Our local DTE Energy
gets about two-thirds
of it's electric power
from burning coal !
And that's why
I call Tesla's
"Coal Cars",
even if they are
not painted black !
Two-thirds coal power
is NOT clean green power !
Also NOT green:
The mining of raw materials
needed for producing
electric automobile batteries
is destructive to the
environment.
The mining of raw materials
often takes place
in third world countries
where workers
are forced to work
under bad conditions.
and no regard
is given to protecting
the environment.
Battery technology
is evolving fast enough
to become a replacement
for gasoline and diesel fuels
in our lifetime, but
(1)
The battery pack
price needs to
be cut at least
in half, and
(2)
Battery manufacturing
must be “sustainable”,
with a recycling effort
to reclaim spent materials.
I know of
no such recycling
today, like what has
been developed
for ordinary
lead-acid batteries
( approximately 80%
of lead-acid battery
materials are recycled ).
The environmental
destruction of third world
countries, where the
needed battery minerals
are mined, is accelerating:
(A)
LITHIUM MINING:
Lithium is a chemical element.
An alkali metal.
It is mostly found
in pegmatitic minerals,
and is mined.
Every electric car
battery pack
needs 20 – 30 kg.
of lithium.
Chinese companies
control most of the
lithium supply chain,
and the miners are
cheated by them.
One source of lithium
in the desert
of northern Chile.
Everyday at one mine,
21 million liters
of ground water
gets pumped
to the surface,
where it evaporates,
and remaining sludge,
with 6% lithium,
gets shipped to
processing plants.
The operations are transforming
the Chilean desert landscape
into a vast industrial wasteland.
The Chilean lithium
mining operations
are pumping out
what little precious
groundwater remains,
ruining the water supply
the local population
needs to survive.
What little vegetation
there was to begin with,
is now dying due to
falling water tables.
Overall, mining operations
are expected to expand four-fold
within the next decade,
and the mining companies
profit, while the local citizens
lose their livelihoods.
The Northern Chilean desert
is being ruined by widespread
lithium mining.
The automotive companies,
the buyers of lithium batteries,
insist that they have
strict requirements in the
sourcing of their products,
and make sure it is done in a
sustainable way.
That's empty talk !
COBALT:
Two thirds of the cobalt
currently comes
from the Congo,
where the mining rights
have been acquired
by China.
Today’s batteries
for electric cars
also require about
10 – 15 kg. of cobalt,
two thirds of which
comes from the
authoritarian
Republic
of the Congo.
The mining rights
are owned by
Chinese companies.
Here, as well,
the benefits of
the mining operations
do not find their way
to the local residents,
who are forced to live
under horrendous
conditions.
Privately operated
local companies
are not allowed,
unless the authorities
are paid bribes
to look the other way.
In these rogue operations,
work conditions are primitive
and dangerous.
20% of Congolese cobalt
is extracted in this manner.
Profits do not find their way
down to the miners.
The grounds around
the mining villages
are now perforated
with vertical shafts
that pose a constant
danger to children
who risk falling
into them.
Work conditions
for the miners
are dangerous.
The money they earn
is not enough to provide
for their families.
So their children
are forced to work too,
and do not go to school.
The valuable raw material
makes its way to China,
where it gets processed
for the manufacture
of electric batteries,
according to
Dr. Mathias John
of Amnesty International.
Congolese cobalt
is contained
in the car batteries
of German electric cars.
German automakers,
such as Mercedes,
insist they make an effort
to ensure that
their supply chains
“exclusively process cobalt
from industrial mines
that have the proper
sustainability standards.”
That's empty talk too !
Other materials needed
for electric car batteries
include manganese,
and graphite.