behind the green veil

Not doing anything is as green as you can be. The fabulous MPG king, the Toyota Prius Hybrid helps to lessen our dependence on foreign oil, and is the darling of the LOHAS set.

But the increased manufacture of electric and hybrid vehicles requires a ramp up of rare earth mining operations in the west.

"Each electric Prius motor requires 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of neodymium, and each battery uses 10 to 15 kg (22-33 lb) of lanthanum"

FOLLOW THE MONEY
The chinese for many years have cornered the market on Rare Earth Extraction. The recently reopened Mountain Pass Mine in California is setting itself up to challenge China's market share.

Molycorp Minerals owns Mountain Pass Mine, and Chevron owns Molycorp.

"With appropriate federal assistance for research, development and capital costs, Molycorp Minerals is prepared to move forward to reestablish domestic manufacturing capacity on an expedited basis"

Big Oil has grubstaked it's future on what it knows best: Controlling The Feed of critical resources.

and best of all, you get to subsidize it.

yay!