For jobs, revenue, national security, defense and medical needs; to end child labor, pollution
Paul Driessen
President Trump’s Executive Orders have ended US participation in the Green New Deal and Paris climate treaty. He’s also terminated mandates, programs and subsidies that would have changed our reliable, affordable energy systems to wind, solar and battery power for all-electric homes, schools, hospitals, businesses, factories, farms, transportation and shipping.
His actions will benefit wild, scenic and agricultural lands in America and worldwide.
* Wind, solar and transmission line installations would have sprawled across tens of millions of acres, impacting habitats, farmlands and scenic vistas, onshore and offshore; interfered with water flow, aviation, shipping and other activities; and killed whales, birds and other wildlife.
* These “clean, green” technologies require far more raw materials than the equipment they replace: electric cars need 4-6 times more metals and minerals than gasoline counterparts; onshore wind turbines require 9 times more raw materials than equivalent megawatts from combined-cycle natural gas turbines; offshore wind requires 14 times more materials than gas turbines; solar panels are just as resource-intensive. And we’d still need gas power plants or grid-scale batteries for windless/sunless periods.
* Those raw material needs would require mining at levels unprecedented in human history. Just meeting “green energy” plus “normal” needs for copper would require more than twice as much copper mining as occurred throughout human history up to now. That would mean mine shafts and open-pit mines; ore removal, crushing and processing; and land, air and water pollution – on unprecedented scales.
* Converting those raw materials into finished technologies, and transporting, installing, maintaining and ultimately removing the turbines, panels, transformers, power lines, batteries and other equipment would require unfathomable quantities of materials, equipment and energy.
* All this mining and processing, equipment damaged and destroyed under normal operations and from extreme weather, leaching from non-recyclable components in landfills, and huge infernos when batteries ignite would send massive quantities of toxic chemicals into air, soils and water worldwide.
* US mining, processing, manufacturing and waste disposal would be done under tough environmental, workplace safety and human rights standards. Not so in despotic regimes in the rest of the world.
* A large portion of the cobalt, lithium, rare earth, graphite and other exotic and strategic materials still come from China, which has monopoly control over mining and processing them. That puts US and Western energy, transportation, communication, AI, defense systems and national security at great risk.
Simply put, humanity would have had to destroy the planet with green energy mining and systems, to save it from imaginary GIGO computer-modeled climate cataclysms.
President Trump’s actions have dramatically reduced all these mining needs, ecological impacts and dependence on adversarial nations. However, modern industrialized civilization still requires metals, minerals and energy in enormous quantities. We must still find and produce these materials, to meet today’s needs and tomorrow’s emerging and still unknown needs.
Thankfully, the United States is blessed with mineral wealth. Plate tectonics and other geologic processes have created enormous deposits of metals and minerals throughout Alaska and the Lower 48 States. Most have yet to be found, much less mapped or developed, to serve strategic US needs.
By 1994, when I helped prepare what was likely the last land withdrawal summary, mineral exploration and development had been restricted or banned on federal lands equal to Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming combined. That’s 420 million acres – 19% of the USA; 66% of all federal/public lands. The situation has gotten “progressively” worse since then.
Today, mineral exploration is prohibited (or severely restricted) on almost 80% of all federally managed lands. And those 500,000,000+ acres of no-access lands likely contain many of the best metal and mineral prospects in the USA – again because of their unique geologic history.
Those lands were closed to mineral exploration to protect scenic and ecological values, but with little or no regard for their potential subsurface treasures, without which modern civilization cannot function. Many were deliberately placed off-limits by anti-mining activists, land managers and judges – to prevent access to prospects and even curtail America’s industries and economy.
Indeed, they were closed to exploration despite clear statutory language stating that gathering information about mineral resources via “planned, recurring” mineral exploration is required by law in designated wilderness areas, if the exploration is conducted in a way that preserves “the wilderness environment.” If that work is required in wilderness areas, there is no reason to prohibit it elsewhere – especially since today’s technologies ensure it can be done with minimal impacts.
National parks should be off-limits. In most cases, these other citizen-owned lands should not.
These lands and mineral treasures belong to all Americans, not just to hikers and anti-mining activists. And basic morality demands that we begin meeting US needs right here in the USA – not in foreign countries, where impoverished, powerless people have no say in the matter, and where the impacts are out of sight and mind for virtue-signaling activists, bureaucrats and politicians.
We must remove the roadblocks and start exploring for American mineral deposits immediately.
The process will begin with remote sensing technologies on satellites, airplanes and drones, to collect data on magnetic and other anomalies and trends over large areas, enabling geologists to identify potentially mineralized areas. Artificial intelligence will help evaluate results more quickly and in greater detail than was ever before possible, leading to better decisions about which areas merit closer examination.
Aerial and ground-based work will augment these initial gravitational, magnetic, electromagnetic and other surveys by mapping outcrops and showings of indicator minerals, to identify potential mineralized areas more precisely. This stage also includes rock and soil sampling, plus analyzing data from mining and exploration during previous decades and centuries, to pinpoint locations where core drilling may be warranted, using relatively small equipment brought in by truck or helicopter.
Three-inch-diameter cores extracted from hundreds or thousands of feet below the surface will be examined and assayed in labs to measure mineral content in multiple locations throughout a prospect. If results are positive, additional cores will be drilled and instruments may be sent down boreholes to gather more data. This will enable geologists and geophysicists to create 3-D computerized profiles of possible ore bodies deep beneath the surface – all with minimal ecological disturbance.
At some point, we will know enough about the subsurface resource potential – for metals and minerals for existing or brand-new technologies – that mining engineers, government specialists, financiers and voters can determine whether companies should spend billions of dollars to extract the ores … under stringent US land, air, water, wildlife habitat, endangered species, reclamation and other requirements.
Relatively few Americans today have worked on farms or in mines, oilfields, refineries or factories. Few understand where their food, clothing, cell phones, cosmetics and other essential products actually come from. Most would be astonished to learn that nearly everything we touch or use ultimately comes from holes in the ground. Always has; always will.
That’s why we must “Mine, baby, mine” right here in the United States, to survive and prosper.
Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and author of books and articles on energy, environment, climate change and human rights issues.
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We know how to mine responsibly, under appropriate FAA like supervision.
Pebble in Alaska or Boundary Waters in Minnesota— both mainly copper deposits— presume we don’t. But we already do.
The green objection is to mining per se, not modern mining with best environmental practices. Cannot hold in the long run.
Negative on mines while plus on wind turbines needing mined minerals is not a viable long term climate alarmist stance.
It’s amazing how few people are aware of the great truth:
“If it can’t be grown, it’s got to be mined.”
Many years ago, I was invited to give a talk at my kids’ school on mining. At the start of the talk, I asked the question, “Is mining a good thing?” Only my son agreed it was, of the rest 50% said “No” and 50% said they didn’t know. After 40 unsuccessful minutes of trying to discover something they used, which wasn’t mined or grown, the kids nearly all became mining enthusiasts.
With mining and climate change, all that children need is to be told the truth. Unfortunately, they rarely are.
If you want Solar Panels you need Pure Silicon to make the PV Cells.
If you want to make Pure Silicon you need to mine Quartz (Silica) and Coal (Carbon).
You need to refine the Silica to remove impurities then melt it in a Blast Furnace mixed with carbon.
As the mixture is heated the Carbon in pulls the Oxygen from the Silica leaving Silicon behind and producing CO2 as a byproduct.
If you want Wind Turbines they sit atop LARGE TALL Structural Steel Masts.
Those masts require mining Iron Oxide (FeO2) and Coal (C).
The Coal is combined with the Iron Oxide to remove the Oxygen from the Iron producing CO2 in the process. Further a small amount of additional Coal is used to turn the Iron into Steel making it stronger.
Wind also has those 300′ long blades which need to be lightweight and require Petrochemicals to do so which requires Oil and Gas Exploration, Drilling, and Processing.
Wind and Solar can’t be placed Just Anywhere.
Wind doesn’t blow strong enough in many places and may blow constantly too strong in others.
Solar Panels need to face South in the NH and North in the SH with unobstructed views of the annual Solar Path.
And if you run out of Free Fuel you can’t simply Add More Fuel. Your Hosed!
If you don’t grow something or mine something do you really make a contribution to the wealth of the nation?
If software did not provide value, people wouldn’t be willing to pay so much for it.
What’s the value of a hammer? Is it the few pounds of iron that goes into it, or is it the design that makes a hammer an effective tool for making other things?
What is the value of a software program? Isn’t it the ability to use that software to create other things?
Only three activities actually create wealth; mining, agriculture (which is really mining for essential minerals by other means), and manufacturing. To severely restrict mining is to severely restrict the prosperity of our posterity.
Without intellectual property, none of the above are worth anything.
Research creates wealth.
Software creates wealth.
“National parks should be off limits.”
No, no, and NO again.
That arrangement lets national park status to be used to stop mining.
It contains the fallacy that some vested interest knows best how to use land, mining a tiny part of it or not mining at all.
In pure economic terms, the value of a mine sized block of land is typically 1,000 or 10,000 times higher than reserving it for a park. On a ton for ton comparison, the rock and soil in a mine is valued hugely more than using it for farming.
Also, modern rehabilitation will often clean up afterwards so well that most people would never know that a mine used to be there.
Miners love their countryside as much as any other folk. Sometimes, rather more from time spent exploring and learning appreciation and enjoying.
History is filled with sad people, ignorant dreamers often, being selfish and getting parks declared to stop mining, then they fly or drive to the park in cars or boats or aircraft made possible by the products of mining.
I speak from personal experience, when we corporately and nationally forfeited hundreds of millions of dollars from United Nations world heritage tomfoolery. It hurts to see ignorance rewarded.
Geoff S
I might consider Yes to National Parks but only Existing National Parks with their Current Existing Boundaries. Or with a limited percentage of usage for exploration. No redefining existing non park lands as Parks to eliminate exploitation
No area, including national parks, should be off limits to exploration and mining.
Every country and their citizens who use minerals need to know what mineral resources their country does or does not have. Underground mining can be totally unobtrusive if done properly.
Rehabilitation can be very effective now. How many visitors to the Grand Canyon, especially those of the green color, know that this was once the site of the richest uranium mine in the US?
Most park visitors go solely for the vista, as seen from their cars. Those that do get out and walk are primarily interested in the wildlife. They have no idea or interest in what lies below the surface. An underground mine can be operated with no more surficial disturbance than is created by existing roads, park headquarters, parking lots and camping grounds. Yet, exploration and development is banned. It is irrational.
I have a genuine question:
Why do we need AI, when the inbuilt intelligence of humans has bought us to this point?
Aside from fun and games, what does AI do that normal intelligence does not do?
Is AI the next great scam?
Cheers,
Dr Bill Johnston
http://www.bomwatch.com.au
I think the “Greens” actions have refuted this statement 😉
Well said, Bill ! 🙂
It remains to be seen how much of the AI frenzy is real and how much is just smoke. But AI can be helpful in a couple of areas and can exceed human capabilities:
So real world applications in use now.
The real key is the training data for the system. Large language models train on internet data that is 99% bullshit. They have to have guard rails programmed in. Many of these guard rails are BS too and just reflect the bias of the programmer.
AI (computer aided information) is just a continuation of the long history of making information available. Had you wanted information on a topic in 1425 you might have had to walk 500 miles to ask an expert. Then books in libraries happened and you only had to walk across town and hope the info was there. Then you had to find it. Then Al Gore invented the internet (sic or sarc)**. The rest is history.
**I found a quick summary just now in under 10 seconds via DuckAssist.
New form of explosive energy discovered in the Oval Office…
Accidents generally happen when there is mis-communication. Back in 2019, Zelensky only had a few words in English. His English language skills have come a long way in 4 years – credit to the man. Sadly, he seemed to have problems understanding American English, especially when playing cards and “holding all the cards” was continually mentioned.
I guess the Budapest Memorandum of 1994 is long dead – Ukraine ditching nukes in a trade for territorial integrity.
I must confess that I do not understand Trump’s reported (may not be genuine ) obsession with rare earths from Ukraine . For 30 years from 1970 I was involved in researching and manufacturing products incorporating lanthanides. Initially we bought from Jonson Matthey , sourced from Scandinavia then for a short while from Rhone-Poulence whose source was, I was told, was Russia (including Ukraine at that time ) . Finally from Molycorp and its mountain of rare earths in the US.
Not at that time from China . The cost of material , usually in the form of oxides or nitrates, was approximately (for 3Ns purity , 99.9%) £1 /gram for the lighter , more prolific elememts , Ce or La , up to £10/gm for the rarer elemnts , Tb or Eu .
If Molycorp cannot compete with China because of the latter’s cheap labour and total disregard of environmental protection how can Ukraine compete? Will Ukrainians be happy with Chinese wages? Will they be happy to see what is effectively the bread basjket of Europe covered in black stinking lakes of pollution as is said to be the case in China?
The deal was structured with 50% of revenue to Ukraine into a reconstruction fund, and 50% to the US for repayments. It would decades for the US to be repaid.
US mining companies would do the extraction and processing.
The product would be shipped to the US, which would offset any Chinese reduction of rare earths to the US.
European companies have almost entirely taken over Ukraine markets for goods and services, as they did in Poland, Russia, etc.
Russia has a lot of STEM professionals, who quickly converted factories to “Made in Russia” products and services, due to sanctions, which are aimed at collapsing the Russian economy.
This gave Russia increased independence/sovereignty, plus it grew the GDP in Russia, while the GDP shrank in the EU, aka blowback!
Europe lost a major market, and lost plentiful, low-cost pipeline gas, and went hog wild with wind and solar, plus they acquired tens of millions of government-subsidized, illegal walk-ins.
No wonder the European economy is in such deep do-do
And, log baby log- or a better way to say that is get back to proper management of national forests and do it profitably. Doing this will help bring down the cost of wood products.
There should be a provision in the permit for every “Green Energy” project that says that all minerals for that project must be mined in the US and manufacturing done in the US. This includes Solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and the wires needed to gather and massage these sources so that they are usable in homes and industry.
Let there be skin in the game and cost benefit analyses done on every project. Is the green energy worth the environmental costs to mine the minerals? If the answer is no, then the project shouldn’t be built.
Back in the early ’80’s when the Hunt brothers tried to corner the silver market
there was an intense mineral exploration push here in the Northern Rockies.
A helicopter flew nearly non-stop over the Boulder Batholith, Elkhorns,
Big and Little Belts mountains to name a few. This helicopter had a device attached that looked
exactly like a Navy MAD unit. This device looked like a missile being towed on a cable
on the back end of this cylinder there was a disc. MAD being a term for a magnetic anti
submarine detection unit. It could detect changes in the magnetic field as it flew. The
mining company running this would put a mine claim tag on a tree wherever it had a hit.
They didn’t even check to see if there was a claim already filed the just put one over it.
The locals took them off when ever they found them, I have a box of them from
our property over a quartz vein that runs 6oz++ of silver per ton. Mine Baby Mine–yea right. Behind this crew came the core drillers.
They worked this area for several years. I became friends with one of the drillers
thru my wife who worked with his wife at a local hospital. They drilled from the top
of the mountain next to us down for well over a mile. That site was heavily mined from
back in the late 1800’s till the 1960’s and is honeycombed with shafts just as
an example. The core drilling crew left after a few years and moved over to N Idaho
and worked inside of several mines over a mile core drilling. There has been a newer version
of that helicopter flying the past few years over this area but it has a pole like device
out the nose not the towed thing. The mining industry has earned a bad reputation
with the public over the years from their conduct. The Black Butte copper mine
has yet to get a permit near the Smith River. The fishing guys have been involved===>
https://montanatu.org/about-the-mine/
Very nice Paul.
Fifty years in the mining industry and it has been quite a ride. Highs and lows; turmoil and calm. Proud to have been involved in the discovery of and production from several mines that produced the raw materials required to give us the standard of living that we (most) take for granted. Wouldn’t trade it for anything else.
Understated: “onshore wind turbines require 9 times more raw materials than equivalent megawatts from combined-cycle natural gas turbines; offshore wind requires 14 times more materials than gas turbines;”. That’s for nameplate capacity. When adjusted for capacity factors (Wind ~34%, CCNG ~87%) those numbers become ~22.5 times more for onshore wind and ~34 times more for offshore wind for delivered electricity. But while CCNG plants have a life of ~59 years, onshore wind farms last about 25 years and offshore wind farms last about 20 years. So, the net equivalent raw material demand to a CCNG plant operating 59 years at an 87% capacity factor is Onshore wind turbines require 53 times and Offshore wind turbines require 100 times more raw materials.
Real wealth comes out of the ground.
For a country that has borrowed 36 Trillion dollars from itself which does not include interest payments on that debt, it’s a very strange political position to take that opposes mining.
The silly fantasy of “net zero,” and the demands, govt. initiatives, guilt trips, and propaganda orgies that stoke the fantasy have become grotesque extensions of the joke, “How many people does it take to change a light bulb?”
In the joke, it takes five — one to hold the bulb, and four to turn the ladder. But at least the new bulb gives light.
In the net zero fantasy, it takes billions of people, with scant assurance that the new light will work better, and near certainty that the new light will be vastly more expensive and less reliable. All in a vain effort to reduce a trace atmospheric gas that is required for all life on earth, yet is purported to pose a grave risk if it rises somewhat, but that nobody knows for sure, and will incur vast expense to everyone, for uncertain, if any benefits.
We’re talking moral panic here, not science.
When teaching environmental geology I played a game with the students: “Did this come out of the air, or out of the ground?” If what I held up was wood or plant based, it came out of the air, via photosynthesis. Otherwise, it came out of the ground via mining, oil, or gas. Sometimes it gets tricky: acetaminophen comes out of the ground, aspirin comes out of the air. Fun game. Try it with your kids.