The President's Daily Brief - December 28th, 2022. Dirty Green Energy: Renewable Energy Batteries, Part 1

Episode Date: December 28, 2022

It’s December 28th. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. ------ Welcome back to Part III of this week’s updated and refreshed series on Dirty Green Energy. Others might call it Renewable Energy, or Clean Energy. But not us, not here. That’s because we’re setting aside the spin and agendas, and instead we’re sticking to the facts. And it turns out, the facts and data say there’s nothing clean or green about the two issues we’ve already covered: solar and wind energy. Today we’re going to talk about batteries. Ah, but as it turns out, we need two different briefs on how dirty these things are. First we’ll tackle the minerals inside those batteries, and then — in tomorrow’s brief — we’ll talk about the dirty process of refining and manufacturing these batteries.  But before we begin: a reminder. The goal of this series is to remind ourselves of one very important and often ignored fact: every form of energy comes with a cost. Whether that be environmental, humanitarian, national security, or reliability. And we all know that’s true for traditional forms of energy like natural gas and oil. That’s why the media and politicians like to call it Dirty Oil or Dirty Coal. But we rarely if ever hear about those dirty costs related to solar, wind, and electric vehicles. Why is that? Hmm. Odd. Well here on the PDB we’re going to do what others won’t. We’re going to talk about facts and then let you decide whether it’s dirty or clean, and whether it’s smart for America to adopt this industry for its energy future. ------ Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief. Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You're listening to the President's Daily Brief. I'm your host and former CIA officer Brian Dean Wright. Your morning intel starts now. Welcome back to part three of this week's updated and refreshed series on dirty green energy. Now, others might call it renewable energy or clean energy, but not us, not here. That's because we're setting aside the spin and agendas, and instead, we're sticking to the facts. And as it turns out, the facts and data say that there is nothing. clean or green about the two issues we've already covered, that being solar and wind energy.

Well, today we're going to talk about batteries. Ah, but as it turns out, we need two different briefs on how dirty these things are. So first, we'll tackle the minerals inside those batteries. And then in tomorrow's brief, we'll talk about the dirty process of refining and manufacturing these batteries. But before we begin today, a reminder, the goal of this series is to remind ourselves of one very important and often ignored fact. Every form of energy comes with a cost, whether that be environmental, humanitarian, national security, or reliability. And we all know that's true for traditional forms of energy like natural gas and oil

because the media and politicians like to call it dirty oil or dirty coal. But we rarely, if ever, hear about those dirty costs related to solar, wind and electric vehicles. But why is that? Hmm, odd. Well, here on the PDB, we are going to do what others won't. We are going to talk about facts and then let you decide whether it's dirty or clean and whether it's smart for America to adopt this industry for its energy future. With that, let's dive into those batteries. Now, just like with solar panels and wind turbines, I want us to start with some imagination. Let's say we're all sitting on the back porch, although probably bad time a year to do that. Anyway, we're looking at our snow-covered yards, and there sits a battery.

Now, I don't mean the little batteries like in your remote controls or even large ones like those in your gas-powered cars. Instead, I want you to imagine the really big, really specialized batteries that can store energy from wind and solar farms, or those that allow an electric vehicle to drive for hundreds of miles. Generally, these things are called lithium-ion batteries. And without these specialized batteries, the entire dirty green industry is dead on arrival. Why? Well, the sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow. So that means that we need these batteries to help store energy, both generally speaking

and during those periods of low production, like at night or on a windless day. Plus, lithium ion batteries offer a critical advantage for electric vehicles. They can store more energy and allow cars to drive much further. All right. So as we're sitting on the back porch, looking at that big old industrial battery, let's get our wrenches out. Let's start taking that sucker apart. But don't worry.

It's not charged. It won't shock you. We need to disassemble that thing until we get all the way down into the minerals inside that make it work. Now, depending on the battery, we can find different kinds of minerals. And trust me when I say that there are hundreds of companies trying to figure out the right mix of minerals to give you that maximum chemical benefit, and for them, the maximum profit. Some companies are trying a new type of chemistry involving iron. Others are trying sodium. It's a cousin of table salt. But the most common battery types right now are ones that

use three minerals in particular. Lithium, cobalt, and nickel. All right. Let's start with the question. Where do those three minerals come from? Well, obviously, the earth. earth. And that means that we have to get them out of the ground. We got to mine them. And by simple reasoning, we know that the mining process is going to be a dirty one. Let's just think about that in a big picture way. First, you need massive amounts of electricity to mine, normally created by coal or natural gas. And then you also need some really big earth moving equipment powered by diesel. Now, as you mine, there can sometimes be a release of pollutants that were otherwise buried in the ground. That could come in the form of toxic dust or toxic runoff from rain or settling

ponds that leak. In other words, we are off to a very dirty start for green energy. Then, of course, you have to transport all of those minerals to a refinery to remove the impurities that make it ready for further manufacturing. Well, that transportation of minerals is almost exclusively done by rail, which in turn is mostly powered by diesel. Finally, we also know that mines, well, not especially pretty to look at. That's why most of us would rather not live next to one, just like, say, an oil rig or a coal mine. So all in all, the mining process generally is a pretty dirty one, and we all know that. But what you might not know is the volume of new minerals needed for the dirty green revolution, for the batteries required at solar and wind farms, and the

electric vehicles. But also, don't forget the things like new transmission lines to transport more electricity requiring things like copper. Regardless, the estimates on how much more of this stuff we're going to need, it ranges, but the folks at the International Energy Agency used words like shocking and dramatic to describe the increase in mining needed for the dirty green energy revolution. So let me give you just one example of why they say that. The IEA notes that the average gas-powered vehicle, they need around 75 pounds of copper and manganese, but an electric vehicle, who, they require a minimum of 200 pounds of lithium,

cobalt, nickel, manganese, and graphite. And that's just a low-end battery. If you want one with a longer range, especially for your electric vehicle, well, now we're talking 500 pounds of minerals versus 75 for gas powered cars. Now, take that 500 pounds of minerals per electric vehicle and multiply that times the number of gas-powered cars in the world, all of which we got to replace, say the climate people, and that number of cars, 1.4 billion globally. Now, I'm not smart, and I'm not fancy, nor am I handsome, but that's for another brief. Back to the math. 500 pounds of minerals times 1.4 billion cars is, well, it's a lot. It's a ton. And it's why, the International Energy Agency and others in the mining industry say that the sheer amount of

minerals needed for dirty green energy, it is shocking and dramatic. And so too will be the number of mines that we have to dig or expand. That's all to feed an industry that says it's clean, green, and renewable. With that, ladies and gentlemen, let's take our first quick break. For my paid subscribers on the Apple platform, no ads for you. For everybody else, not to worry, we will be right back. And when we return, we've got more dirty details to talk about. We'll be right back. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right.

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Find your perfect product at Bose.com. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to our continued exploration of dirty green energy. Today, we're focused on the minerals needed for the batteries that store and deserable. distribute power. As we know, without these batteries, there is no solar industry, no wind farms, and no electric vehicles. So let's dig deeper, no pun intended, into the three key minerals that I mentioned earlier that power most modern batteries. We've got lithium, cobalt, and nickel.

Let's start with lithium, because it should actually be a pretty good story. America has lots of this mineral. In fact, the fourth largest reserves in the world, about $9.1 million. tons, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. And that's really important as we weigh how dirty this stuff is. Because we don't want the bad old energy days where Arab countries controlled much of the world's oil supply. We need energy independence, right? So if America has lots of lithium, this is a great story, right? No, it's not. Because despite the fact that we have all these lithium reserves in the ground, we only have one lithium mine taking it out, and it sits near the city of Silver Peak, Nevada. Now, obviously, we have other locations that we could mine, namely in California, Arkansas,

and North Carolina. But unfortunately, plans to exploit those areas are under attack by environmentalists, indigenous tribes, and Democrat activists, all because of the reasons that I mentioned earlier. They're ugly. They can pollute, and they necessarily require damage through the environment as we dig stuff up. Let me give you an example of this. America's largest known lithium deposit is along the border of Nevada and Oregon. It's called Thacker Pass. In 2021, the Trump administration approved plans for a $1 billion mine at that site, but it is facing fierce resistance. Environmental groups and local indigenous tribes are claiming that the mine would threaten local wildlife and could potentially contaminate local water sources. From North Carolina to California,

We have a pickle, my friends. Fans of dirty green energy want us to use lithium, all for their batteries, but they don't want us to mine lithium, at least not in their backyard. So that means that somebody else gets to pay the dirty price. Hmm, who might that be? Well, mostly Australia and South America. Now, Australia is a good friend of ours, and that's good, because they are the largest lithium-producing country in the world.

around 55,000 metric tons of the stuff actually, double that of its closest competitor. But as we've just covered, that's not going to be enough lithium. So we have to go to the place with the next greatest concentration of lithium and expand production there. And that is in South America,

to the Atacama Desert. Now, you might remember us traveling there a while back on the PDB, but to refresh our memories, it's earned the nickname of the lithium triangle because it's a region that straddles the country's of Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. And as you also probably remember, it happens to be one of the driest places on Earth.

They get about a quarter to a half an inch of moisture each year. That presents a major problem because lithium mining requires a considerable amount of water, about 500,000 gallons needed to produce a single ton. Well, as you might guess, the local folks in the driest place on Earth, especially the indigenous people, are upset about efforts to open and expand the lithium mines in their backyard. Well, because they say current mining activities have already consumed about 65% more of the region's scarce water, and the locals don't want to use any more of it. Now, in addition to the stress on the water supply, there are also other concerns about contamination.

Lithium mining requires a number of toxic chemicals like hydrochloric acid in the mining process, and there have been some pretty horrific mining accidents involving this stuff. Search the internet if you want on the Upper Tibet disaster in 2016, if you want to see what that looks like. But the bottom line is that lithium mining is a dirty process. Okay, so that's lithium. Let's now talk about cobalt. And I will tell you, this one's not just dirty. It's also infuriating and it's heartbreaking.

When it comes to cobalt, there are two countries that have an iron grip on the market. One is China, but the real kingmaker of cobalt is in Africa. And smart PDB listeners know it well because I have briefed you on this many times before. Do you remember the country? Yeah, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC Kinshasa. The DRC has long been known for its natural wealth. They've got diamonds and gold, copper, uranium, tin, and lots of cobalt. In fact, DRC is to cobalt as Saudi Arabia is to,

oil. DRC alone produces more than 70% of the world's cobalt supply. But you know what? Actually, that actually doesn't quite grasp how important DRC is to cobalt. So consider this. The top three producers of oil on the planet are the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Russia. Combined, they only produce about 40% of the world's oil. The RC has a 70% grip on the world's cobalt. So how is the DRC getting this very incredible mineral out of the ground and into our dirty green batteries. Well, the majority of it is coming from large-scale commercial mining operations, but, and there's always a butt, the problem here is that over half of these DRC mines are owned, controlled, or financed by the Chinese. So to underline the point here, we're putting our energy supply

from solar panels to now batteries, in the hands of our greatest national enemy, the communists in China. But I'll tell you, the real heartbreaker here is when we look not at commercial mines, but the artisanal mines. Now, these are small-scale operations that account for about 15 to 30%

of DRC's total cobalt production. They're mostly open pit mines or very rudimentary mine shafts, where workers use their hands or simple tools to claw at the dirt. So we're not talking about big mining equipment here like at a commercial operation. Well, as you can imagine, this practice has led to many injuries and deaths. Pit walls, collapsing mine shafts, burying people alive.

And for their efforts, for all that risk, miners earn less than $2 a day. Meanwhile, what we know about cobalt is that it's not good to touch this stuff with your bare hands, nor should you breathe in the dust. It causes all sorts of terrible health effects to include cancer. So all of that is horrible for these artisanal miners. Yes. But here's the worst part. Many of the workers are often children.

According to an estimate from the Wilson Center of the 255,000 Congolese people mining for cobalt, 40,000 are children, some as young as six years old. That's why, for the first time in October of 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that the world's cobalt supply is profoundly dependent on child labor. And you know what, folks, that's not just dirty. That's horrifying. And that's what's going into electric devices of all kinds, by the way. It's not just electric vehicles or industrial batteries for solar and wind power.

But the issue here is the sheer volume of cobalt needed for the dirty green energy revolution. So consider this. In your phone or your computer, well, those batteries, we're talking about ounces of cobalt. In an electric vehicle, we're talking 30 to 70 packs. pounds of cobalt. So take that and once again multiply at times 1.4 billion passenger cars globally on the road today. That is the scale of this problem. Now to be clear, fans of dirty green energy, they know all this. As the U.S. Department of Labor has now confirmed, the U.S. government and Joe Biden know exactly where the world's cobalt comes from. But they want more of it, no matter

of the cost to these kids in the Congo. Now, to be fair, there are some very modest efforts in the battery and mining industry to try to find alternatives to cobalt. They're hoping to find some different chemistries involving iron or sodium like I mentioned earlier in the show. And you know what, maybe that'll happen. I hope so, fingers crossed, but maybe it won't. And to be even more fair, America just opened its very first cobalt mine in the state of Idaho. It will produce around 16,000 tons of cobalt by the time that the mine has exhausted itself. And while that's really great, that's nice, it is a fraction of what will ultimately be needed in this dirty green revolution. And that's why this entire thing relies in no small part on kids in the Congo, sacrificing their

lives for things like our Teslas. With that, folks, let's take our last break of the morning. When we come back, we are going to talk about nickel. And that's because it's, It highlights a concern that nobody but the PDB is talking about, and here's the concern. You folks may have to send your kids or your family into foreign wars, wars to protect our supply of these minerals, just like we did for oil. We'll be right back. Get the most out of your vehicle with GM genuine parts and AC Delco original equipment, the only parts designed, engineered, tested, and backed by General Motors. You can find your perfect fit for most makes and monster. models, and choose from three tiers of parts, including GMOE or gold and silver aftermarket

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controlling about 25% of global supply. But that's not what we really need to talk about. Instead, Listen to this. According to Bloomberg News, Indonesia's investment minister has proposed the creation of a cartel, an economic cartel. In other words, major nickel-producing countries like Indonesia would join together and set production amounts, which in turn would help control the price of nickel. And their hope is that just like the oil cartel called OPEC, Indonesia could create something similar for nickel producers. And if done right, that nickel cartel would make producers, like Indonesia a whole bunch of money and give them considerable power on the global stage.

But let's pause for a moment and really think about what that means. When Arab countries started cornering the oil market back in the 1960s, that meant that Western countries like America had to become deeply involved in that region. We had to send our troops time and again, either to provide protection from invaders or to put down rebellions between tribes or religious groups. And we did that because if the oil supply were to fall into the wrong hands, it would be an economic and national security nightmare. Let me be very clear here. That's meant that families like yours and mine have had to send our kids and our grandkids to the Middle East. And in some cases, those kids did not come home alive. That was the price that we paid for that oil. And now

we have a new oil. It's lithium, cobalt, and nickel. And just like oil, those minerals largely aren't controlled by America. But now, after this brief, you know who does. Countries like Indonesia, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and the Congo. And just like in the Middle East, they're no dummies. They know exactly what they have. And they're looking to start cartels. So what do you think will come next, even without the cartels, based on what we did in the Middle East? What are we signing up for with this dirty green energy revolution to protect that energy asset that we don't control, but now we desperately need? Hmm. Good questions that I would like for you to ponder this morning.

And as you do, I'd like to pivot now from data and facts to analysis and opinion. because based on my time as a CIA officer, it means that in our lifetimes, we will almost certainly see American boots on the ground in strange places all over the world, all because we need minerals to power our batteries, batteries that power our economy, our homes, our hospitals. But just like oil and decades gone by, we don't control those minerals. Now, maybe somebody out there invents a new kind of battery with a new kind of chemistry that doesn't require lithium and cobalt or nickel. And that is absolutely possible. There have been failed attempts to do just that. Maybe the next time will work. Fingers crossed. Or maybe, you know what,

just maybe environmentalists and leftists will finally say, you know what, let's dig up America. Let's dig up those minerals in my backyard because climate change is real. And we've got to solve it. So dig up my backyard for the greater good. But can I be honest with you? That ain't going to happen. because as holy and righteous as these people say they are, they don't want to pay a price for any of it. As we saw with solar panels, they want Chinese slaves living in concentration camps to pay the price. As we saw with windblades,

they want poor communities in places like Wyoming to bury that stuff behind their houses. And as for those lithium and cobalt mines, oh no, sir, not here. make some poor people elsewhere bear that cost. And if that requires the U.S. military putting boots on the ground, that's fine. But to be clear, you're not sending my kids, the elites, say. You can send somebody else's.

And by that, the elites mean your kids, your grandkids. Because we all know that's how it works. The common man and the common woman always pay the price for this kind of stuff. The rich and powerful rarely, if ever do. So my friends, we end on this note. Every form of energy comes with a cost. For decades, we have paid that cost for oil and gas. Then about 10, 15 years ago, the fracking revolution brought us energy independence for the first time in decades with oil. And now we're trading it away for minerals that we don't control or that we refuse to mine. And so begins a new era of cost and

sacrifice, from the environment to national security, to human rights, to the mind-boggling effort that it will take to build and expand minds. So as ever, all that you decide if the cost is worth it, but I will tell you this. Not for one second should you let anyone fool you about this energy revolution being green or clean or renewable, because that is a lot of. lie. And those that tell you otherwise are liars. It's all dirty. And on this podcast, I will continue to talk about that. Not because of some sort of agenda. I don't have one. I don't have secret investments and oil, natural gas. I don't even have a retirement account. I'm going to keep talking about this because that's what the actual president's daily brief is all about. The president has to know

the full story. And that's what you deserve. I don't care. that you're not the president. This is your country, and this is about your future. So I am going to bring you the full story, no matter how dirty it gets. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes your morning brief. As always, we close out the show, reminding each other of why we are here, talking about our country and our world. It's the creed of every good spy and every smart American.

It's from John, chapter 8, verse 3. and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free good day