Is China The New OPEC For Green Energy?
The NY Times has an interesting article out today about China tightening its grip on rare earth metals. Some of these metals are essential in various types of green energy machinery like wind turbines. China’s market share on these rare earth metals is analogous to the Middle East’s dominance in oil reserves. In fact, China’s share appears to be even greater. That’s why, if it decides to limit production, the rest of the world’s green energy aspirations might be in trouble. The NY Times reports: China currently accounts for 93 percent of production of so-called rare earth elements — and more than 99 percent of the output for two of these elements, dysprosium and terbium, vital for a wide range of green energy technologies and military applications like missiles. To put that into perspective, OPEC only controls around two-thirds of the earth’s oil reserves. And yet, when it says “jump,” the oil market still generally asks “how high?” So you can begin to imagine the effect China can hav
