from the first-rule-of-Critical-Minerals-Club.... dept.
US, EU looking to form 'critical minerals club':
The US and Europe could be moving towards another area of cooperation, this time over critical minerals needed for electric vehicles and other technologies, with the creation of a de facto free-trade status for such resources.
Representatives from France and Germany have met with key US officials during a visit to Washington, and reports say a proposal was floated of a "critical minerals club" to include America and Europe, amid concerns that the US Inflation Reduction Act could penalize non-US companies developing green technologies.
Benchmark Mineral Intelligence chief operating officer Andrew Miller told us efforts to nationalize or regionalize supply chains are a priority for all western economies today. He said: "The sustainable transition to clear energy is a target that will only be achievable with more diverse supply chains.
The Inflation Reduction Act aims to give a boost to US industry and bring down inflation by investing in domestic energy production, especially clean energy. But it has sparked fears that it will disadvantage European companies developing green technology. For example, it requires that a certain amount of components or critical minerals for electric vehicles be sourced in the US or from countries that have a free trade agreement with it, which does not currently include Europe.
"The Inflation Reduction Act has fuelled a lot of momentum around US ambitions and is arguably the biggest legislative milestone the western world has seen to date to support electrification," Miller told The Register.
"This has of course raised concerns in European economies, particularly those with large, established automotive sectors which will increasingly be required to compete in the field of electrification. Europe is now playing catch-up to the US, and while a more international collaboration may be good for diversity of supply, the US will be keen to ensure the supply chain security of its own automotive sector as a priority.
The meeting in Washington was officially to reinforce the United States' commitment to the transatlantic economic partnership, and saw US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen hosting German Vice Chancellor and Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Change Robert Habeck, plus France's Minister of Economy, Finance, and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty Bruno Le Maire.
[...] The EU's executive body, the European Commission last year proposed the European Critical Raw Material Act to address the issue of key minerals in many high-tech industries.
"Lithium and rare earths will soon be more important than oil and gas," EC president Ursula von der Leyen said at the time. "Our demand for rare earths alone will increase fivefold by 2030...we must avoid becoming dependent again, as we did with oil and gas."
She pointed to China, with its "quasi-monopoly on rare earths and permanent magnets" while other nations such as the USA Japan and South Korea were deploying sizable investments to lessen their dependence on such sources.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by khallow on Sunday February 12, @01:51AM (2 children)
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 12, @03:04PM (1 child)
OK, experiment. But you can't get around the fact that the stuff you want is hundred, thousands, or tens of thousands of feet underground. You're always going to have drill, or tunnel, or strip away the surface to get at what you want. And, there will always be chemical processes involved in extracting your precious materials from the ore. There will always be tailings and sludge ponds. So, experiment. Make those tailings and sludge safe enough for children to play among them.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 13, @04:47AM
There's not much point to developing better approaches to mining when there's this much opposition and obstruction to the new in the US while the old ways work just fine in China.
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Sunday February 12, @04:16AM (6 children)
"efforts to nationalize or regionalize supply chains are a priority". That worries me. "Nationalize" is a euphemism meaning "seize ownership by the government." It's something done by dictatorial thugs, and threatened by would-be dictatorial thugs.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 12, @04:59AM (5 children)
Meh. From the point of view of 99.9% of the population it's one group of thugs taking something from another group of thugs, by force. Same as it's ever been. It has less relevance than the next game in the Colosseum, at least that might be entertaining.
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 12, @06:16AM (1 child)
Exactly. GP seems to think he's a playa in the international scene. Bro, you are a flea in a prawn in a fish in a shark in a whale in a factory trawler in a fleet in a business in a corporation in a country in a mega corporation in a political ideology. In short, no.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by khallow on Sunday February 12, @06:54AM
Is status more important to you than truth?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 12, @06:53AM (2 children)
I bet the percentages will drop a huge amount lot once that nationalization breaks things - like power systems, transportation, and anything else that depends on those critical minerals. Nobody cares until the big mistakes and abuses happen. At least with private enterprise you have someone you can sue with good odds of success and getting a correction (the flea guy aside, even fleas have power in the courts).
Here, with those critical minerals, the big problem is that government and society needs to get out of the way. That includes the NIMBYs using government to block legitimate industry. I get that there's serious pollution concerns. I also get that that there's a variety of industries that just have stopped or disappeared often for decades. While that usually means a reduction in pollution, it also means a halt in efforts to make less polluting industry - such as a glaring lack of development of safer nuclear power plants.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 12, @10:46PM (1 child)
... and healthcare and defense and emergency responders and ...
See, the funny thing is, in many of the more civilized countries those systems were developed and built by the governments before being "privatized to increase efficiency".
So what you are saying is that a government can build those systems but that you have to hand them over to the robber barons to extract the maximum profit from them. Well, the 99.9% don't really care if that robber baron can't get his maximum profit. They care that the system works and from their point of view most of those systems worked better when they ran for the purpose of providing that service than when they ran for the purpose of providing a robber baron with maximum profit.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 12, @11:09PM
I see no such examples of privatization in your list! I do in mine and those worked out pretty well.
The actual robber barons of feudal Europe were genuine governments in themselves. The capitalist version such as what were termed robber barons in the US built their own systems though often with considerable public funding or other government finagling. For example, the biggest scandal in US politics prior to Watergate was the Teapot Dome Scandal [history.com] which involved among many other things, bribing high officials in the US government (possibly including President Taft himself) to allow exclusive oil drilling rights on public land to known oil reserves that had been set aside previously for support of the US Navy. The oil was technically publicly owned, but the infrastructure for extracting it would have been privately constructed and operated. The role of government in robber baron schemes would be things like a corrupt funding source, a gatekeeper for allowing such activity, or hired muscle for things like putting down unions or acquiring land.
There wasn't huge public infrastructure to be handed off to private enterprise.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 12, @07:56AM (1 child)
I don't think we should be teaching elementary school children about 'Critical Minerals Club'.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 12, @10:55PM
My gawd - how you codgers lack a sense of humor.
I was gonna follow up by revealing the first rule of 'Critical Minerals Club', but I guess you wouldn't grin over that one either. Too sad.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 12, @02:59PM
There will be another Hillary Clinton soon enough, who will approve the sale of strategic mineral rights to Russian corporations, or a Hunter Biden to auction off access to the President or Vice President for the Chinese to buy whatever they want. There is always some privileged white SOB waiting for the opportunity to undermine the US or the EU.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.