The President's Daily Brief - November 2nd, 2022. How Clean Are The Solar Panels Leading the "Green Revolution"?

Episode Date: November 2, 2022

It’s November 2nd. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. ------ For years we’ve heard about dirty oil, dirty coal, and dirty natural gas. All dirty because of their environmental record, plus their tie to foreign dictators.  Well today begins a five part series on Dirty Green. We’ll explore the debate of whether renewable energy is really the picture of purity that we are so often told or whether there are dirty secrets to the environment and connections to dictators abroad. Today, we kick off the series exploring solar panels. That’s coming up. And finally, the last thing before I let you go. Question from a listener who says she doesn’t know much about international affairs but wonders if we can do more to hit Russia’s pocketbook. ------ 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

It's November 2nd and I am your host with a very bad cold, Brian Dean Wright. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have fought a virus and it appears as though the virus is winning. It's a chest cold to be specific, so nothing terrible. So rather than torture you with my voice, I'm going to give you two things. First, a quick brief on the things that I'm actually still working on, even though I'm sick. And second, the rest of today's podcast will actually be one of my favorite briefs from the Dirty Green series. But first, let me tell you three things to put on your radar that I'm working on. First, the U.S. Department of Defense has confirmed that U.S. troops are on the ground in Ukraine.

Now, officially, they're keeping track of the weapons that we're sending over there. But, folks, there is so much more to that story. Next, we've got an important election happening not just here in America, but also in Denmark. And my farmers and ranchers listening this morning, you will want to know about this, because it's a reminder of how you all might want to get organized here to prevent what's happening there. Finally, America's college freshmen are struggling this year, all because COVID restrictions denied them a good understanding of math and other subjects in high school. I've got those details on what colleges are seeing all around the country. So get ready for those stories and many more to come when my voice comes back.

Or maybe you'll have to start whispering my briefs to you. Anyway, in the meantime, I am so thrilled to offer you the special brief that kicked off our dirty green energy series. It's all about how dirty those solar panels really are. So hang tight and we will be right back. Who cares about your poops? Ollie does. That's why Ali's science-backed gut health lineup helps support your family's regularity. From daily probiotics to fiber gummies your kiddos will love.

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Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com. 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. First up, for years, we have heard about dirty oil and dirty coal and dirty natural gas, all dirty because of their environmental record, plus their tie to foreign dictators. Well, today begins a five-part series on Dirty Green. We'll explore the debate of whether renewable energy is really the picture of purity that we are often so told about, or whether they're are dirty secrets to the environment and connections to dictators abroad. Today we kick off

the series exploring solar panels, and that's coming up. As always, I'm keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put this one on your radar. An important update on the war of attrition in Ukraine, one about recent battles and a second bit about a $60 billion bill that you are going to have to pay. And finally, the last thing before I let you go is a question from a listener who says that she doesn't know much about international affairs, but wonders if we can do more to hit Russia's pocketbook. But first, let's get started with today's main brief. Dirty Green, ladies and gentlemen,

that is the new series that I will be doing here on the PDB, asking some important questions about renewable energy. And that's because to date, most of us have been told that renewable energy is green energy, and it has virtually no environmental costs, unlike oil and gas. Plus, it's free of national security concerns, like tying ourselves to foreign dictators in the Middle East and so forth. But is that true? Because if it is, I mean, that would be

wonderful. I sort of picture America twirling around in green fields like Julie Andrews in a scene from the sound of music. But what if it's not true? What if renewable energy actually involves, say, mining in those green fields with slave labor? And Julie Andrews Andrews is a communist in Beijing, pumping out solar panels with dirty coal. In other words, what if the whole renewable enterprise is nothing but a mirage? A mirage that once you get close, you realize is just dirty green. Today we are going to begin unpacking all of those questions, and we are going to start with solar energy. Later this week, we will continue on with wind, batteries, mining for those batteries, and of course the electric vehicles.

vehicles soon to be driving on our streets. But first, one editorial note here is I and two other folks researched this, our goal wasn't to bash renewable energy. Instead, it was to look at the facts, the record, and give it the same treatment given to oil and coal and natural gas, and then let you decide what to think about it, and whether policymakers and the media are being honest with you and America. So with that, let's dive in. I want to, you to imagine that you had decided to install solar panels on your roof. But where did that panel come from? And I don't mean from your local installer. I mean the panel itself. Where did it originate? To answer that question, we have to start taking the panel apart, remove the frame, take apart

the big black, shiny glass-like module, and then look at the individual solar cells. But actually you have to keep going deeper into those individual cells, because they all had a chemical birth. and it's called polysilicon. Now to understand this key ingredient, I want you to imagine you're making bread. Now it's an imperfect analogy, but roll with me. In the place of dough, imagine you're making and rolling out polysilicon. Now this material is made through a complex, sometimes dangerous process named after a German company. It's called the Siemens process. Now, I won't bore you with the intricate details here, but here's what you need to know. It takes a lot of energy and know-how to make this polysilicon dough.

But for a long time, only European and American companies knew how to do it. It was almost like a trade secret. Then in about 2006, there was an Italian man who used to work in America, and he made a deal with a Chinese company called De Quan Group. He agreed to tell them how to make the secret polysilicon dough in exchange for a different kind of dough, big piles of cash. Now, he was an expert in the process, and he wasn't. supposed to share the information, but he did it anyway. That's according to a report from

National Public Radio back in July of last year. But regardless, the result of what he did, and of China's stealing of our intellectual property for years before, well, it was the birth of a global solar revolution because China could suddenly dominate the market. And not because of that Siemens-Doh process, although that was critical, but rather because the Chinese company, the Kwan, added a new ingredient. Very cheap electricity and very cheap labor. So a week ago during our Labor Day podcast, I told you about Xinjiang China. It's a region in the very far western part of the country with two things in abundance. First, coal plants. Some of the greatest concentration of coal and coal plants in the world are in Xinjiang. And along with it, very cheap energy. So the

second thing that Xinjiang has is slaves. The communists in Beijing have enslaved a group of people called the Uyghurs. They are ethnically different from other groups in China. They look different. They have a distinct culture. And they are Muslim as compared to the rest of the very atheist Chinese people. Well, all of that cheap energy and slave labor, it was like rocket fuel for creating cheap products of all kinds, from clothing to Christmas decorations. And yes, the polysilicon dough that is the foundation for creating solar panels. So how much of the world's polysilicon comes from China? Because that helps us answer the dirty green national security question.

Again, if we're moving away from oil and the Middle East, where are we going to? Well, estimates vary, but most data from the U.S. Geological Service and Bloomberg News suggests around 75% of the world's supply of polysilicon comes from that one region of China, powered by coal and slaves. In the United States, by the way, we produce about 3%. Okay, so now that we have a foundation of our solar panel, the polysilicon dough, well, we have to keep baking and then slicing it up to enjoy it. That's the manufacturing process, as it were, for solar panels.

So imagine that you've cooked your loaf of polysilicon. That loaf, by the way, is called an ingot in the manufacturing world of solar panels. But just like a loaf of bread, you have to slice it to properly. enjoy it. And when you slice an ingot, you get wafers. And then with a bit more manufacturing, you get individual solar cells. Now, what's important for you to know here is that this manufacturing process is very, very energy intensive. That's why, once again, the cheap coal plants and the slaves in Xinjiang China are so very important. Because not only do the communist control about 75% of the polysilicon supply, again, the lows of bread, they control over

over 90% of the wafers and 85% of the solar cells, or in other words, the slices of bread. And that data is according to a Bloomberg news analysis from last year. All right. Well, let's get back to our baking, shall we? So now that we have our solar cells, all those slices of bread, we start to stick them all together into sheets, kind of like squishing slices of bread together side by side. And that creates something called the modules. Now, those are for our purposes, basically the end product, more or less.

I mean, it's true that we need a metal frame to keep it all from falling apart. But the point here is that China controls that module market as well, about 82% of the world's supply. America makes only about 10%. So let's summarize our solar supply chain facts so far. 75% of the world's polysilicon comes from China, over 90% percent. of the wafers and 85% of the solar cells. And to make sure that we are all tracking, that does not mean energy independence, quite obviously.

We are not getting away from Middle Eastern oil dictators. Rather, we are hitching our wagons to communists in China instead. Oh, and we should also remember two other dirty green environmental issues. First, coal is making everything that I've mentioned so far, from the polysilicon on downwards. Plus, along the manufacturing process, we have to add in copper and silver and zinc. And all that, of course, requires mining. And as we all know, mining is not exactly green.

It requires massive amounts of electricity and diesel from oil and coal and natural gas. So the bottom line, folks, is that before we ever even put that solar panel on our roof, we have a nasty case of dirty green, sponsored by slave labor, in China. But we are not done with how dirty it really is. To understand why that's true, we have to refresh our memories from last week. America is not supposed to import goods from that Xinjiang area in China because of the slaves. Joe Biden signed that into law.

It's called the Uyghur-Forced Labor Prevention Act, and that was last December when he signed it. And of course, China knows that. So what they've done, in fact, what they've encouraged is for their solar companies to move final production to other nations in Southeast Asia to avoid this new law. Specifically, they are moving to Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia. And then Chinese companies slap on a new label that says definitely not made in China, wink, wink, and then puts them on chips that run on diesel, of course, and chug over to America. And then we put those panels on diesel operated trains and trucks. And then you put it on your roof. Probably not aware that you have just contributed to a global

dirty green problem. But this last bit does actually raise somewhat of a question about solar panels getting here from Southeast Asian nations like Thailand. Since we obviously know that that's happening, why aren't we stopping it? Well, there's one reason for that. Joe Biden is letting it happen. So here's what we know. Back in June, the Commerce Department in this country was investigating Vietnam and Thailand and

Cambodia for this cheating Chinese issue. but Joe Biden put a stop to that investigation. Specifically, he issued a declaration saying that we have an emergency, a climate emergency, and that justified an effective end to the investigation. Now, it's true the investigation will continue, but nobody in Thailand or the other countries will be punished if they are caught cheating. According to CNBC reporting, senior Biden officials described this declaration as creating a quote-unquote bridge. temporarily allowing cheap foreign solar panels made by slaves to flood into the United States

in order to speed up the transition to quote unquote clean energy. Now, to be fair, Joe Biden says that over the next couple of years, there will be a new solar supply chain built up here at home. And that's because he passed the $380 billion inflation reduction act that included billions of incentives to get it done. But is he right? Well, that actually happened. Well, in two years time, not a chance.

Industry analysts predict that it'll take anywhere from five to 15 years, some say 20, to build out an America-only supply chain, from the polysilicon dough to the cutting of the loaf, again, the ingots and the wafers, and then final assembly of the panels themselves. So that is the deal with the devil that Joe Biden has made, one that either, frankly, is not going to work, or will take at least a decade or more.

And before we wrap up today's brief, we have one final dirty green fact to talk about. China's solar panels, well, actually most solar panels, have a lifespan of about 10 to 15 years. And then they get taken down and, well, thrown away and a dump, where studies have shown that they leach toxic chemicals. And if that dump isn't properly sealed, those solar panel chemicals will soak into the groundwater, water that we will eventually drink or put on our lawns or our irrigated crops. There are efforts to figure out recycling programs. I briefed you back on July 15th about this challenge following a report from the LA Times. But to refresh our memories here, even though California has been installing solar panels for 20

years and they now have millions of panels set to retire, well, they sort of forgot about recycling. There have been some efforts to kickstart recycling, but they've got an economics problem. A study by the National Renewal Renewal, a study by the National Renewing, Energy Laboratory estimated that it would cost about $1 to $2 per solar panel to send it to a landfill. But to recycle that solar panel, that's going to take you $20 to $30 per panel. And you're only going to get about $2 to $4 back in recycled material. And so for now, California trucks most of those old panels to Arizona to get recycled,

using diesel-powered dump trucks, by the way. Or they just send them directly to landfills in California, which may or may not be sealed. to then prevent lead chain. Oh dear. And that folks ends the presentation of facts and puts us into analysis. So what do we think about all of this? Well if you were in the White House this morning with these facts in hand about dirty green energy, here is what I would encourage you to consider. Are you surprised about how dirty solar panels are? Because most Americans probably would be. And that's wrong. We deserve the truth about dirty green energy just as we do. dirty oil or dirty coal. When the American people drive down a road and they see solar panels on

houses or on fields, everybody should know something. Those solar panels should not fill your head with images of a pure twirling Julie Andrews from the sound of music. Americans should know that buried inside of those panels are metals, mined from around the world with oil and gas and diesel. They should know that the panels are almost certainly made by slave labor, from how much. hands belonging to a persecuted group called the Uighurs. They should know that the panels are made in foreign factories powered by coal. And eventually, most of those panels are slipped into America by cheating Chinese companies with fake labels from Vietnam and Thailand and Cambodia, all while making the communists

billions of dollars. And by the way, Joe Biden doesn't seem to care about that. In fact, he sees them as, quote, a helpful bridge. Ah, and not to be forgotten, in about 10 to 15, maybe 20 years time, we will have hundreds of millions of solar panels that will have to come down, probably sent to your local landfill. And sadly, the chemicals and materials inside those panels will leach. Now, if you're unlucky, that poison will go straight into your drinking water and the water that irrigates our crops.

And then we will have a silent crisis popping up in city after city. So what do we do about all of this? Well, that's the second step, and it'll come. But first, we have to educate ourselves about the facts. And the facts are, ladies and gentlemen, that solar energy is very, very dirty. And with that one more thing before I let you go. A listener question today, we'll be right back. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong.

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Your life deserves music. Your music deserves Bose. Find your perfect product at Bose.com. Welcome back to the PDB, ladies and gentlemen. I've got one more thing before I let you go this morning. Katie, from somewhere in America, wrote in asking about how or whether we could better stop the world from buying Russian oil gas or diesel. But before we get to her question, I want to flag the coolest part of her note. So here it is. This international stuff is a new world for me. So I don't even know how to begin thinking through all the implications of stopping countries from buying Russian oil, but I thought perhaps you could help me understand. Ah, Katie, this is great, because you are digging into a world that, frankly, most people don't understand. Even fancy people with doctorate degrees

in Washington, D.C., who think they understand. But my job is to help you bit by bit to understand all the confusing stuff so you can make your own decisions and tell your policymakers what to do. So keep digging Katie and keep asking lots of questions. I love it. Okay, so here is Katie's question. I was wondering what the pros and cons might be to sanctioning India and China and anybody else who buys Russian oil.

I mean, in light of your brief that Europe is buying lots more oil too, it seems like we should have our allies get themselves straight first, but I'm just wondering if we can find a way to make the sanctions more effective. Well, amen to this, Katie. We should probably have our own house in order first, shouldn't we? We can't possibly sanction other countries for buying Russian oil and gas and other products when we're buying it ourselves. And from my previous briefs to you, we are buying this stuff.

buying lots of Russian energy products and materials like aluminum, and that includes both the United States and Europe. But we've got two other big issues to consider. First, there's an unfortunate chunk of the world that actually likes Putin or hates us and the West. So that's a pretty big hurdle. Or they have their own economic interests. They want cheap oil for their own people, like in India. So trying to get everybody to crack down on Russia right now is just really hard. In fact, it's almost an impossible scenario. But second, let's just say that we manage to get everybody on board. Well, economists globally say that the shock of losing Russian energy,

especially if we crack down overnight or over the very short term, well, that would induce astronomical levels of inflation, plus a global recession, maybe even a global depression. Now, it's possible that you could make up for some of that lost sanctioned Russian supply by pumping out American oil or gas, but that's not going to happen. Climate change politics have America and Europe firmly by the hand, shall we say. That's why I push so hard on diplomacy. I have no love for Russia or Putin.

Instead, I see that we are locked in a many years-long war where we are funding Russia even as we are fighting them. And that Katie is bonkers. You don't have to have a degree in international relations to see that. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we conclude 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 32.

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