As we've been following the situation in Ukraine, one of the things that we've recognized is the reluctance of a number of NATO nations to place sanctions on Russia if it goes against those nations’ best interests. Germany has been struggling for decades with their transition to nuclear energy from oil and gas, only to become reliant on Russian energy. The U.S. could be going down the same path, with President Biden forcing auto manufacturers to make green vehicles and essentially halting domestic oil production. Jordan McGillis, the Deputy Director of the Institute for Energy Research, explained on my show that in order for the U.S. to transition to green energy, consumers and businesses still need to have certain rare earth minerals available, and oil and gas still on hand.
What has the byproduct been from Germany's dependence on Russian energy?
The sad thing is, the U.S. is not learning the lessons. The Biden administration's policies and Democratic party’s agenda wants us off of our domestic resources, which is what Germany did and they found themselves dependent on Russia. America could become dependent on China for minerals that go into batteries and go into the wind turbines that the Biden administration wants to power our nation’s grid.
What amount of these rare earth elements necessary for electric vehicles are available here in the United States? Are we mining them?
We could develop stockpiles of lithium and copper, but we've got significant environmental lobbying that's stopping development of these important minerals, and even oil and gas. We're just not able to get to them because of nonsensical, supposedly “green” positions that really shut down all industry and all development across the country. Biden and the Democrats must realize we need to develop these resources for the country to have a high standard of living, whether it's copper, lithium, oil, gas, or coal.
The path that the Biden White House is leading us down is just not good for the country economically.
The Biden plan is even more stringent and more taxing on affordable energy than the Obama plan. The big concern I have is big business agreeing with this notion of an energy transition and the consumers end up as the real losers in all of this.
It completely mystifies me that the U.S.doesn’t have a legitimate energy transition strategy.
Washington is out of touch with the country and people who grow things, dig things up and build things. It goes beyond the rare earth minerals. The Biden administration is forcing us into a position of dependence that the actual energy market wouldn’t facilitate.
