Breaching Promises to Miners, Biden Looks Overseas for Electric Vehicle Metals
Just last month, Miners’ union backed shift from coal in exchange for promises of green-energy materials-based jobs.
In October 2020, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden privately told U.S. miners he would support boosting domestic production of metals used to make electric vehicles, solar panels, and other products crucial to his climate plan.
The U.S. Democratic presidential candidate also supports bipartisan efforts to foster a domestic supply chain for lithium, copper, rare earths, nickel and other strategic materials that the United States imports from China and other countries, the sources said.
Just last month, Biden persuaded the nation’s largest coal miners’ union to support the move away from coal and other fossil fuels in exchange for a “true energy transition” that includes thousands of jobs in renewable energy and spending on technology to make coal cleaner.
Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, said ensuring jobs for displaced miners — including 7,000 coal workers who lost their jobs last year — is crucial to any infrastructure bill taken up by Congress.
“I think we need to provide a future for those people, a future for anybody that loses their job because of a transition in this country, regardless if it’s coal, oil, gas or any other industry for that matter,″ Roberts said in an online speech to the National Press Club.
“We talk about a ‘just transition’ all the time,″ Roberts added. “I wish people would quit using that. There’s never been a just transition in the history of the United States.″
This month, Biden “forgot” the promises. Biden’s team said it will rely on ally countries to supply the bulk of the metals needed to build electric vehicles and focus on processing them domestically into battery parts. The move is part of a strategy designed to placate the Democratic Party’s eco-activists.
The plans will be a blow to U.S. miners who had hoped Biden would rely primarily on domestically sourced metals, as his campaign had signaled last autumn, to help fulfill his ambitions for a less carbon-intensive economy.
Rather than focus on permitting more U.S. mines, Biden’s team is more focused on creating jobs that process minerals domestically into electric vehicle (EV) battery parts, according to the people.
Such a plan would help cut U.S. reliance on industry leader China for EV materials while also enticing unions with manufacturing work and, in theory, reduce pandemic-fueled unemployment.
The plan will reportedly rely on metals imported from Canada, Australia, and Brazil. This is not a trivial economic move, either. Biden plans to make the entire federal fleet electric.
That includes 245,000 in various federal agencies… 225,000 in the United States Postal Service… and another 173,000 in the military.
That adds up to a grand total of 643,000 cars, trucks, and vans set for an upgrade on the U.S. government’s dime. And after the year we’ve seen for EVs in 2020, this should come as no surprise.
As an extra bonus, electric car manufacture will also be outsourced.
On April 30, General Motors (NYSE: GM) became the first U.S. automaker to announce it would build electric vehicles in Mexico. GM said it would invest $1 billion in its factory in Ramos Arizpe to produce electric cars.
As U.S. automakers pivot into the electric, autonomous vehicle era, cross-border operators say Mexico is more than ready to seize the moment.
“GM’s announcement is really exciting news for Mexico because it’s one of the very first electrical vehicles that’s going to be made in Mexico,” said Jordan DeWart, managing director at Redwood Mexico based in Laredo, Texas. Redwood Mexico is part of Redwood Logistics, headquartered in Chicago.
These decisions have to leave Americans wondering if decisions from the Oval Office are now also being outsourced.
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Comments
Good. Stupid assholes getting EXACTLY what they voted for.
Enjoy it.
The dark comedy of trusting people like Obama, Clinton or Biden – it’s the darkest of comedy.
They are officially nuts.
No, they’re rather clever. They’re thriving, making bank, and we’re struggling to hold on to what we have left. And we hire the same GOP garbage as a bulwark against tyranny.
So whose nuts?
I’d got with destructive, sinister, evil, greedy……
The workers in those unions voted mostly for Trump who easily carried West Virginia thanks to working class votes.
Take away the working class and maybe Trump won 4 states if that.
Electric vehicles for the military? How stupid can the progressive fascists be.
Conrad,
This isn’t really the tactical fleet. This is basic autos that get used by recruiters, ‘staff cars’ ECT. No EV Abrams coming anytime soon.
That’s right. Biden said so and he keeps his promises. We don’t have to worry because he would never do anything stupid.
UserP,
If you have an EV engine that will push a 70 ton Abrams please send me the information because I will definitely invest in that!!!
Until then …EV ain’t going in tactical vehicles. Even the woke princes at the Pentagon ain’t stupid. Just ideologically unsound.
“This isn’t really the tactical fleet. This is basic autos that get used by recruiters, ‘staff cars’ ECT.”
“The U.S. Army has picked six companies that will develop ways to power electric vehicles in austere, remote locations, according to an April 22 statement from Army Futures Command.
The effort will support the Army’s Next-Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) modernization effort and the Ground Vehicles Systems Center — in collaboration with the Army Applications Laboratory and Alion Science and Technology — as the service tackles how to power a future fleet of roughly 225,000 electric vehicles while operating in a field where infrastructure for such capability would likely not exist.”
I won’t argue with you about the tanks. I’m sure you know more about it than I do.
On worries. Small quibble. The military has been looking at solar for several decades as a way to cut the logistics demands for power and fuel.
Some have been adopted. Primarily small scale solar charging for remote applications. No breakthrough. Issue is battery capacity and availability of solar.
Remote desert is one thing a remote jungle location with a high canopy blocking sunlight is another.
Very light vehicles, relatively speaking, like the ‘dune buggy’ the SF use might be workable. Though I wouldn’t want to have a vehicle that I couldn’t simply put fuel into as needed.
CommoChief,
Thanks for the info.
User P,
Yeah no problem. It would be great if the tech worked. It doesn’t. Maybe someday.
In the meantime the boondoggle of appointing some full Bird COL as head of project x continues. That person heads up the project for two years recommending increased funding and expansion then retires to accept a mid six figure salary at the company whose contracts he pushed to approve.
If it’s big enough, an electric motor will push an Abrams just fine. After all, every freight train is pushed (or pulled) by electric motors. That’s why they are called “diesel-electric locomotives.” The diesel engines power a generator, and it sends electricity to the wheels.
The issue, therefore, is not the motor or motive power, but the battery. Yep, the electric tank will roll, but not very far.
EV Abrams? You mean it will carry Stacey Abrams?
Anything that carries Stacey Abrams is immediately classified as a tank.
Chuckle
But we haven’t done heavy tanks since the 1950.
I hear the CDC is getting staph cars.
Very nice pun.
I see my avatar is back. Mysterious!
It’s part of LI’s new “dystopian chic” theme.
(Sorry for the downvote, I was reaching for the nonexistent reply button.)
That is really dependent on battery technology, it is not suitable yet, but it will eventually develop to the point that it makes sense.
Countless billions have been spent over the last 120+ years searching for a better battery. Progress, but no breakthroughs. We use the same technology to start our cars as we did when the self starter was invented.
Why? Because it works. And works just fine.
Lithium-ion batteries were a major advance. Still a lot of work ahead.
Justice,
Basic passenger vehicles have just recently become viable for limited applications. Tactical military armored vehicles are several orders of magnitude different.
An M1A2 Abrams tank has fuel tank of about 600 gallons. Road mileage is …about 3.5 gallons per mile. Off road, cross country range is about half that.
Creating a battery that can provide equivalent range is simply out of the question anytime soon. Bradley Fighting vehicles, self propelled artillery, LAV are the same. Impractical.
Very light vehicles without armor….. maybe. But even they have additional weight from the main weapon and ammunition load. Not including the weight of each Soldier and say 75 pounds for their ‘kit’.
EV batteries for an UBER in a city, sure. Military applications are limited at best with current or foreseeable tech. That doesn’t mean stop creating and tinkering but the battery tech simply doesn’t cut it at present.
Remember, the Nazis were the world’s first “environmentalists”, plus they were big on “animal rights”. Too bad they didn’t like humans too much. Same as today’s left.
Hitler liked Alsatian Shepherd dogs. So do I but just don’t have the urge to exterminate Poles, Slavs, the haly and lame, the retarded, or homosexuals, Oh, and, Jews.
It’s not just metals and other mined resources relating to electric cars. It is also strategic metals absolutely essential for producing high quality metals for our defense industry. This is a national security disaster. Will are rapidly becoming a China colony.
We’ll all be of one mind once China replaces all black NBA players with Chinese players. Maybe LeBronda didn’t notice that China considers blacks to be at the bottom of the human intelligence chart. Diversity is NOT their strength and they are proud of it.
Luckily, everything is breaking Trump’s way as the Uniparty makes a mess of everything they touch. Everything is now a crisis and getting worse in leaps and bounds. I can’t wait for his “I told you so! rallies to begin. He’s only been out for 5 months but it feels like an eternity.
We need to become self sufficient for all stragitic resources. That will have similar benefits to fracking and energy. There was a huge capital outflow for energy, benefiting our ememies, now it is rare earth.
“Uniparty makes a mess of everything they touch…”
They make a mess of it for US, not for THEM. They make millions and billions ‘touching’ everything, including the GOPe. ESPECIALLY the GOPe.
America Last. Nordstream green light and now this in the last week. Don’t question a (D)rat’s patriotism though.
Dems are doing their best to drive labor into the hands of Trump & associates. Labor leaders need to tip toe very carefully, or find their flock taking scalps.
So these former coal miners who were told ‘don’t worry we need to mine lithium and nickel’ won’t be doing that domestically. Nor will they be employed in manufacturing solar panels and charge controllers domestically much less in ‘coal country’ at new manufacturing plants.
Where oh where will all this solar equipment come from? China. Harrah! Lets be sure to increase and extend our economic dependence upon a strategic adversary. What a great idea.
EV manufacturing in Mexico is a bonkers idea from a public relations standpoint. If economics is an issue how about building plants in Alabama or other South Eastern States who already build Mercedes, BMW, Hyundai, Toyota, Volkswagen ECT?
Oh now I get it. That would ‘reward’ the icky Trump voters with their guns and religion. Doing that would be an expression of continued privilege so Mexico it is.
I don’t believe the coal miners voted for Xiden
Well I don’t know about the actual coal miners but someone did….though I am waiting on how a few of the audits shake out, particularly AZ and Fulton County GA, before I commit to the reported count.
Canada has a large, competative solar panel plant. I don’t know about the raw material sources.
Justice,
We have most of the required minerals. Issuing mining permits though… Not so much.
Canada. Sure, the basic point is the arrogant response to coal mine closures. ‘The miners can work in the solar/renewable energy sector’.
Except we aren’t requiring domestic manufacturing. So it seems that the population of miners in ‘coal country’ will need to move to locations where solar panel installers are employed.
Even that isn’t truly a viable option with the administration immigration policy and refusal to enforce in the interior much less hold employers accountable for immigration violations.
“Where oh where will all this solar equipment come from?”
Everything is made in China except babies.
True. Seems most babies are now made in Mexico and delivered in the USA.
EV batteries come mainly from South Korea (LG is a very big player) and Japan (Panasonic.) Don’t believe me? Do something new, and look it up.
What do you mean, we’re “wondering if decisions from the Oval Office are now also being outsourced”? Now??? They’ve been outsourced since January 20.
Clinton used the government to go on a land-grabbing spree out West in the 90’s, part of this was for the purposes of making sure we didn’t open up new mines or reopen old ones. The government is the single biggest land owner in many western states.
One big thing that sticks in my craw is one of Hillary’s brothers own a gold mine in the northern part of Haiti. Stands to reason why we went in there in ’94, continue to have a military presence in that country, and the Clinton Foundation was so bent on making $$$ off of the aid effort in 2010. Birds of a feather flock together, and they’re all making sure we don’t mine much here at home, anymore. If this doesn’t smack of Agenda 21….
That mine in Haiti is dirty and arsenic from it has polluted local water supplies there and poisoned people for a long time. Never hear about this in the Clinton-controlled U.S. media. Liberals love their “green” gadgets, but they don’t have to see the huge environmental and human costs associated with mining and processing dirty ores in Asia and other regions, all that matters to them is living in their bubbles in bigger cities, without any thought of where things actually come from,
Clinton grabbed all our land, Obama grabbed all our ammunition and Biden grabbed all all freedoms. Well…whoever Obama or Biden’s handlers were are are.
As for Clinton: he needed no handlers to commit treason. He’s the treason gold standard, and started it all:
How Bill Clinton and American Financiers Armed China:
https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/how-bill-clinton-and-american-financiers
And Hillary would have made Bill look like a rookie!
The ironic part is that this is environmental colonialism, driven by Democrats.
“Mines? Not in my back yard! Bad for the environment! Destroy some third-world country’s environment instead!”
American miners should just learn to… survive on COVID checks. $2,000/year is way more than those overseas child-miners make. It’s the Great Reset. You’ll own nothing, you’ll earn nothing, and you’ll be happy… or we’ll kill you.
I can’t wait for the infighting between the Biden EPA types and the Greenies who want to open up and scar the earth looking for metals in large open pit mines so they can get their electric car batteries
Imagine that collective rationalization – spread by fake news networks overnight.
I suggest activating your diligence gene and looking up where lithium is mined.
The insanity continues: OUR insanity, for tolerating this:
Joe Biden Received Campaign Cash From Top Russia Lobbyist Before Waiving Sanctions on Nord Stream 2 Pipeline:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/05/joe-biden-received-campaign-cash-top-russia-lobbyist-waiving-sanctions-nord-stream-2-pipeline/
And this. from VP Whore:
“Grotesque” – Kamala Harris Receives Backlash For Tweeting Photo of Herself for Memorial Day, Instead of Military People!
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/05/grotesque-kamala-harris-receives-backlash-tweeting-photo-telling-americans-enjoy-long-weekend/
If they believed him, then they have worse cases of dementia than SloJoe!
Outsourced? or bought?
Biden has lied to everyone from day one. The reality of course is he has no idea what he said during the campaign. He just signs off on whatever Pelosi, Harris, Schiff, and the rest of the leftist/socialist hacks put on his desk. Then he has his ice cream, and off to bed.
It’s not lying when you’re too demented to know the truth…
I own an EV, along with a Ram 3500 diesel pickup. I bought the EV (a 2011 Think City) at a deep discount when Think folded. I didn’t buy it to save the earth, given that I don’t subscribe to the global warming hypothesis. I used to be a mild believer, but I changed my mind after thoroughly investigating the subject.
That much said, there are distinct positives (and distinct negatives) to EVs. The positives are far less maintenance; cheaper fuel; better driving performance. The negatives are almost entirely a function of battery capacity and cost; at today’s costs and capacities, EVs remain a niche product. That’s going to change as battery chemistry improves and production costs keep declining.
There is a further negative: Charging times. My truck will add 80 to 110 miles of range per minute at the diesel pump, the specific number depending on how fast the pump runs. My EV adds 0.6 miles of range per minute at the plug; the newer ones run at higher amperages and voltages, and will add 1.5 miles to 4 miles a minute at the charger.
Motive power has no moral or political dimension. It is strictly an engineering question, and nothing else. Electric transportation has been part of the mix for a long time, in the form of electric commuter trains, electric trolley buses, and — the real biggie — the diesel-electric freight locomotive.
That’s right, every freight train uses electricity to turn the wheels. The diesel engines feed a generator that sends the electricity to the wheels. One oddball consequence is that freight train operators have to be careful when starting from a stop, because one feature of electric motive power is high torque. If a train starts rolling too quickly, the wheels won’t get enough traction.
There’s a lot more to say about all of this, and I am VERY well equipped to keep going. If I’d boil it down, I’d say that conservatives need to be careful to avoid painting with too wide a brush. I see it as the equivalent of the gun control advocates, who argue from a position of emotion and not facts, to the point where I think that a lot of them are actually proud of their ignorance.
Trust me, EVs are not world-savers, even if you happen to accept the global warming hypothesis. I don’t think anyone should be forced into them, either directly or otherwise. As battery range improves and costs come down, I think the markets will do the rest.
Similarly, on lithium, I think Xiden’s promise to miners was bullshit. There are large reserves in South America and Australia, among others. And none other than Adam Smith observed in 1776 that international trade increases everyone’s wealth. This applies to many things, including lithium sourcing.
EVs and electricity generation are favorite subjects for me. In seven years of EV ownership, I’ve learned a great deal, and am very happy to talk more about this, if there’s interest. Kindly refrain from political accusations, because I regard this one in different terms.
If you think maintenance costs are low, you haven’t run your EV enough to wear out the batteries yet.
Those fast chargers draw as much from the power lines as an entire neighborhood of housing or several gas stations. In most locations, putting in a half-dozen of them will require replacing the power distribution grid. Setting up slow chargers for even half the cars in a factory parking lot will typically require doubling the power inlet. But where would the other end of those heavier power lines be plugged in? We’ve never had that much extra generator capacity, and the greenidiots have been closing reliable fossil fuel plants in favor of solar cells that won’t be producing power when your car is in the garage at home.
If you actually look at the details, you will find that the typical EV battery (especially for EVs made after about 2015) lasts longer than the rest of the vehicle. I can easily go through the numbers if you don’t believe it.
Look, I am not some sort of EVangelist. EVs have pluses and minuses. Go to a forum like this one, and I get reactions like yours. Go to an EV forum and mentioned the downsides, and I’m a climate-denying non-person. But facts are stubborn things, and the fact is that even the battery in my first-generation EV is going to outlast the car.
I happen to think that so-called “fast chargers” are a joke because they are anything BUT “fast,” and that includes Tesla’s vastly over-hyped “superchargers.” I am well-equipped to demonstrate that one, with links to reliable and unbiased sources.
The overwhelming majority (90%+) of EV charging is done at home on the same level of circuit (220-240v, 30A) that you use for an electric dryer. That’s also a fact. As for the “fast chargers,” I am winging it a bit, so I could be off a tad bit, but I believe that they aren’t as heavy-duty as you might think. Most of them (not all, but most) operate at the same voltage, but more amps. The current, measured in watt hours, usually isn’t all that much.
Example: The latest non-Teslas (I’m thinking Nissan LEAF and Chevy Bolt) will load about 50kWh per charge into a battery with a 60-65 kWh capacity. (An EV owner who takes care of the battery will recharge at or near the 20% mark.) That’s not a lot of juice, and matters even less given that almost all home charging is done overnight, when demand by other appliances is low.
I’m no fan of the greenies at all, but your objection is ignorant.
p.s.: I can readily prove my claims above, with the proviso that I might wind up altering the volt/amp configuration of at least some “fast” chargers. But those details are not going to make a material difference. If you want to get down in the weeds, I will do so, but know this: There will be lots of numbers. They will be the correct ones, but there’ll be some tedium involved. I keep meticulous records, and have studied the whole area in great depth. Other people commonly make shit up, but I don’t.
I recently found a list of the 10 most common auto repairs, derived from millions of OBD-II readings. Not a single one of them applied to EVs, which have no transmissions, no exhaust systems, no fuel injectors, and use no oil. In eight years, the only repairs to my EV have been to replace the 12v battery that runs the accessories, an item that is periodically replaced in gas vehicles, and a few sets of tires. The diesel truck and a third vehicle, a gas-fueled Toyota Rav4, are different stories.
What kind of mileage are you doing with your EV?
EV fuel economy can be stated in kWh/mile or miles/kWh, but those numbers don’t compare well with conventional vehicles, so they can be converted to “MPG-e,” or equivalent miles per gallon. That’s based on the energy content of gasoline, which I adjust to reflect the electricity used to refine gasoline.
Also, EV fuel economy is a lot more variable, being especially sensitive to ambient temperature because batteries perform significantly worse as temperatures drop.
My EV has averaged 135 mpg-e over the past year. Summer, 143 mpg-e. Winter, 115 mpg-e. Naturally, the “progressives” in my state who constantly bleat the eco-talk have turned right around and penalized EVs with disproportionate taxes, ostensibly to replace gas taxes. It’s the usual set of lies we get from the “progressives,” whose sole purpose is to raise taxes. The rest of their words are whipped cream on dogshit.
Just got an email from an old friend in Florida who bought a Chevy Bolt. He passed along some numbers a couple months ago, and for reasons too boring to fully explain, they looked wrong — as in “too good to be true.”
Having owned an EV for a long time, and having studied the living hell out of all things EV along with all things electricity generation, I sometimes feel like Diogenes in search of an honest man. The “progressives” hype this shit to the sky, and the wingnuts jerk their knees and rattle on about this or that, with no more knowledge or research than the “progressives” bother to accumulate.
All I care about is the CORRECT information, and let the chips fall where they might. My friend is 70 years old and drives like the proverbial old lady in a climate that’s ideal for EVs and where the roads are flat. So he gets great mileage (157 mpg-e), but not unusually great given the details.
Damn it, I forgot the whole story. I bought him a meter on Amazon and had them ship it. He used it to take the readings, which he then sent. I told him: I don’t care what the numbers are, as long as they are accurate.
It turned out that his numbers were very much congruent with my understanding before it came up between us. I told him that it was good to have the right numbers, and that I was relieved to have had my understanding and assumptions supported by the facts.
On the pluses and minuses front.
Plus: Much better driving experience (apart from range, which matters a lot but is different), on account of the torque characteristics. An EV delivers high torque across the power band. They take off faster than their gas and diesel equivalents, and they accelerate faster from any speed. So no matter what else you think about them, an EV is a lot more fun to drive. My big diesel truck is far and away the favorite of the 15 or 16 vehicles I’ve owned, but if the future brings much bigger batteries, that truck would be much more enjoyable to drive. Mind you, I really, really love the truck the way it is.
On the negative side, EVs are much more sensitive to ambient temperatures, hills, driving speed, and weight. To make a genuine big electric work truck that’s worth having would require a FAR bigger battery than anything now available or, to my knowledge, planned. I can provide those numbers too, but they’ll be a guesstimate. An educated one, but not precise.
In any case, whatever fuel they use, these are cars and not causes. The EVanglists hate to hear it, and so do the knee-jerk opponents. In the end, this is a battery game, and we’re still in the early innings.