The President's Daily Brief - October 25th, 2022. the US Government Reports That the Batteries Powering the Dirty Green Energy “Revolution” Come From Child Miners

Episode Date: October 25, 2022

It’s October 25th. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. ------ We’ve got a Special Edition of the PDB this morning. And it’s special because we’re going to talk about something nobody is talking about: Last month the US Government acknowledged that the batteries powering the Renewable Energy Revolution in this country — the electric vehicles, the solar and wind farms, all of it — those batteries are produced by child miners in the Congo. Now, we’ve talked about this on the PDB in the past as a part of our series that I called Dirty Green Energy. But this is official confirmation from the US Government itself. And it’s a big deal.  But then why is this report not in the press? Why aren’t politicians talking about it? Why aren’t car manufacturers acknowledging it?  ------ 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 October 25th. 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. We've got a special edition of the PDB this morning and it's special because we are going to talk about something that nobody else is talking about. Last month, the U.S. government acknowledged that the batteries powering the renewable energy revolution in this country, the electric vehicles, the solar and wind farms, all of it, those batteries are produced by child miners in the Congo. Now, we've talked about this on the PDB in the past as a part of our series that I called Dirty Green Energy, but this is official confirmation from the U.S. government itself, and it's a big deal. But then, why isn't this report in the

press? Why aren't politicians talking about it, or why aren't the car manufacturers acknowledging it? Well, we will get to that in a minute. But first, let's get started with today's special brief. One month ago this week, the United States government released a report that I bet you didn't hear about. And it's remarkable that you haven't, because the report says this. All the lithium ion batteries coming from China are produced by child labor. So let me say that again and explain it a bit more. One month ago, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a report, and it's called the list of goods produced by child labor or forced labor. And on that list for the first time are lithium ion batteries from China.

So why is that a big deal? Well, because about 80% of the world's lithium ion batteries come from China. And that means that if you have an electric vehicle or a home battery system that perhaps connects to solar panels on your roof, well, the U.S. government is now saying that almost certainly you have purchased a product powered by child labor. but as shocking or uncomfortable as that might be, that's not the big news here. You, the consumer, are actually not the big news. The big news is this.

The U.S. government wants this country to ditch fossil fuels because of climate change and instead switch everything about modern life, the way that we live, drive, and work to renewable technologies. But those technologies do not function without lithium-ion batteries. and what the U.S. government is now acknowledging is that these batteries do not exist in the marketplace without child labor. And guess what? We are going to do it all anyway. And that ladies and gentlemen is the big news. And that is what we are going to talk about this morning. Now, for those of you who are either new to the PDB or unclear about what I just said, maybe it doesn't quite connect for you,

well, let me put these pieces together. And to do that, let's start with this. Let's imagine that we have two cars in front of us. One uses an internal combustion engine that requires gas for its fuel, and the other is electric. So the gas-fueled car has a battery, it's true, it's a lead acid battery, and it works pretty well. It helps fire up the car in the morning, keeps the lights on and the radio plane. But as most of us know, those batteries do go bad relatively quickly, and they don't store really a ton of energy. Now, on the other hand, that electric vehicle, it runs on a lithium ion battery. Now, the reasons for that is that they tend to last much longer these lithium ion batteries and they hold more energy. That's why electric vehicles and all sorts of other products

in our modern lives, like the electronics that you might use in your phone and such, well, all of them have these types of lithium ion batteries. But if we dig deeper inside that lithium ion battery, you've got different materials. And as you can guess, lithium is one, but odds are there's also cobalt. About 20% of the weight of an electric vehicle's batteries actually comes from the mineral cobalt. That's according to the U.S. Department of Energy. But the problem for America and for other countries is that most of the world's supply of cobalt comes from one place, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In fact, they control about 70% of the market. And of that 70% the Chinese government or its party controlled businesses have secured about half of that supply.

And that's definitely and absolutely bad enough if you don't like the communists. But what the report from the U.S. Department of Labor is now acknowledging is that upwards of a third of the cobalt mines in the Congo are artisanal, which is a fancy way of saying that individuals or small numbers of miners dig into the ground with their hands or hand tools for cobalt stones. And in the Congo, that means kids. Again, according to the Department of Labor's report, children as young as six years old are lowered into hand-dug mine shafts or open pit mines sometimes, and then they claw away at the dirt with whatever they have, usually their hands, and they collect chunks of cobalt. So let me read one section of this report. Again, this is what the U.S. government wrote just one month ago. quote, an 11-year-old boy grabs a bag weighing up to 80 pounds and hoists it over his head as contaminated water streams down his face. He carries that bag of washed cobalt stones across a muddy path.

He works up to 12 hours a day, 24 hours if he's underground. He is one of the many children found at the cobalt mining sites in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Yet he is by no means the youngest, nor will he be the last. And it is that cobalt, ladies and gentlemen, that is ending up in China. That is, of course, unless the mine shaft or the pit collapses on the child and buries them alive, which does happen. The report acknowledges that. The point is that this cobalt is then sent and refined to China, along with other minerals like lithium. And then it all gets made into batteries, again, 80% of the world's supply. And those batteries power the electric vehicles that you now see on the roads,

and maybe in your driveway. Now, what's remarkable is that you are being forced to drive one of these vehicles if you want to purchase a new car in the coming years. To refresh our memories on that, the states of California, Washington, and New York have all mandated that new cars sold in their states must be electric starting in the years 2030. or 2035. And it's not just states. Car companies like General Motors have announced that they will

stop making gas and diesel engines by 2035 and produce only electric. If we can think of that a little bit differently, the effect here is that the U.S. government, state governments, and even car companies are all saying that instead of those dirty gas or diesel engines, you now have to buy cars with batteries mined by children in Africa and then manufactured in China. And none of that is opinion that's all according to the U.S. Department of Labor and its new report issued one month ago. And that's pretty remarkable. And just to emphasize the point, it's not just electric vehicles that we're talking about here.

It's also the batteries that help capture the power from solar and wind farms that are being installed all across America right now. as just one of the hundreds of examples, there's the Gemini Solar Project, just outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, and it's one of the largest in the United States. It'll power 400,000 homes. The batteries that make that whole thing possible will be 100% manufactured by China's contemporary Amperix Technology Company. That was announced last week. So if I can state this differently, given what the U.S. Department of Labor has now confirmed. The Gemini project in Las Vegas does not function without child miners from the Congo and their batteries made in China. That is now known and accepted by the United States government.

And that, folks, is why on the PDB we call this whole enterprise, the cars, the solar farms, the batteries, all of it, in industry made up of dirty green energy. We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, I'm going to ask and answer two questions. How would a supporter of renewables or dirty green energy respond to these facts to this latest report from the Department of Labor? How would they justify the use of child labor and these Chinese batteries? Because folks, they do defend and explain it. The question, though, is whether it's compelling to you and to the rest of America. So we are going to talk about their response, and as always, we are going to leave it up to you to decide. We'll be right back.

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USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day, like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance. With USAA, you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a quote at usa.com slash bundle. Restrictions apply. Welcome back to the PDB. Today we are talking about a report issued one month ago by the U.S. Department of Labor. it acknowledged that lithium ion batteries from China are comprised of material, specifically cobalt, that's mined by children in the Congo.

And that's a really big deal, because those lithium ion batteries are in a wide range of products, but most especially in electric vehicles and the batteries that store energy from solar and wind farms. In other words, the renewable energy revolution is powered by child labor, and the U.S. government just acknowledged it. But to be fair, we should ask how supporters of renewable energy or dirty green energy might respond to this Department of Labor report, because maybe their answers are convincing. Well, as it turns out, we don't have their exact quotes or reactions to this report. More on that in a second. But we do know, generally speaking, how they'd likely respond based on their policy priorities and views on climate change.

So let's explore those. First, they would admit, perhaps reluctantly, that this report from the U.S. Department of Labor, well, it highlights an inconvenient and unwelcome truth. So consider an article by the Washington Post that they ran about five days ago, and they entitled it Electric Vehicle Supply Chains Have a Human Rights Problem. So in that article, they acknowledged that the mining process for lithium and cobalt and other materials can have terrible effects globally for the environment and human rights, to include worker rights.

So to be clear, there is no debate that the problem exists. Now, what they would point to, however, is that they're actually working on solutions. In fact, the U.S. government passed a bill last August called the Inflation Reduction Act. As PDB listeners might recall, that was a $370 billion bill that was really not about inflation, but rather climate change. It was full of incentives to build out the supply chain for the renewable or dirty, green energy revolution. And one such incentive was to build batteries here in America. In fact, there was a $7 billion package for companies who were interested in doing that. And those companies

and indeed those factories are getting built, or I should say will be. But what's unclear is how long that will take to build out that capacity. Estimates are many years to a decade or longer. But let's just assume that those things get built. That is the battery manufacturing plan. Well, that only solves part of the problem, because that's really just about the assembly of the battery. We still have to mine the minerals and then refine them. Well, supporters would say that the bill that I just mentioned, the Inflation Reduction Act, well, it also has incentives for those things too.

Just last week, Joe Biden promised $2.8 billion to mining and refining companies to help them get started. And that's because we have virtually no lithium or cobalt mining or, or, refining capacity in this country, well, even if we can actually eventually assemble the batteries. But even still, that leaves a major problem. You see, to open those mines or those refineries, you need permits. And according to a recent analysis by Reuters News Service, it currently takes 10 years or longer to obtain a mining permit in the United States, if you can get one. And to refresh our memories on that uncertainty, well, there are literally.

lithium mines being proposed in Nevada and North Carolina, but environmental groups do not want those built. And in some cases, the Biden administration actually agrees that they shouldn't be, for instance, in Nevada. And that means, folks, that even in the best case scenario, for the next 10 years or so, we are going to have to rely on foreign mining companies for the materials inside our lithium ion batteries. And that takes us to our last set of questions for the morning. Folks, why are we not talking about this more? And why is it that in the past month, we haven't heard about this report from the U.S. Labor Department

that says that we are buying these Chinese batteries made by Congolese kids? Well, let's take a quick break. And when we come back, I'll offer up my thoughts on those questions. And as always, let you decide. We'll be right back. Own it all. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly Big Board.

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Welcome back to the PDB, ladies and gentlemen. We are talking this morning about renewable or dirty green energy, specifically about a report from the U.S. Labor Department that states that lithium ion batteries from China that we use here and America are built by child labor in cobalt mines in the Congo. And that's a problem for not just America, but for the rest of the world too. China makes about 80% of the world's supply of lithium ion batteries, which means that as we all clamor for our electric vehicles and solar and wind farms, we're all competing for the same child-made batteries. So let's pivot from facts and data to analysis and opinion. And let's do that by asking, is it really a problem that there are children in foreign lands mining for our batteries? I mean, I know that the U.S. Labor Department put out this report and they say that it's a problem,

but wouldn't you assume that if it were really a problem, we'd be talking about it? And I ask you these questions earnestly. Have any of you heard about this Labor Department report over the past month? Has a single member of the U.S. House or Senate raised this report in outrage or even just mild concern? How about mainstream media? You heard anything from them? How about General Motors or other car companies that are putting these batteries inside their cars? How about that company in Las Vegas that last week signed that deal with China's main battery company

that will exclusively provide these batteries for their Gemini solar farm? or perhaps we should ask if Joe Biden has talked about this report, which makes clear that the foundation for America's entire renewable industry is dependent on child labor. Well, the answer to all these questions is no, none of them are talking about this. They just aren't. I would encourage you to look for yourself today or reach out to your senator or congressman by using Senate.gov or house.gov. Ask them what they think. but in the meantime, why is it that all these folks aren't talking about this report?

Well, I'm going to let you answer that question, but I want to offer you this as you reflect. Last Wednesday, America's Energy Secretary, Jennifer Granholm and Joe Biden, were at an event to announce $2.8 billion in federal grants to companies involved in the production of electric vehicle batteries. Now, during that event, Joe Biden said that America was witnessing a, quote, new industrial revolution, end quote, with our transition, of course, from fossil fuels to the embrace of renewable energy. And that struck me as pretty remarkable, this idea of a new industrial revolution. Because if we remember our history classes, the last industrial revolution was in the mid to late 1800s. It involved a cascade of new technological innovations. Americans, in fact, moved from farms and

ranches to cities to take advantage of all of them. But it also required a new generation of miners, coal miners specifically, to power all the new innovations. And ultimately, that meant kids. They were small. They were underpaid. They had no voice in how they were treated, and they were abused. Many died of black lung in the years to follow. So as I read Joe Biden's remarks, it seemed quite fitting that he would reference this moment, this dirty green revolution, as a new industrial revolution. Because he's right, actually. This is.

People who want this renewable revolution will do whatever it takes to make it happen, right down to the kids in the mines. Because they can't claim ignorance now. The U.S. Labor Department's report makes it very clear. But I'll tell you, enough of Washington, in D.C. and America's media. It now means that you and your families have a choice.

Do you all want to be part of this revolution? And if so, well, all right, you have accepted that we must have child minors because of, well, a variety of different reasons, but climate change and it being a massive crisis, that could be one. Fair enough. But

for the rest of you, my counsel is that you and your families need to start talking about this report. And as you do? Remember, your voice of opposition or alarm, it's not just about you. It's also about some kids, very far away in the Congo, who have no voice at all. 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 32. And you shall know the truth. And the truth shall make you free. Good day. Special guests. Get tickets Thursday, May 7th at Olivia Rodrigo.com.