Did you know? “Zero-Emissions Vehicles are an important part of Montgomery County’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 80% by 2027 and 100% by 2035.” broadcasts the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection website.
“The goals of the county’s Zero-Emissions Vehicle initiatives are to increase use of EVs by both residents and local businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and to build confidence in ecofriendly transportation options among the public.”
To this end, the County government is even promoting a monthly “EVPC Newsletter” so that one may “receive updates on the EVPC and other EV-related programs in Montgomery County.”
Included in the December ‘newsletter’ was a ‘dealership incentive’ ad for ‘no haggle MSRP’ at a local dealership. See screen captured image below:
The newsletter (for December) then goes on to promote the ‘City of Rockville’ EV Readiness Plan, a “green jobs board” hosted by the county, an “EV News Roundup” section and all other manner of virtue-speak by MoCo Government. Of course the City of Rockville ‘plan’ includes the phrase “equitable charging access”.
Curiously omitted from the “EV News Roundup” section was an upcoming book launch about what is going on, a world away, in the impoverished country that is the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddharth Kara is releasing on January 31, 2023 and already, the book’s author is making major media rounds to showcase his tremendous investigatory tome on the slave-like conditions that produce the cobalt that powers our laptops, phones and yes — those “clean, green” EVs that MoCo wants to promote at any and all cost, in partnership with local dealers. But, (conscience) buyer beware.
It is estimated that each Tesla battery is about 3% or more cobalt, and almost every single electric vehicle on the (American) road today contains the element in the battery cathode. To be fair, there has been some movement away from the element in battery production. Per Reuters: And Tesla is heading the pack. Just last month, Reuters revealed that nearly half the Tesla vehicles produced in the first quarter of 2022 were equipped with cobalt-free lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries.
Cheery online “green” blogs and government-promoted “sources” love to make claims that EVs are transitioning away from cobalt (it isn’t actually ‘needed’ to make lithium-ion batteries they highlight), or that “effective supply chain management” is ongoing, but per the same Reuters article: LFP chemistry has accounted for just 3% of EV batteries in the United States and Canada in 2022 and 6% in the European Union, with nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) cells accounting for the rest, according to data from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI).
And Mr. Kara’s book lays waste to those dubious claims, too:
Activist and researcher Siddharth Kara has traveled deep into cobalt territory to document the testimonies of the people living, working, and dying for cobalt. To uncover the truth about brutal mining practices, Kara investigated militia-controlled mining areas, traced the supply chain of child-mined cobalt from toxic pit to consumer-facing tech giants, and gathered shocking testimonies of people who endure immense suffering and even die mining cobalt (synopsis of the new book Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddharth Kara available Jan. 31).
“Before anyone knew what was happening, [the] Chinese government [and] Chinese mining companies took control of almost all the big mines, and the local population has been displaced,” Kara told [Joe] Rogan on a recent [podcast] interview. “They dig in absolutely subhuman, gut-wrenching conditions for a dollar a day, feeding cobalt up the supply chain into all the phones, all the tablets, and especially electric cars.”
Kara, it should be noted, is also an adjunct lecturer at Harvard’s Carr Center for Humans Rights Policy. This isn’t some “pro oil” publication but a real inquiry into the conditions that produce the (tax-payer subsidized) electric vehicles so many in MoCo government love to flaunt.
Keep in mind, upper-income Marylanders get an EV credit, yes a generous tax credit, for buying these expensive, potentially Congo blood-soaked battery packs. Meanwhile middle income families are regressively taxed on gasoline purchases in Maryland. Regressive taxation at its finest, contributing to the oft-noted “income inequality”.
Why can’t Montgomery County politicians like Marc Elrich come completely “clean” about where the earth elements and metals that create their vaunted “EVs” come from? Do they truly know where the cobalt and nickel was sourced from, the very elements that make powering up their fleet of Chevy Bolts? Would Mr. Elrich read of copy of Mr. Kara’s book, if we drop one off at his Rockville office?
Will MoCo commit to reporting 100% on real EV news, real mineral and mining and supply chain news, not just the fluff “news” that seeks to showcase only the “EV end result” of hours of sweat, blood and labor — much of it in the Congo?
More to come.
