Where Green Is Red: How the Environmental Agenda is Making America Dependent on China

BottomLine: The “green energy” obsession being pushed by the Biden administration and others (e.g., politicians and environmental groups) will increasingly make the U.S. more dependent on China for the raw materials inherent to this green dream: seemingly endless amounts of wind, solar, electric cars, and batteries. These technologies require huge amounts of critical minerals, rare earth elements, and a variety of other things that must be extracted from the ground. China either produces the bulk of those or controls the supply chains to get those products to global markets. President Biden now oversees $369 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act. As the handouts continue, there is simply no question that China will stand to receive billions from the largest green giveaway in American history. This is a direct threat to American energy and economic security and must be blocked at every turn in favor of sound energy policy.  

The green push to electrify nearly every facet of everyday life – power plants, cars, and the heating and cooling systems in homes and buildings – is dangerously increasing America’s dependence on China and jeopardizing our nation’s national security.

The goal is to somehow utilize naturally intermittent and more costly wind and solar power to displace more reliable and affordable fossil fuels and nuclear power.

These have become pet green projects, where the government is handing out literally hundreds of billions of dollars for windmills, solar farms, electric vehicles, batteries, and related infrastructure.

The obvious problem, of course, is that these technologies require massive of critical minerals and rare earth elements.

For example, with a 40-80% percent market share, China controls the production and processing of energy minerals needed to build renewable machinery, providing a strategic dominance roughly double OPEC’s market share in oil.

The Biden administration is now overseeing the $369 billion from its Inflation Reduction Act to effectively force all of this onto the American people.

In short, we are now witnessing the largest green giveaway in American history.

Indeed, a U.S. “energy transition” that undeniably benefits the Chinese Communist Party.  

The present report sheds further light on Biden’s green agenda leaving our nation vulnerable to China's growing dominance.

Specific areas of examination include:

• The bipartisan "resolution of disapproval” passed by the Democratic Senate in May 2023 targeting Biden’s decision to allow tariff waivers for solar modules and cells from Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand that gave China a free pass.
• The Consumer Product Safety Commission exploring potential bans of gas-powered stoves.
• The Environmental Protection Agency proposing a de facto electric vehicle (EV) mandate, one that would push EVs from nearly 6% of the fleet today to nearly 70% by 2032.  
• The $369 billion dollars’ worth of green handouts included in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).  
• Circumventing West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin’s requirements included in the IRA; Biden’s Department of Energy conditionally selecting Microvast, a battery company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, to receive a $200 million grant.
• The Biden Administration’s consistent rejections of permits for significant new mining projects, despite America’s over-reliance on foreign sources and adversarial nations for critical minerals and materials.
• Along with his son Hunter, Biden’s active support of Chinese mining interests abroad.

For real solutions, Power The Future puts forward a five-part policy roadmap to revered our growing dependence on China before its grip becomes very dangerously too tight (e.g., China hoarded Covid-19 medical supplies when we needed them most).

• Congress should pass Sen. Barrasso’s “Supporting American Independence in Innovation Act,” which would bar the U.S. Department of Energy from “making financial awards to firms beholden to China.”
• End Biden’s de facto mining ban, and open U.S. mines and lands to production—mines that produce the critical minerals that make modern life possible, and that will reverse China’s global dominance in this space.
• Congress must also pass meaningful permitting reforms to enable mine production (as well as pipelines and oil and gas production facilities), and a good place to begin is with the “Revitalizing the Economy by Simplifying Timelines and Assuring Transparency (RESTART) Act,” sponsored by Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and the “Spur Permitting of Underdeveloped Resources (SPUR) Act.”
• Congress must overturn the Biden EPA’s EV mandates and remove California’s authority to seek a waiver from EPA to impose its dangerous and very high cost greenhouse gas emissions policies on the rest of the nation.
• Pass Sen. Rubio’s “Restricting Electric Vehicle Outlays from Kleptomaniac Enemies (REVOKE) Act of 2023,” to prevent Chinese companies from benefiting from tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act.

Read the full study Here.