What are they?

Rare Earths are a moderately abundant group of 15 metallic elements known as the Lanthanide series (atomic numbers 57 through to 71) plus Yttrium (39).  Although Scandium (atomic number 21) is not a Rare Earth element, it is commonly included with the Lanthanides because of its similar properties.

The 15 lanthanides are represented by the single square of lanthanum in the main part of the periodic table and listed in a separate sub group below the main groupings.

They range in crustal abundance from cerium, the most abundant, at 60 parts per million, which is in fact more abundant than nickel or copper, to thulium and lutetium, the least abundant Rare Earth element at about 0.5 parts per million.

Since I’ve stirred up a hornet’s nest over the last two weeks first by debunking the mythology that PHEVs and EVs will save their owners money and then by showing how PHEVs and EVs will sabotage America’s drive for energy independence, I figured I might as well go for the triple-crown of harsh realities by showing readers that in the U.S., where 70% of electricity comes from burning hydrocarbons, PHEVs and EVs won’t make a dent in CO2 emissions. They’ll just take distributed CO2 emissions off the roads and centralize them in coal and gas fired power plants.

I started to seriously question the policy arguments in favor of PHEVs and EVs when McKinsey Quarterly published an article titled “Profiting from the low-carbon economy” in early August. The article included a “Global carbon abatement cost curve” that shocked me because it showed that HEVs offered a substantial cash benefit from carbon abatement while PHEVs imposed a significant carbon abatement cost. A few days ago I got permission to reprint the original graph from a recent McKinsey & Company report titled “Pathways to a Low-Carbon Economy. Version 2 of the Global Greenhouse Gas Abatement Cost Curve,” 2009.”