.”
Even if America fast-tracked needed projects, it’s not clear we could sustain a wholly domestic clean energy industry.
And you certainly can’t homesource it — as former Deputy National Security Advisor and advisor to the Secretary of Energy Dr. Victoria Coates told me in connection with a report I wrote on this issue — on the aggressive timeline the Biden administration has set.
“I don’t know that we’d even be up and running by 2050, let alone implementing a transition that would impact carbon emissions,” Coates told me.
Therefore, we “can’t decouple from China in this process….”
The State Department disputed the argument.
But it flies in the face of the science and the math.
The fundamental question, Coates told me, is “How much China is too much China?”
The White House has indicated the bar is pretty high.
Chinese companies could directly or indirectly benefit from subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act despite the bill’s purported focus on building the American clean energy industry.
One study show six Chinese companies have already announced plans to partner with American outfits to build solar panels and other components domestically, making them eligible for an estimated $1 billion in tax credits.
The same thing’s happening in the auto industry.
Treasury also seems to be loosely interpreting provisions of the IRA aimed at limiting credits to electric vehicles and solar panels that are American made – so that EVs or panels with Chinese parts get treated as American made.
Democrat Senator Joe Manchin panned Treasury’s guidance on EVs as “a pathetic excuse to spend more taxpayer dollars as quickly as possible,” that “further cedes control to the Chinese Communist Party…”
When Treasury issued guidance in May indicating that solar project developers would receive a 10% bonus tax credit for using solar panels manufactured in America – even if they contained foreign silicon wafers, some 97% of which are produced in China – it drew stern rebukes from Manchin and other populist Democrats.
A bipartisan chorus has also raised concerns about how rigorously the Biden administration is enforcing sanctions aimed at keeping Chinese solar panels from America’s shores – ones built with polysilicon largely produced in China’s Xinjiang region, where forced labor is prevalent.
Another issue raised by critics is that because of the amount of money the administration is doling out, and the speed at which it’s dispensing it, that it’s not scrutinizing who the recipients might be – potentially to China’s benefit.
Republicans point to a $200 million grant made under the Energy Department’s Battery Manufacturing and Recycling Grants Program, a creation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to a company called Microvast, as an example of the problem.
Microvast’s battery production largely takes place in China, and China’s government by the company’s own admission “exerts substantial influence over” it.
Biden’s green bonanza sure seems like a boon to Communist China.
Ben Weingarten
Federalist Senior Contributor; Claremont Institute Fellow
Commentary
Our commentary partners will help you reach your own conclusions on complex topics.
Is the US looking for a war?
10 hrs ago
Peter Zeihan
How future generations could shift US support for Israel
Yesterday
Peter Zeihan
Why election of European Commission president is so important
Wednesday
Peter Zeihan
‘Both completely corrupt’: What Americans think of Biden, Trump
Tuesday
Dr. Frank Luntz
US green energy transition benefits red China
Ben Weingarten
Federalist Senior Contributor; Claremont Institute Fellow
By Straight Arrow News
Given the growing concern over climate change, there’s been more and more focus on the possibilities and potential of green energy. Many of the material components necessary for that transition, however, come from China, and that puts the United States in a bind.
Straight Arrow News contributor Ben Weingarten argues that U.S. green energy goals and policies are “unfeasible,” “untenable” and “undesirable,” and that the costs of empowering China should be weighed more heavily against the benefits of a U.S. energy transition.
Casting global warming as “the single-most existential threat to humanity we’ve ever faced,” the Biden administration has called for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. To pursue this goal, the White House has sought to spur a radical transformation in power generation and usage — from conventional energy sources like oil and natural gas, to alternatives like wind and solar.
It’s backed bills containing hundreds of billions of dollars in funding and incentives, and used executive and regulatory powers to accelerate the development and deployment of “clean” technologies from electric vehicles to heat pumps, and remake the entire power grid.
There are many issues with this revolutionary effort. It’s arguably economically unfeasible, practically untenable, and plain undesirable if not even environmentally dubious. It’s a recipe for higher energy prices and hardship — while we ignore our incredible energy advantages.
But it gets worse: China would appear to be the main beneficiary of our greening.
There’s an underrated way the Biden administration is empowering our greatest adversary, Communist China — while presenting the appearance of countering it.
And it’s even causing some Democrats heartburn.
Casting global warming as “the single-most existential threat to humanity we’ve ever faced,” the Biden administration has called for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.
To pursue this goal, the White House has sought to spur a radical transformation in power generation and usage – from conventional energy sources like oil and natural gas, to alternatives like wind and solar.
It’s backed bills containing hundreds of billions of dollars in funding and incentives, and used executive and regulatory powers to accelerate the development and deployment of “clean” technologies from electric vehicles to heat pumps, and remake the entire power grid.
There are many issues with this revolutionary effort.
It’s arguably economically unfeasible, practically untenable, and plain undesirable if not even environmentally dubious.
It’s a recipe for higher energy prices and hardship – while we ignore our incredible energy advantages.
But it gets worse: China would appear to be the main beneficiary of our greening.
We will not only be reliant on it to try and meet the Biden administration’s probably unattainable goals – giving it leverage over us – but likely subsidize its stranglehold on us.
That’s because China – the world’s leading polluter by the way – dominates in clean energy, controlling the materials and manufacturing the components key to producing the wind turbines, and solar panels, and lithium-ion batteries that Biden’s alternative energy transition depends on.
China’s the leading producer of 30 of 50 minerals, including rare earth metals, the U.S. government deems critical, particularly for energy.
Rare earths are pivotal to items from EV motors to wind turbines. We’re 95% net import reliant on these materials. China produces 70% of rare earths globally. It controls the rare earth “value chain.” America has one active rare earth mine thanks to environmentalist hamstringing.
China’s also the world’s largest refiner of other key elements to clean energy technologies like copper, cobalt, nickel, and lithium. We have zero refining capacity for many of these materials.
The upshot is that:
The Biden administration wants to force a rapid green transformation by mandating that power plants dramatically curtail emissions, and that we magically increase EV sales 10x – most importantly through committing $369 billion in green funding and incentives through the “Inflation Reduction Act” – though some estimates suggest it’s actually $1.2 trillion worth of largesse.
Thing is, we’re reliant on China up and down the supply chain – particularly because the greens don’t want America doing the “dirty” work in mining and refining the materials critical to onshoring “clean energy.”
Even if America fast-tracked needed projects, it’s not clear we could sustain a wholly domestic clean energy industry.
And you certainly can’t homesource it — as former Deputy National Security Advisor and advisor to the Secretary of Energy Dr. Victoria Coates told me in connection with a report I wrote on this issue — on the aggressive timeline the Biden administration has set.
“I don’t know that we’d even be up and running by 2050, let alone implementing a transition that would impact carbon emissions,” Coates told me.
Therefore, we “can’t decouple from China in this process….”
The State Department disputed the argument.
But it flies in the face of the science and the math.
The fundamental question, Coates told me, is “How much China is too much China?”
The White House has indicated the bar is pretty high.
Chinese companies could directly or indirectly benefit from subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act despite the bill’s purported focus on building the American clean energy industry.
One study show six Chinese companies have already announced plans to partner with American outfits to build solar panels and other components domestically, making them eligible for an estimated $1 billion in tax credits.
The same thing’s happening in the auto industry.
Treasury also seems to be loosely interpreting provisions of the IRA aimed at limiting credits to electric vehicles and solar panels that are American made – so that EVs or panels with Chinese parts get treated as American made.
Democrat Senator Joe Manchin panned Treasury’s guidance on EVs as “a pathetic excuse to spend more taxpayer dollars as quickly as possible,” that “further cedes control to the Chinese Communist Party…”
When Treasury issued guidance in May indicating that solar project developers would receive a 10% bonus tax credit for using solar panels manufactured in America – even if they contained foreign silicon wafers, some 97% of which are produced in China – it drew stern rebukes from Manchin and other populist Democrats.
A bipartisan chorus has also raised concerns about how rigorously the Biden administration is enforcing sanctions aimed at keeping Chinese solar panels from America’s shores – ones built with polysilicon largely produced in China’s Xinjiang region, where forced labor is prevalent.
Another issue raised by critics is that because of the amount of money the administration is doling out, and the speed at which it’s dispensing it, that it’s not scrutinizing who the recipients might be – potentially to China’s benefit.
Republicans point to a $200 million grant made under the Energy Department’s Battery Manufacturing and Recycling Grants Program, a creation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to a company called Microvast, as an example of the problem.
Microvast’s battery production largely takes place in China, and China’s government by the company’s own admission “exerts substantial influence over” it.
Biden’s green bonanza sure seems like a boon to Communist China.
‘Deep State’ failed to protect Trump
The stated mission of the United States Secret Service is to “ensure the safety and security of our protectees.” However, on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, the Secret Service allowed a lone would-be assassin to fire a shot at former President Donald Trump, grazing his ear with a bullet. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned…
Tuesday
The Regime once again meddling in election to hurt Trump
On Tuesday, July 9, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a cybersecurity advisory warning companies about a Russian social media bot farm. U.S. officials told reporters that these Russian bots are targeting U.S. voter groups in key swing states and implied that the goal is to undermine President Joe Biden. Watch the above video as…
Jul 16
Clarence Thomas has it right on presidential immunity case
On July 1, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 majority opinion for Trump v. United States that American presidents have absolute immunity from prosecution for actions that fall within their constitutional duties. The ruling asserts that evidence of official criminal acts committed by a president cannot even be presented in any U.S.…
Jul 9
SCOTUS’ Murthy v. Missouri ruling will live in infamy
On June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the federal government in the Murthy v. Missouri case regarding official communications between the government and social media platforms. In a 6-3 decision written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the court stated that the plaintiffs did not have the legal standing to seek an injunction against…
Jul 2
Anti-Trumpers care about power, not democracy
News commentators across the political spectrum — including some contributors here at Straight Arrow News — have warned Americans about Donald Trump’s aspirations to make himself a dictator and effectively end the American republic if he regains power in November. Their warnings cite Trump’s own legal arguments, public statements and past behavior, including the attempted…
Jun 25
Underreported stories from each side
Group accuses Pa. teachers union of illegally using money to back Shapiro’s 2022 campaign
8 sources | 0% from the left
Getty Images
Some House Republicans slam Vance as Trump’s VP pick: ‘The worst choice’
8 sources | 0% from the right
Reuters
Latest Stories
Congress still trying to figure out how to reduce wasteful military spending
Watch 2:29
5 hrs ago
US Navy, Air Force making waves with new weapons at RIMPAC
Watch 6:03
5 hrs ago
Israeli PM Netanyahu meets with Trump at Mar-a-Lago
Watch 2:54
5 hrs ago
Growing US nuclear power resurgence reaches the nation’s heartland
Watch 1:19
5 hrs ago
Beer from the sun, other solar thermal projects get government funding
Watch 2:04
6 hrs ago
Popular Opinions
In addition to the facts, we believe it’s vital to hear perspectives from all sides of the political spectrum.
Trump has an excellent opportunity with Black voters
11 hrs ago
Star Parker
Don’t fall for GOP’s cheap racist attacks on Kamala Harris
12 hrs ago
Dr. Rashad Richey
Americans must reject Trump to defend our democracy
Yesterday
Jordan Reid
Why all the changes in European parliamentary governments?
Wednesday
Newt Gingrich