The US and her allies have been battling oil prices and politics for decades, and we have to wonder if the recent increase in green energy popularity is aligned with the Iraq war and increasing oil prices rather than the much debated global warming.

The plentiful supply of oil and cheap access in the Middle East has led to the monopoly of the oil export market, which would be very lucrative to everyone involved if the exporters had stable politics. The truth is the Middle East has been plagued with wars, and as chart at right shows, every war has meant an increase in oil prices to us.

While Iraq has oil, China has Rare Earth Elements (REEs) and in reducing our dependency on foreign oil, we are increasing our dependency on REEs for our wind turbines, electric vehicles, nuclear power, and laser technology. With this information in hand, it seems imperative to point out that we are "flying from the frying pan into the fire.”

Rare Earth Elements are found in the Earth’s crust and are notoriously difficult and expensive to mine, but their uses are priceless. Lanthanum is perhaps the most commonly mined REEs for use in rechargeable batteries, such as cell phone, laptops, and even electric vehicles. Other REEs include Dysprosium which is used for nuclear cooling rods, Neodymium used in generators such as those used in the Toyota Prius and wind turbines, Terbium which increases light efficiency by 80% and is used in compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Other elements are used for military weapons, xray and imagine technology, and laser technology.

Global demand for REEs has tripled over the past decade to 120,000 tons per year. Politically, the US has paved the way for China to mine over 97% of REEs. Environmental regulations have halted mining at the one US location, Mountain Pass, California, and Greenland is still exploring reservations for mining locations, leaving China as the monopoly provider of Rare Earth Minerals.

Of course, this monopoly has led way to China exerting supply power to the US, and in recent news China has announced that it will reduce its Rare Earth Element exports over the next five years in order to attract more manufacturers to the country and increase its own wind power supply. This halt in exports will affect not only green energy, but also medical and military advances in the US and internationally and pave the way for China to not only be a world leader in Green Energy, but also in nuclear power, medical research, and military weapon defense.

First image via: Huffington Post, second image via: "Rare Earth Elements—Critical Resources for High Technology", Gordon B. Haxel et al., U.S. Geological Survey, November 2002; third image via: www.australianuranium.com.au

This article appears in May 20-26, 2010.