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Comments     Threshold


RE: China
By osserc on 1/27/2012 2:21:54 PM , Rating: 2
Switching to alternative energy, even if every single wind-turbine and solar panel were manufactured entirely in the US, wouldn't solve any of our foreign dependency problems.

It may *theoretically* help our dependence on foreign oil. However, all of these alternative energy products rely heavily on rare earth metals. Since China now controls over 95% of the rare earth metals market our new-found freedom from foreign oil would just get replaced with dependence on Chinese REMs. That's not a very benign solution.

Honestly, I'd rather be at the mercy of the oil producing countries, especially since a good portion of our oil comes from Canada, a peaceful ally and neighbor. Putting all of our energy eggs in the rare-earth monopoly would give China de facto control of our entire country. Scary.

RE: China
By Smilin on 1/27/2012 4:22:29 PM , Rating: 2
Think longer term. China operates by looking 50 years out (see development in Africa).

There are already new solar solutions that are not so reliant on rare earth. R&D is part of this. There are also old solutions that never required them, and energy solutions that don't require solar at all. Plus you get nutty stuff like the solar tower going up in Nevada I believe.

Energy will get expensive. Very. Billions more people will be using it. We have to invest. This is not something we want to play catch up in.

