Here is a test; What “question” would elicit the following answers?
America selling steel to Japan right before WWII.
OPEC shutting down oil exports to the West in the 1970s.
Allowing Russia to dominate the energy market in Europe.
America’s rush to adopt electric vehicle (EV) technology.
The correct response? Name situations when misguided environmental policies led to national security crises for America. We have been here before with this administration. Half-baked, pie-in-the-sky policy decisions, made without thinking through the second and third order security effects, thereby creating grave dangers for America.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s recently announced tailpipe emissions rules, proudly cheered by proponents of an extreme climate agenda, will have major implications for U.S. security. Aimed at forcing America to adopt an all-EV model of transportation, the rule will also inadvertently allow China to gain a near complete stranglehold on American transportation and IT business sectors. This is an existential threat to both our civilian economy and our military capabilities.
The rule will ultimately force our nation’s auto dealers to break “cold turkey” from selling internal combustion engine vehicles or close up shop. As written, the proposed emissions rules would push automakers to sell 67% electric vehicles by 2032. That’s a significant transition that leaves many manufacturers with a ghost of a chance to meet the regulatory requirements. Only one car maker in the world meets the mandated emission level today; that is Tesla. Even environmentally friendly and achievable hybrids would not make the cut.
This is all driven by environmental concerns for emissions. But again, there seems to be little concern for the secondary environmental effects that will proliferate as a result. These effects include the impact of increased mining practices involved in obtaining the rare earths needed to make EV batteries or the environmentally disastrous processes used to refine lithium and cobalt for the same batteries (this is outright banned in America). It’s relevant to point out that the mining industry is already severely restricted on their procurement of these minerals by the same EPA that now demands the cars we all drive be powered by them.
That point aside, China currently dominates the world of EV development and this administration’s heavy hand in forcing the transition to a future of EVs in this country could solidify our further dependence on this ever-growing foreign rival. Not only does China control a significant amount of the world’s mineral deposits but they also control around 77% of the world’s EV battery manufacturing capacity.
Therefore, this rule would put us on the incredibly irresponsible path of forcing America to be dependent on strategic assets (the cobalt, lithium, and graphite) that are overwhelmingly controlled by our most dangerous adversary, China. At a time when we are trying to move away from dependence on Russia and the OPEC countries, the last thing we should do is to position ourselves to be far more dependent on China. It is sheer lunacy.
If the people were demanding we go down this path, either for environmental reasons or even comfort or cost savings, and were ignoring China’s threat to turn off our entire transportation and IT/electrical industry sectors, the U.S. government would be correct to push back. America’s national leaders would have a responsibility to ensure our security from a clearly recognized threat.
In this case, the government is shoving this ill-conceived path down the throats of the American people. When the leaders of 100 different industry groups, from agriculture to transportation, all reach out to the decision makers to scream “STOP,” there should be some caution. One does not deliberately build a hangman’s scaffold, put the noose around one’s own neck, and invite your biggest enemy to man the lever!
China could simply restrict the flow of the critical minerals, or completely cut them off since they monopolize the mining and refinement, thus shutting down major regions and multiple business sectors of our economy and the lives of our populace. Previous gas shortages, or cold European winters, would be mild inconveniences by comparison.
This is not a small difference of opinion between parties. It is one aspect of extreme environmental policy gone mad. In the minds of the White House, and the EPA, it trumps everything else such as accepting horrible mining and refining requirements by foreign adversaries combined with the looming disaster of millions of dead batteries. Even worse, the EPA’s rule completely ignores the national security imperative of being free from coercion by a major enemy. Congress must act to roll back the EPA overreach and to send a message to the Biden Administration that this will not stand.
Steve Bucci, who served America for three decades as an Army Special Forces officer and top Pentagon official, is a visiting research fellow at The Heritage Foundation.
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