Here’s an article by John Petersen on why the electric car is a no-go for future energy independence due to the very limited rare earth elements that are required to produce the batteries. It is a great argument for recuperative braking, and a great argument against the obvious, that replacing fuel with batteries is an extremely naïve idea with regard to either environmental concerns or energy supplies. I was bitching about that during the cap and trade debate, if my memory serves.

Innovation is what’s needed though. The key to energy independence isn’t these wild ideas about shifting us from cars to trains, but rather developing technologies like practical energy cells. This requires investment. And fuel cells include more technologies than electric storage batteries, which are horrible.

Hydrogen is a good example. It’s a portable fuel. And it’s made from electricity which could be generated in remote areas of the country, like in mountains from turbines or in deserts from solar panels, and shipped in a variety of was to fueling stations.

Who knows what technology will produce. Hopefully though, the next leap in transportation technology will appear in the US under a US company.

There’s a lot of $$$ locked up in US companies right now, waiting out uncertainty. A lot of people would like to see taxes raised on companies, and that money used to fund research. That’s a better idea than using such monies to fund green projects using today’s piss-poor green technology. But still, the usual process in Washington is to divvy money out to congressman’s districts for supporting the bill, rather than to the most promising research projects. And that’s assuming any of those fools in Washington could determine what’s promising.

Others would like to keep the tax burden off companies so they can do their own research. This is a fine idea, but could take a long time. Such research is risky. A lot of people and corporations will certainly be losing billions before that singularity is found, and no one is in a hurry to do that right now.

Because energy is such an important thing to all of us, and is essential to safety and security, I think government should be finding ways to promote this innovation. Taxing so Uncle Sam can write checks is the wrong way to do it, because as I’ve said, Washington doesn’t reward merit, it rewards votes. So I think the best way to promote domestic fuel cell research is to reduce the capital gains tax, and perhaps the corporate tax, on such research projects.

It’s a matter of overcoming uncertainty, both from the bad economy and the gamble of scientific progress. Lowering those taxes specifically on green energy will increase the reward to investors, and thus overcome some of that uncertainty and move money in. Simple economics – complicated fuel science.

Worst case: Investors don’t move money to green energy and things stay the same, no loss in revenue. Second worst case: Investors move money out of other investments into green energy, tax revenues decrease but carefully targeted green energy investment increase. Best case: Locked up money comes loose, tax revenues rise, and someone invents a practical green vehicle fuel system.

By the subject line you probably thought this e-mail would be about planets, but I am speaking about rare earth metals.

Rare earths are becoming very important in the latest technologies like military equipment, hybrid motors, nickel metal hydride batteries, and flat screen televisions.  The problem is China is the only country the processes these metals.  They do most of the mining and then separate the metals into uses.  They own 90% of the market share.  Furthermore, China has announced that they are cutting back exports as internal demand rises.

A number of places in the world have these metals: the US, Canada, China, Africa, and Australia.  There are a few US companies that own mines and only one Western company, NEO Material Technologies of Canada, has any expertise in processing/separating these metals (they have a facility in China).  The US companies are all privately owned, so that takes away some incentive to buy stock in one of these companies.

My thoughts are that Western companies in this area are going to make a lot of money over the next few years.  Part of mewishes I could go out and join them, make them more efficient, and then buy out competition like Rockefeller did with Southern Oil.  Part of me wants to go prospect land and buy it.  Most of me just wants to invest in these companies and let them do the hard work while I build rockets.

More of me wants to explore.  Sometimes I wish it was the 1600′s and there was still a lot of land to explore and claim for the crown (or George Washington).  Unexplored land now only resides in space – which is terribly expensive.  There are many explored lands in the world though that have not seen many people even today, like northen michigan.  A lot of this land holds many secrets to be discovered and something inside of me desires to be the one to discover those secrets.

It occurs to me that I have many many interests in life: explosives, rockets, space, politics, exploration, running a business, music, triathlons, investing, theology, writing, teaching/coaching, geology, military, and probably some more.  I have organized my life around many of those things, tried my hand at all of them, did poorly in some, and have succeeded in others.  Do I stay where I am or venture out into something else?  What is next for me?