Broadcast August 22, 2022 – Doug McKelway on Centerpoint – TBN TV – Watch Centerpoint WEEKNIGHTS 7:30PM ET & PT exclusively on TBN!
Lithium is needed to produce the batteries for electric cars. This need is being leveraged by China. Marc Morano, author of “Green Fraud,” joins Doug McKelway to discuss how under the guise of saving the planet, China is gaining control over areas of Africa where rare-earth mining is profitable. They are also using differences in environmental standards to control more of the production needed by America. This process is anything but good for the planet. Tune in to Centerpoint to learn more!
WSJ: The Place With the Most Lithium Is Blowing the Electric-Car Revolution – A California-sized piece of South America is stifling production of the metal at a time when battery makers desperately need it – SALAR DE ATACAMA, Chile—Hailed as the Saudi Arabia of lithium, this California-sized chunk of terrain accounts for some 55% of the world’s known deposits of the metal, a key component in electric-vehicle batteries.
As the Chinese EV giant BYD Co. recently learned, tapping into that resource can be a challenge. Earlier this year, after BYD won a government contract to mine lithium, indigenous residents took to the streets, demanding the tender be canceled over concerns about the impact on local water supplies. In June, the Chilean Supreme Court threw out the award, saying the government failed to consult with indigenous people first. “They want to produce more and more lithium, but we’re the ones who pay the price,” said Lady Sandón, president of one of two Atacameño indigenous hamlets that filed a lawsuit against the auction. A BYD spokeswoman declined to comment. Similar setbacks are occurring around the so-called Lithium Triangle, which overlaps parts of Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. Production has suffered at the hands of leftist governments angling for greater control over the mineral and a bigger share of profits, as well as from environmental concerns and greater activism by local Andean communities who fear being left out while outsiders get rich. At a time of exploding demand that has sent lithium prices up 750% since the start of 2021, industry analysts worry that South America could become a major bottleneck for growth in electric vehicles.
Rough Partial Transcript:
Marc Morano: “It is a complicated geopolitical environmental issue involving international trade and global politics and the net zero agenda. This is not easy to solve, but one thing is clear: Lithium isn’t going anywhere anytime soon and these three countries are essentially blocking the mass production of EVs And all these computer model projections of massive electric car growth in the next decade for all the buzz about electric cars.”
Doug McKelway: “There’s one thing that’s missing — the ingredients to make enough batteries around the globe. Several car makers say they will be all electric across this decade, but that’s simply not possible unless the batteries that drive them can get produced so trouble ahead it seems. Mark Morano is the executive director of Climate Depot and the author of Green Fraud: Why the Green New Deal is Even Worse Than You Think. Marc good to see you again.
Marc Morano: Thank you, Doug, Happy to be here.
Doug McKelway:There’s a real-life example happening right now in one of the most battery-rich areas of the world the the so-called lithium triangle which is comprised by Chile, Bolivia and Argentina alert our viewers what’s going on there and why this poses a threat to the future of electric car development?
Marc Morano: Well what’s happening here is you have a series of governments in these nations who are essentially refusing to provide the listening the lithium needed to the global market to produce electric cars on mass and I would have to say and this may surprise many free market conservatives — they’re not wrong to be resisting because you have climate activist groups like the Woodrow Wilson Center pushing the idea that to allow multinational corporations to come into these countries and like China and China’s bidding on this as well in South America but like China has done in Africa exploiting underage children exploit poor africans to essentially extract all the cobalt as the case is in africa we’re talking about lithium here a rare earth metal in in south america but essentially these governments on one hand have a legitimate stake in preventing this uh you know exploitation if you will I sound like bernie sanders but on the other hand these governments with you know many of them left-wing dictators are looking to nationalize the industries and in fact some of them have and that essentially shut down the entire production and of course that only benefits the cronies at the top so it is a complicated geopolitical environmental issue involving international trade and global politics and the net zero agenda.