Burning Fossil Fuels creates energy to support our growing population but they are not energy efficient! Green sources of energy seem like the solution but they also come with their own problems.
Key components of renewable energy technologies are made from a small number of rare earth elements, and other rare minerals. Despite the name, these elements are relatively abundant in Earth's crust, but they are rarely found in economically exploitable concentrations. The exception to this generality is the People's Republic of China. Indeed, in China the minerals are concentrated in such abundance that the country has a de facto monopoly on their trade, representing around 96 percent of the global market.
Since China has total control over these minerals, that means we would have to rely on them for our energy production. This could lead to bad news. If we do something bad to China they could raise their prices, limit the amount we can get, or even stop letting use use the minerals. If we completely switched to these green energies that require those minerals then our country could be in an energy standstill. This means that we would have to be very careful how we treated China.
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The Obama administration has touted solar panel manufacturing as a green-job growth sector. Production of photovoltaic cells for solar panels relies on the rare element tellurium. However, the world's only tellurium mine is in China. As a result, China's near monopoly has made it virtually impossible for American solar power companies to compete with Chinese-owned firms.
This is not good news for U.S manufacturing jobs because the prices of our solar panels would go down as production increased in China. Our economy would not be benefited from making these products. There would be no growth in jobs. This doesn't mean we shouldn't use them though. Just because we would be importing them does not mean we wouldn't be saving energy in the long run. They are very beneficial for public buildings and homes. They save a lot of energy from being used and save energy bills from being overpriced. After all, if Hinsdale Central got some, doesn't that mean they are the greatest??
Source: http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba739
The title captured my attention but I'm not sure it made a lot of sense with the article. Although, I did find the article interesting. It is interesting to hear how we really are competing with China and may rely on them for some sources of energy in the long run. You did a good job of relating this article to what we have learned in class when it comes to supply and demand and how that affects prices. The last sentence was a funny conclusion. Also, even though I'm pretty sure you put the quotes from the article in green, make sure you put quotations around them too.
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