[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire.]
By Heather Reams
Real Clear Wire
As geopolitical tensions rise, America’s clean energy development is at risk. Instead of developing domestic resources, encouraging research, and adopting the business environment necessary to increase production here in the United States, we have too long instituted policies that resulted in the U.S. being reliant on adversarial nations like China – where carbon emissions are high and labor standards are low.
Under the leadership of Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the newly sworn-in House of Representatives showed it is ready to tackle this challenge head on with an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote to establish the “Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party,” chaired by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.).
The formation of the Committee is welcome news not only for national security hawks, but for those interested in American clean energy leadership and global emissions reduction.
Among its priorities, the China Select Committee will investigate and shape policy to end the Chinese Communist Party’s critical mineral supply chain domination that puts both American energy and national security at risk.
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As Speaker McCarthy and Chairman Gallagher warned in a recent op-ed, “In 2019, approximately 90% of the world’s rare earth metals, alloys, and permanent magnets were produced in China.” These minerals are necessary for clean energy development, and China’s continued dominance of the industry risks undermining the economic and energy security of the United States and our clean energy agenda.
In a report published last year assessing supply chain risks, the U.S. Department of Energy acknowledged the need to diversify the sourcing of materials and manufacturing associated with clean energy infrastructure, particularly solar panels. For example, it found 97% of the world’s silicon wafers are produced in China, while 75% of silicon-based solar cells installed in the U.S. are made by Chinese partners in Asia.
So, how do we fix this? The Committee is likely to find that the solution is to do what the United States does best: empower entrepreneurs and businesses to rise to the challenges we face. One way this can be accomplished is by removing barriers such as burdensome red tape that wastes time and resources.
We know that continued investment in energy innovation programs will promote American competitiveness by advancing low-carbon technologies, unleashing research and development, improving energy storage, and helping address our critical mineral challenges.
At the same time, the Committee’s work to reveal and reverse our critical mineral reliance on China will unleash American ingenuity and production to deliver a cleaner, more secure energy supply.
When Americans innovate and produce, our country is more secure and more prosperous, and global emissions go down.
The fact is China remains one of the least carbon efficient economies in the world, while the U.S. is a leader in reducing emissions. On average, a product made in China results in triple the emissions than if the same product were made here at home.
The focus of this committee is yet another example of Republican leadership to lower global emissions through U.S. policymaking. As a clean energy advocate, I am encouraged by the formation of the China Select Committee and look forward to working with members of the committee to identify areas that need Congressional attention, such as protecting domestic energy security while expanding the use of clean energy technologies. This is a bipartisan opportunity that deserves recognition.
Heather Reams is President of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES).
EDITOR’S NOTE: What is behind the current war against America’s children? Why are so many adults killing their unborn children right up to the moment of birth, or even after? Why are millions of kids sexualized virtually from birth, and injected with an experimental “vaccine” proven to be both ineffective and dangerous, then as toddlers transported to events glorifying mentally ill, demonically possessed men dressed as women?
Why are America’s children systematically sexualized at school, and by transgender recruiters on social media platforms like TikTok, seducing many into “identifying” as the opposite gender, or a brand-new imaginary gender, then encouraged to take powerful drugs and hormones and have their healthy breasts amputated or undergo chemical or surgical castration?
Why are our children simultaneously indoctrinated with toxic Marxist ideologies like “critical race theory” intended to condition them to hate and reject their own country, parents, faith, race, gender and themselves? Why are they simultaneously being frightened of the future by being fed lurid, terrifying – and groundless – apocalyptic tales of the imminent destruction of the world due to global warming?
No wonder youth suicides have skyrocketed, as have depression, anxiety, addiction and drug overdoses. Indeed, fentanyl, the No. 1 cause of death of younger Americans 18 to 45, destroys multitudes of children annually.
Make no mistake: The harm being done to America’s children in this multi-front war is not accidental: Children are the primary target.
WHY? How can all this be happening in the greatest nation on earth? Who and what is behind it? And HOW CAN IT BE STOPPED?
Find out in the explosive January issue of WND’s critically acclaimed monthly Whistleblower magazine, “WINNING THE WAR AGAINST AMERICA’S CHILDREN,” available in both print and state-of-the-art digital editions.
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