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Child Labor: Democrats’ Hypocrisy?

Image by Clodoaldo Massagli from Pixabay

Increasing production of electric vehicles is boosting demand for the cobalt used in batteries. Forty thousand children mine cobalt for up to 12 hours a day under dangerous conditions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the United Nations.

A Republican congressman, Pete Stauber of Minnesota, proposed an amendment to the giant infrastructure bill passed by the House last week that would have reined in purchases of such cobalt. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out on July 1, only Democrats opposed it in committee.  Wrote the Journal in its editorial, “The Green New Deal in Action”:

“The amendment, which the Transportation Committee approved last week 43-19, would have required the Commerce Secretary to certify that federally funded electric buses and charging stations do not use minerals mined or processed with child labor. All 19 opponents were Democrats.” Continue reading “Child Labor: Democrats’ Hypocrisy?”

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The Problem with Batteries (Big Batteries)

Solar Panels On Rooftop

By H. Sterling Burnett

These days we may be distracted by the COVID-19 virus, but climate issues move on. Recently, Wired magazine published an article about big batteries, or more precisely linked battery packs located in enormous battery farms. They will be needed if we want to generate energy from sources that emit no carbon dioxide.

Batteries store energy. They can be small—like the one inside your cell phone. But when it comes to storing solar or wind energy—sources that produce electricity intermittently—they must be huge. The batteries store the energy that these somewhat unreliable sources of energy produce so it can be used when needed.

Wired cites the example of San Diego Gas & Electric, the state’s third-largest private utility, which installed a pair of batteries that can store enough energy to power just 1,000 homes for four hours. Think about it. To power just 1,000 homes for four hours, each battery “consists of five shipping containers’ worth of equipment, eight 10,000-gallon tanks of electrolyte solution (the stuff that holds the charge), and a maze of wires, pumps, switches, and PVC piping. They sit in corrosion-resistant concrete safety pits that are large enough, in case of a leak, to hold all 80,000 gallons of electrolyte plus all the water from the county’s worst day of rain in the past 100 years. Rain! Being in California, I want to know if they are safe from cracking during earthquakes, or how they might be affected by wildfires or mudslides? Continue reading “The Problem with Batteries (Big Batteries)”

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The Wealthy Spend a Lot on Energy (While Attacking It)

By John C. Goodman

Wealthy liberals who are concerned about economic inequality and climate  change have a new reason to feel guilty. Not only are they enjoying the fruits of wealth inequality, but they are using their wealth in ways that generate far greater inequality in the use of energy.

In a first-of-its-kind study, University of Leeds researchers combined European Union and World Bank data to calculate the distribution of energy footprints. As described by David Roberts at Vox:

The numbers are particularly striking for transportation, where the top 10 percent consumes 187 times as much in vehicle fuel and operation as the bottom 10 percent. Continue reading “The Wealthy Spend a Lot on Energy (While Attacking It)”