First, the benefit from a transition is worth doing. But perhaps it should be done with government involvement with corporations as corporations have nearly zero ethical standards.
EVs require much more mineral content than an IC, perhaps as much as 6 times as much. That mineral content will double the global mineral demand over the next decades. Zeihan has pointed this out also. And yes mineral demand will decline as more progress is made toward battery development but a much increased mineral demand is in our future.
Environmentalists will fight mineral extraction in this nation.
in Alaska, where copper and cobalt rest beneath rolling tundra in the Ambler district south of the Brooks Range. Accessing it would require a 200-mile road through traditional Alaska Native lands, caribou habitat and Gates of the Arctic National Park, with gravel quarries dug every 10 miles. It’s something state leaders support but state and national environmental groups and several Indigenous communities oppose.
Twin Metals Mine near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Wilderness as another example. Here the target is nickel, another important EV metal mined in only one U.S. location. In a political tug-of-war, the mine’s long-held leases were denied renewal by Obama, reinstated under Trump, and then canceled under Biden.
Adam Bronstein of Western Watersheds Project sees it in northern Nevada, where his group has joined a lawsuit against a proposed open-pit lithium mine in Thacker Pass, an area of remote desert that’s home to sage grouse, antelope, Lahontan cutthroat trout and other sensitive species, including some only found locally. It also holds hundreds of Native American heritage sites that remain important to Tribes today.
The above are just a few US situations. I can see corporations saying:“Fine let’s get the minerals from overseas where governments are willing to be bribed to avoid even the lesser environmental rules & regs.”
We can do it that way but should we just because it is done out of eye sight? What about the child labor involved in cobalt mining in the Congo. Perhaps those mining companies could be convinced to use adult labor at a higher cost that we would incur?
Counter arguments. What a minute tj, the Chinese and maybe even the Europeans aren’t likely to adhere to the ecological, environmental, moral code/standard you wish to impose on US manufacturers which leaves them at a competitive disadvantage. Well we could require all EVs sold in the USA adhere to such standards.
What think ye? Am I too much of a naive Pollyanna?