Rare Metals & Alternative Energy

I just read some news articles about the "hybrid revolution." Ah, what a relief that we have finally found a way to cut our consumption of fossil fuels! Just when we thought all hope was lost, along came Toyota and Chevy with their hybrid fuel-electric cars, and the day was saved! I mean, who can argue with 85 miles to the gallon, right?

Well, someone once told me that there's a cost to everything, and I think we might have finally run face-first into the hidden cost of hybrid cars: rare earth metals. For every hybrid manufactured approximately 2 lbs of rare metals are used in the magnets of the electric engine, and approximately 15-20 lbs of rare metals are required for the batteries. In all, there are 15 metals at issue, and the production of hybrid cars uses nearly 40,000 tons of these metals annually. So, what's the problem?

Well, quite simply rare metals are, well, rare. And expensive. Especially when the world's primary producer of these metals - China - is restricting exports of these elements to retain them for their own manufacturing needs. So, in "several years," whatever that means, you can expect shortages in the amount of these metals available to manufacturers of hybrid cars. Concordantly, you can expect the price of hybrid cars to go up and, if it gets tight enough, the number of hybrids produced each year to go down. So much for the hybrid revolution.

Allow me to suggest something that I may have said before - and forgive me if I am repeating myself, but a good idea should be shouted to the heavens until someone listens and takes action. ETHANOL! For God's sake, people, it's clean, it's renewable, and it's easy to make - cheap. If you're reading this, stop for a moment and Google "Coskata." Go to their web site and read about their process... Ok, so you did that? Now that we're on the same page, I'll continue. Three simple steps, right? Virtually unlimited sources from any kind of biomass imaginable, including garbage, tires, switch grass, wood chippings and mulch, underbrush and grass clippings. I mean, where in America do we not have these things? They're everywhere! And this process could be everywhere, but for the financial roadblocks that the company has encountered since its inception.

Coskata obtained much of its start-up funding from General Motors, which has recently filed bankruptcy and morphed into Government Motors. I'm sure this has hampered Coskata's efforts to get their plants operational. But the sooner they get established, the sooner this country can reap the benefits of a truly sustainable alternative energy.

The advantages of ethanol are tremendous, especially in the realm of transportation. Just consider, rather than sending millions of dollars to overseas car makers who produce new cars which run on completely new technology, we would have the preferable option of simply converting, at a much lower cost, the cars now on the road to run on the slightly different combustible fuel available in the form of ethanol. We already have internal combustion engines in all our vehicles; the means and materials to convert them to run on ethanol are simple, cheap and readily available. Made-in-the-USA manufacturing gets a boost from the conversions; the domestic auto mechanics' industry gets a boost from the conversion; everyone benefits, and the benefits stay in our economy, not China's. We become eco-friendly and self-sufficient, at least with respect to our fuel consumption, and we do it at far less cost to Americans than a full-fleet conversion to hybrid or electric cars. It's a win-win - for the economy, for the environment, and for national security. And no rare earth metals need be involved. So, we had the "Cash for Clunkers" program; now, Washington, may I suggest a real solution: A subsidy for Coskata and the rest of the struggling and neglected ethanol industry, coupled with a government program for Americans to convert their cars to ethanol. We could even call it "Cash for Conversions."

Until next time,

Discere Aude!

-Hephaestus