The Japanese have been searching for an alternative to Chinese rare earth minerals for more than a year and claim to have found it with this recently published paper.

Rachel Rye Butler
National Conservation Organizer
Sierra Club, Green Transportation
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RE: Invitation to participate in your Transportation Activists Blog

Dear Rachel,

Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to your Transportation Activists Blog.  Working together we can move this nation into more environmentally friendly solutions while still supporting our economy and way of life.

There are a dozen transportation infrastructures with a poll position to "wean" U.S. drivers off of OPEC petroleum.  Only one of them is economically attractive, has the potential to become a large scale solution and can achieve rapid success.  It is a win, win, win, win solution in that it can (#1) eliminate 100% of all U.S. purchases of OPEC petroleum within 5 years.  It is (#2) great for the environment in that it results in an immediate 30%-35% lower emissions and puts us on the path to 95% lower emissions.  This migration (#3) results in an immediate 25% petroleum volume reduction over-all each year at the same number of miles traveled in comparable sized vehicles and establishes the infrastructure and industry capacities over the long-term to eliminate petroleum as a transportation fuel entirely.  It is economically viable (#4) - while this Migration will save U.S. drivers a considerable amount of money individually, many economists are suggesting this immediate solution has the best potential to boost our economy of any option on the table today.