Days before those rules are released, a Washington think tank whose mission is aligned with the IRA’s goals is releasing a detailed report delving into China’s command of the supply chain, and the corners it says the country cut on the way to dominance. The group — which goes by SAFE, standing for Securing America’s Future Energy — argues that China has been winning out in part because of failures to account for the toll that the extraction and processing of critical minerals including lithium, nickel and cobalt are taking on workers and the environment, often in lower-income countries.For examples, SAFE points to how China pulled far ahead of the US in producing the rare earths used in EV motors, and how Indonesia has built a huge lead over Australia in producing nickel.The US was the top producer of rare earth elements in the 1990s, until Chinese suppliers flooded the market with lower-cost supply. Those rare earths were cheaper in part because suppliers were allowed to dispose of radioactive waste into the Yellow River that flows through Western China, SAFE says, citing a report by the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. QUOTE ARR is in a good position to succeed in this environment IMO
