The President's Daily Brief - September 12th, 2022. Dirty Green Energy: Part 1 of an Exploration Into the Corrupt and Dishonest Nature of Green Energy.

Episode Date: September 12, 2022

It’s September 12th. 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. 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 about a $60B bill that you’re going to have to pay. 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 September 12th. 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 picketive. of purity that we are often so told about, or whether there 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, it's 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 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. Now, later this week, we will continue on with wind, batteries, mining for those batteries, and of course the electric 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 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 polys silicon 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. The technological service and Bloomberg News suggest 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 communists control about 75% of the polysilicon supply, again, the lows of bread, they control 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% 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. Ah, 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. Now, 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 ships 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 terms.

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? Will that actually happen? 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. Well, there have been some efforts to kickstart recycling, but they've got an economics problem. A study by the National Renewable 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 leaching. 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 hands belonging to a persecuted group called the Uyghurs. 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 Kambor 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. Coming up, ladies and gentlemen, a closer look at what's on my radar.

One quick brief for you on two very important developments out of Ukraine. We'll be right back. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th, the powerful vocals of Demi Levato on May 17th, and the signature Southern Country Rock of Eric Church on July 19th. Tickets on sale now at Yamavatheater.com, only at Yamava Resort and Casino, celebrating its 40th anniversary.

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Welcome back to the PDB. As always, I'm watching a few other stories this morning. Put this one on your radar. Over the past five days or so, you've probably seen or heard headlines about Ukraine winning some really important and surprising victories against the Russians. Well, this morning, I'm going to briefly explain what's going on, what I'm hearing from both friends and official reports alike. But to understand the latest, you have to know that the fighting in Ukraine is divided into fronts, the northern front, the southern front, and the central front. So about a week ago or so, the Russians moved some of their best troops from the northern front to the southern front. Now, when they did that, the Russians left behind a skeleton force up north in an area known by the city of Kharkiv. Now, these guys were not Russia's best soldiers holding the line. They were not well trained nor robustly equipped.

Well, that left an opening for the Ukrainians and American forces secretly on the ground, and they absolutely took advantage of it. And the Russians were punched hard. They abandoned territory, the abandoned equipment. They retreated, although exactly how much was left behind is still being calculated. Now, it's true that the Ukrainians got punched back as well. There were long lines of ambulances racing back to Kiev and elsewhere with injured and dead Ukrainian soldiers. But there is no doubt the Ukrainians and its Western backers landed a major punch to Moscow's face over the past five days. And in fact, Russia has acknowledged as much. although they're saying that the loss and the retreat was really just about, quote, unquote, regrouping. So what does this mean for the overall arc of the war?

You know, who's going to win this war of attrition? It's too early to call it. And if you hear anyone making sweeping generalizations one way or the other at this moment, they are fools. Now, why do you care about all this in the midst of all the challenges here at home? Well, consider this. Last Wednesday, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced his country's budget for year. He and his advisors acknowledge that they are running $5 billion short each month, or that's $60 billion over a year. So who do you think will be paying that $60 billion bill?

Yes, my friends, that is you. By the way, to put that $60 billion into perspective, Joe Biden's budget for Head Start to help America's kids is $12 billion. Again, $60 billion for Ukraine. Speaking of kids, that's actually who's paying the tab for the $60 billion, because we don't have an extra $60 billion just lying around. We will issue debt to cover Ukraine's debt plus interest. So really, your kids will pay for it, your grandkids, and frankly, great grandkids, probably, because it's adding to our $30 trillion debt that we already have. So as ever, I defer to you on whether that $60 billion investment is worth it or not. And with that, one more thing before I let you go.

A listener question today, we'll be right back. Excema is unpredictable, but you can flare less with ebbglyss, a once-monthly treatment for moderate to severe eczema. After an initial four-month or longer dosing phase, about four and seven people taking ebbglis achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin at 16 weeks. And most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing. Ebglis, Librikizumab, LBKZ. A 250 milligram per 2 milliliter injection is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema.

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Ask your doctor about ebbglis. And visit ebglus.com or call 1-800 lilyrx or 1-800-545-979. 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, 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. We're 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. And you shall know the truth. And the truth shall make you free. Good day.