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Politics : Politics of Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (3959)	1/6/2009 5:28:22 PM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 86356

Don't be silly. The greatest source of lithium production in South America is not Venezuela. It is Chile, followed by Argentia, in case you didn't know that. The US is also a significant producer, but at a higher cost, as you mentioned. Many recent articles claim that if a lithium production rush got in fool swing to supply EVs, then China would probably emerge as a major producer as well. So what's different about this than oil dependence? Well, first off, there are no terrorists in Chile, Argentina, or China that are trying to kill as and want an end to the US. Second, we have huge undeveloped brine/lithium supplies in the US, whereas we do not have huge undeveloped oil supplies. It is estimate that if we exploited all undeveloped oil onshore and offshore in the US, we could add 5 mbpd to the world's oil production. Given that world supply is 80 mbpd and our own consumption is above 20 mbpd, that's a significant problem. With lithium, our own supplies would be more expensive, but at least we'd have them if push came to shove.