Before the politicians made their proclamations about the requirements for electric cars in the future, didn’t their exhaustive research of this new technology inform them of this potential chokepoint?? We should have been ready!! Why did they just move ahead??
“With an eye on its growing assembly lines of EVs, China has moved quickly to gobble up stocks of cobalt. According to the CRU Group, a mineral consultancy, China controls 62 percent of the world’s cobalt supply, with 90 percent of that coming from the Congo.”
Does this answer your question? Would you be surprised to find that California politicians would cater to the desires of China? And thank you for the intelligent inquiry.
Because they are Leftists. They are the smartest people in the room. They completely lack introspection. They never consider that their emotional decisions and desires may be wrong or even dangerous.
It is why they believe in the Leftist Perpetual Motion Machine that the rest of us with brains in our heads call Socialism. They think that they will do it right "this time".
When they are proven wrong in every damned thing. from economics to international relations to war fighting, they never, ever, Ever, EVER look back. and either learn from their failures or accept responsibility for them.
They simply pack up, move on like union representatives who have gutted an industry and a locale, and go on to the next industry and locale, like locusts preparing to devour someone else's crops while pretending that the failure never happened.
I despise Leftism.
Because it is so easy to move pollution and child labor out of your country (or even out of your state) where you don’t have to see it or be bothered by it.
Solar cells? The magical “green” panacea for clean energy...until you read how terribly filthy the manufacture of solar cells is in China.
Coal in California? No way. Let’s import coal power from other states and let them breathe the bad air. That way, we can go on bragging about how “green” we are.
Child labor in cobalt mines? That’s far away in Africa, out of sight, out of mind. Liberals can’t be bothered by such things when they are driving Priuses to save the earth.