WSJ piece on rare earths, Forbes, Easterbrook, & Doves

Dec 24, 2021

New WSJ piece on rare earths, new Forbes piece on Big Solar, Easterbrook talks US Navy, and...White-winged Doves

I got back from California on the 13th and have not had to travel since. It’s been great to be home for a lot of reasons. The biggest is that Lorin, who has been working full-time teaching art to middle- and high-schoolers, is off for the Christmas break. That means we’ve been able to relax at home for a while, get extra sleep, take leisurely hikes, and swim at Barton Springs. (Yes, we are year-round swimmers. It’s chilly during the winter, but there are no crowds.) Being home has also allowed me time to refocus on my writing. And wow, is there a lot to write about. Last week in Forbes, I wrote about New York City’s foolish decision to ban the use of natural gas. This week, I was pleased to get two pieces published. It makes me feel like I deserve to take a few days off for Christmas. So, before going further, let me say: Merry Christmas, y’all. As well as Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Boxing Day. Four items this week.

WSJ piece on EVs, China, and rare earths
Forbes piece: Build it and they won’t come
Gregg Easterbrook on the podcast talking about his new book, The Blue Age
White-winged Doves

For centuries, the Dove has been a symbol of peace. The lithograph above was created by Pablo Picasso in 1949.

Several years ago, Howard Husock, an author and expert on housing and urban policy who is now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, gave me some good advice: “Never write the same thing once.”

That line rhymes with my experience over the past few years because I find myself frequently writing about the same issues I’ve been covering for years. Back in 2010, in my fourth book, Power Hungry, I included a chapter on rare earth elements and explained that they are "a key chokepoint in the development of the 'green' economy," and that China's desire to control rare earths goes back to the days of Deng Xiaoping who said that while the Middle East has oil, "there are rare earths in China. We must take full advantage of this resource." That’s the point of my piece, published today in the Wall Street Journal. I explain that the Biden administration’s push for EVs will make the domestic auto sector dependent on Chinese supply chains. I wrote that the rush to electrify our cars and trucks, “would hand the keys to the American transportation sector to China, given Beijing’s near-monopoly on rare-earth elements like neodymium and dysprosium, which are used in the high-output motors of most electric vehicles." I continued:

The punch line here is obvious: Since the 1973 oil embargo, U.S. policy makers have decried America’s dependence on foreign oil to fuel our transportation sector. But now, in the name of climate change and the much-hyped “energy transition,” the U.S. is positioning itself to be dependent largely on China for rare earths, and it will do so at the same time that the U.S. and China are increasingly at odds over the origins of Covid-19, Taiwan sovereignty, control of the South China Sea, and genocide and crimes against humanity against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang, including forced labor to produce polysilicon for solar panels.
By forcing electric vehicles into the market, the U.S. will trade reliance on domestically produced gasoline and diesel fuel for reliance on Chinese neodymium, terbium and dysprosium. What a lousy trade.

Again, here’s a link to the piece in the WSJ. Please note the article has a paywall.

Last week, I got an email from Jessica Petersen, a sixth-generation farmer from Benton County, Iowa. She explained that she and her family, as well as other residents in her area, are fighting a proposed Big Solar project. As I read her email, I realized she’d done an excellent job of explaining her situation and the solar project being pushed by Chicago-based Invenergy. Thus, I put a brief introduction on the top of her email and published it in Forbes. The details she includes are very familiar. But this section of her email touches on many of the same points I have heard from rural Americans for more than a decade about the possible encroachment of Big Wind and Big Solar in their neighborhoods:

Other concerns people in the community have are about property-value losses, lack of mindfulness when it comes to siting of the plant and the productivity of the soil they are sighting solar panels on, choking out small-town growth, wildlife concerns, taking away land from farmers who rent land for their livelihoods of farming, drainage issues with tile damage, lack of fire and disaster recovery plans, lack of proper setbacks from people’s properties (the county requires a minimum of 50 feet from a property line), the mental health component with the construction phase and those who live amongst the project, hurting small businesses in small towns, and so on.
Homes in and around the small town of Palo are already not selling as quickly as they once were due to the possibility of this project coming to fruition. [Renewable promoters] claim that industrial-scale solar will not hurt property values or the growth of the towns it will impact, but we are already seeing the repercussions of it, even before the project has been started.

The surging opposition to Big Solar is very similar to the opposition that Big Wind has been facing for years. Furthermore, the growing opposition to Big Solar is happening all over the country. Although you won't see the issue covered in big media outlets like the New York Times, land-use conflicts are the binding constraint on the expansion of renewables. Jessica’s letter provides yet more proof of that fact. Again, here’s a link to the piece.

Gregg Easterbrook on the US Navy and his new book, The Blue Age

Gregg Easterbrook is the author of a dozen books. On this week’s Power Hungry Podcast, (number 84!) I talk to Gregg about his terrific new book The Blue Age: How the US Navy Created Global Prosperity – and Why We’re In Danger of Losing It. Before going further, I must admit that skim a lot of books. I read the entire Blue Age. I did so because I am interested in naval history, but also because it is well written and timely.

On the podcast, Gregg discusses the US Navy’s irreplaceable role as a peacekeeper on the high seas, why the age of supercarriers is likely over, the future of shipping through the Arctic Ocean, icebreakers, nuclear propulsion, the Law of the Sea Treaty, and why an armed conflict between the US and China is unlikely. About that last issue he told me:

there has never been a great power relationship, like the one that exists today between China and the United States. We’re antagonistic toward each other. But we’re both dependent on each other. If you look back at the contrary, before World War One, or what was then called the Great War, many people will point out well, you know, in 1913, and 1912, people were saying that trade would make war impossible. And then look what happened... at that time, about 5% of the world’s GDP was global trade. Today, 26% of the world’s global GDP is trade. If there’s a major power war that stops trade, that loss of roughly 20% of the world’s economic activity, that’s the same as the amount of academic economic activity that was lost in the Great Depression and would trigger another Great Depression.

It was another fun episode. Please give it a listen. And on the chance y'all are inclined to give me a Christmas gift, please give the Power Hungry Podcast 10 or 15 stars on your favorite podcast outlet.

Like a White-winged Dove...

Of the dozen or so species that we see regularly in our yard and at our feeders and birdbaths, Doves are probably the most common. We see both Mourning Doves and White-winged Doves (Zenaida asiatica), with the latter being more prevalent. (The photo of the White-Winged Doves above was taken in Tucson, Arizona.) Although they like to perch on our feeders, they are usually too big to get to the food, so they will spend a lot of time contorting themselves to get a snack. Or they will knock some of the food out of the feeder and then fly to the ground to eat it. White-winged Doves are social. We usually see them in groups of three or four or as many as 10, 12, or more. They alert and spook easily and tend to be noisy in the air. Although they are common, they are also beautiful. When the sunlight catches the blue ring around their red eyes, it is striking.

Doves have been symbols of peace for centuries. They are also associated with Christianity. Wikipedia says that in Christianity, the dove was a prearranged sign by which John the Baptist would recognize the Messiah. It also notes that all of the gospels, include an account of the sign of the Dove. For instance, Matthew 3:16: “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him.”

The same Wiki page notes that “Doves were also used in ancient Israel as Korean, or religious sacrifice within the tabernacle and temples...In the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean, doves were used as symbols for the Canaanite mother goddess Asherah, the Phoenician goddess Tanit, and the Roman goddesses Venus and Fortune."

Allaboutbirds says this:

Originally a bird of desert thickets, the White-winged Dove has become a common sight in cities and towns across the southern U.S. When perched, this bird’s unspotted brown upperparts and neat white crescents along the wing distinguish it from the ubiquitous Mourning Dove. In flight, those subdued crescents become flashing white stripes worthy of the bird’s common name. Take a closer look and you’ll see a remarkably colorful face, with bright-orange eyes and blue “eye shadow.”

It also says this: "In the early 1980s, the singer Stevie Nicks introduced millions of Americans to the White-winged Dove with her song “Edge of Seventeen,” which hit #11 on the Billboard charts."

Wikipedia says the White-winged is:

large for doves, and can be distinguished from similar doves by the distinctive white edge on their wings. They have a blue eyering, and red eyes. The plumage is brownish-gray to gray. Juveniles are duller in color, and have brown eyes. The call is likened to English phrase "who cooks for you" The expansion of humans has greatly affected the white-winged dove. Prior to human presence, their range closely mirrored that of their favorite food: the saguaro. The advent of agriculture in North America greatly expanded its range by providing a reliable food source. This has also led some modern populations to be migratory. Historically, they nested in enormous colonies, but most colonies have been lost due to human action and climatic factors, and most nesting is now isolated. It is hunted for sport, and is the second most shot game bird in the United States...The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers it to be a species of least-concern.

In closing, since it is Christmas Eve, I want to thank y'all for your interest in my work. I am a lucky man in both my career and my family life. I hope you have a great holiday.

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