(ConservativeJournal.org) – The Biden administration appears willing to look the other way in regard to child exploitation if it serves their green energy agenda. While the White House is preaching humanitarianism stateside by inviting migrants from Central and South America to cross the southern border, they are simultaneously looking to spend massive amounts of taxpayer money in an area of the world where child labor and ill treatment of the poor is often the norm.
Electric vehicles have what many consider to be a dirty secret. Their batteries require large quantities of industrial cobalt, an element of which there isn’t much in the world. Only a few places on the planet contain minable amounts of the metal and one of them happens to be in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The country is on Amnesty International’s list of places in which large-scale human rights violations routinely take place. A brand-new September 12 report from the organization said that cobalt mining in the DRC is “wrecking lives” by “forcibly evicting” already-poor families who are in the way of mining operations.
Thus far, the Biden administration has committed some $23 million in taxpayer funds to both American and international firms looking to invest in cobalt production in the DRC. Many of the overseas operations are controlled by Chinese interests, who are said to refine about 75% of the world’s supply of cobalt and 70% of the planet’s lithium-based batteries.
While taxpayer funds are diverted to cobalt projects in Africa in the name of green energy initiatives, stateside mining operations are reportedly finding themselves locked out of what they do best. New eco-protection laws that the Biden administration says will protect the environment and contribute to a green economy are said to be pushing many companies out of business.
Republican Senator John Barrasso recently noted that the administration’s policy would lead to “child labor” being exploited by overseas corporate interests.
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