The push for green energy is increasing U.S. reliance on China and, thus, is benefiting the communist regime immensely, according to Rex Lee, a cybersecurity adviser at My Smart Privacy.
As the Biden administration “races to deploy green energy,” the demand for materials to produce electric vehicle batteries—such as lithium and cobalt—continues to surge. Meanwhile, China remains the world’s biggest supplier of the components and materials required for renewable energy technologies.
Between 2010 and 2020, China’s share of global polysilicon production increased from 26 percent to 82 percent—while the U.S. share decreased from 35 percent to 5 percent, according to a 2021 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Silicon is a key ingredient in solar panels and, in 2021, China accounted for 75 percent of global photovoltaic (PV) module production, according to statistics.
Reports by minerals analysts and the U.S. government show that some 70 percent of the cobalt mined globally comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and that almost all of the cobalt mined there is shipped to China for refining and processing. Currently, China processes about 80 percent of the world’s cobalt, according to the National Defense Magazine.
“At the end of the day, a lot of this ties back to our reliance on China,” Lee told NTD’s “China in Focus” on Feb. 28. “We understand today that relying on China for our critical infrastructure regarding our supply chain is not a good thing, especially regarding electronics, and pharmaceuticals, and so forth. And now we’re asking to be reliant on China again for renewable energy.”
Negative Environmental Impact
The expert said that there are far-reaching negative environmental impacts associated with mining for rare earth mineral, as well as for the extraction of critical minerals such as cobalt, lithium, and nickel.“All of that has to be mined from the earth and put together in factories that create a large carbon footprint,” he said. “A lot of these factories and a lot of these mining companies, even though they’re all over the world, the majority of them come out of China. So there’s a lot of pollution.”
Conflict of Interest
Lee said that there is considerable potential for conflicts of interest associated with lobbying for green legislation. He pointed to Chinese private equity firm BHR, in which President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, held a 10 percent stake as of May 2021, according to company records. Hunter Biden also held a seat on the firm’s board of directors.BHR is reportedly backed by major Chinese state financial institutions such as the Bank of China and the China Development Bank.
“Hunter Biden actually came up when I did research on lobbyists, he came up not as a consultant for BHR, but he came up as an actual employee, and he was listed as the actual lobbyist,” he said.
“So that’s a direct conflict that goes directly to the President and his family members who could be benefiting off of this green legislation at the end of the day, while China is benefiting heavily on this as well,” he added.
The Epoch Times reached out to the Biden administration for comment.
A Balanced Approach
The Biden administration’s rush to renewables means that up to a quarter of the coal-fired electricity capacity in the United States is scheduled to be shut down by 2029, according to the IEA. However, Lee suggested that coal will continue to be used as a source of energy for hundreds of years—especially considering how dependent China, India, and other countries are on coal.A Feb. 27 report by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air found that China issued permits for two new coal-fired power plants per week in 2022—the highest level since 2015. The coal power capacity currently under construction in China is six times as large as that in all of the rest of the world combined.
“We’re the only country that is actually reducing our dependence on coal—along with some European countries—but all of the other countries around the world are heavily dependent on coal, and they’re not going to give up that dependency either,” he said.
Lee called for a more balanced approach to the question of U.S. energy provision.
Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
