Local View: Mineral shortages, broken permits putting ‘net zero’ out of reach – Duluth News Tribune

In one of his very first actions as governor, Tim Walz used the regulatory process to force Minnesota car dealers to buy and stock thousands of electric vehicles — even if they had no customers willing to buy. The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, a Walz ally,

predicted

Sales of electric vehicles would increase by 200% due to the new rule.

But one important question remained unanswered: are there enough minerals available in the world to support the rise of electric vehicles?

The answer is no. A

new report

released by the Center of the American Experiment sends a stark warning that the minerals needed to achieve the so-called net-zero policy are in short supply, made inaccessible by allowing delays and excessive regulation, or are controlled by our geopolitical enemies, especially China .

The report – “Mission Impossible: Mineral Shortages and the Broken Permitting Process Puts Net Zero Goals Out of Reach” – provides a sober assessment of the amount of minerals that would be needed to meet international, national and even local targets (such as Walz’s clean car mandate) to get more and more of our energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar energy and switch to electric vehicles.

Using data from a wide variety of sources (including the International Energy Agency (IEA), the US Geological Survey and the Electric Power Research Institute), the report ‘calculates the surprising gaps between supply and demand for the minerals – including copper, lithium, cobalt, nickel and rare earth elements – which are needed to achieve net zero targets.

The data shows that electric vehicles and the lithium-ion batteries that power them are creating much of the rising demand for minerals, calling into question the wisdom of the current push to fully electrify the transportation sector. According to the report, an estimated 115% more copper will need to be mined between now and 2050 than ever before in human history just to meet ‘business as usual’ requirements. Global vehicle electrification would require the development of an additional 55% more mines than the base case. The need for more mining is urgent and compelling.

Did someone say more mining? That should be music to the ears of residents of the Iron Range in Northland and Minnesota. The Duluth Complex, a massive rock formation stretching from Duluth to Pigeon Point in northern Minnesota, contains some of the world’s largest undeveloped deposits of copper, nickel, platinum group elements and ilmenite (a titanium ore), as well as cobalt, gold , and silver. According to

New range of copper and nickel

the Duluth Complex is one of the largest undeveloped mineral deposits in the world, containing 95% of America’s nickel, 88% of America’s cobalt, and 33% of America’s copper resources. And don’t forget, Minnesota has one of the strictest and most comprehensive environmental protection regulatory programs governing proposed mining projects of any U.S. state. We have taken both the minerals and the safety measures to safely deliver the minerals to the rest of the world.

Unfortunately, President Joe Biden’s administration has hindered the timely development of two world-class copper, nickel and cobalt deposits in Minnesota, which could reduce the country’s dependence on foreign minerals and supply some of the key minerals needed to achieve the energy transition objectives. .

“Leaders like Joe Biden and Tim Walz create these unattainable energy transition goals and then immediately sabotage them by denying permits and banning mining on millions of acres of public lands,” said Sarah Montalbano of the Center of the American Experiment, co-author of the report. report with national mining expert Debra Struhsacker.

Citing a 2024 Government Accountability Office

report

The other major concern highlighted in the report is the United States’ dependence on China to supply the minerals used in five key sectors that underpin every aspect of modern life: aerospace, defense, energy, telecommunications and electronics, and transportation. Continued dependence on China for the minerals necessary for our national security and economic well-being is both dangerous and unsustainable.

Everyone assumes that electric vehicles will soon be everywhere. But for this to happen, domestic mineral production must increase. Minnesota could write the next chapter of our mining history by becoming a major, environmentally responsible producer of copper, nickel, cobalt and other minerals. We just need leaders in St. Paul and Washington. DC, to get out of the way.

Bill Walsh is communications director at the Center of the American Experiment (AmericanExperiment.org), a conservative public policy think tank based in Golden Valley, Minnesota. He wrote this for the News Tribune.