More nonsense from Brad Miller ... Energy Critical Elements Renewal Act (Rep. Brad Miller, H.R. 952).
The skinny of a long post...
A) Radical environmentalists like Brad Miller helped to destroy the US rare earth mineral industry based on "environmental concerns".
B) The foreign supplies of the minerals from China are found to be an unreliable source.
C) The Fix: Restart the US rare earth mineral industry (for "environmental concerns") with the government's help and Brad Miller's support just days before the passage of ObamaCare.
According to Ben Goad of the Press-Enterprise...
After decades of production, the High Desert operation all but ceased operations amid environmental concerns in 2002. Since then, well over 90 percent of the world’s rare earths, as they are known in the industry, have come from China.
Ok, here is an example of the kind of environmentalism supported by Brad Miller that is complicit in shifting an entire industry and its jobs to China and has lead to a near world monopoly of rare earth minerals being produced in China.
a growth market is emerging for the elements, which are necessary to produce wind turbines. Many nations are now scrambling to develop renewable energy industries and China, chief among them, is expected to require a greater amount of its own supplies...
putting the US in a squeeze.
And, according to Mark Smith, Chief Executive of Molycorp Minerals..
The demand is going to outpace the supply.
Private funding proved difficult under the current economic conditions for the unprofitable Molycorp Minerals which, of course, led to lawmaker's dashing to the rescue and
during a congressional hearing last week, House members on both sides of the aisle spoke favorably about the push to ramp up operations at the Mountain Pass Mine, with one of them introducing a bill that could help yield funding for the $450 million plan.
Brad Miller, supporter of environmental causes great and small, had this to say...
During a hearing March 16 before the House subcommittee on Science and Technology, the push for federal assistance gained more traction when the panel's chairman, Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., described Smith's operation as vital in reducing dependence on the Chinese.
"If we intend to rebuild America's capability to supply its own needs in rare earth materials, if we intend to foster a home-grown capability to make the devices that provide wind energy, we can't succeed unless he and others like him succeed," Miller said. (emphasis added)
Ben Goad adds...
Separately, Rep. Mike Coffman, D-Colo., the following day introduced legislation that would make Molycorp's plan eligible for the loan guarantee program, which would allow the company to borrow 70 percent of the $450 million cost, to be paid back over 10 years, Smith said.
Also according to the article..
The operation would create about 900 permanent jobs and about 700 temporary jobs related to the estimated 22-month construction period, Smith said.
He said Molycorp would draw most of the workers from Inland Southern California and the Henderson-Las Vegas region of Nevada.
To sum up...
The environmentalists, supported by Brad Miller, helped to destroy the production of rare earth minerals for "environmental reasons". Later it is realized that the industry is useful for "environmental reasons" and that it is in the interest of national security to have the industry within our boarders, as China had become the supplier of 90% of rare earth minerals. Realizing this, our representatives meet in the days leading up to the passing of ObamaCare to devise legislation creating a 450 million dollar loan to the unprofitable LLC Mollycorp Minerals.
Winners...
--Mollycorp Minerals.
--Representative Mike Coffman (R-CO) out which state Mollycorp Minerals is based.
--Harry Reid's Nevada and the representatives of the eastern districts of Southern California as they can claim the creation of around 1500 jobs originally destroyed by the environmental movement.
--The nearly 1500 Employees who get their jobs returned to them for "environmental reasons" after loosing them for "environmental reasons".
--StatistsLosers...
--The American society, and the American economy over the long run,
--The employees who lost work due to the environmental movement in the first place,
--Brad Miller, who seems clueless to the irony of supporting the economically destructive activities of environmentalism, and then later coming to the support of rebuilding the devastation left by environmentalism.
Governments can make inefficient choices and governing the destruction of economic activity only to manipulate its reconstruction to the credit of our representatives is one of them.
out
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