Without rare earth metals, we can no longer make a powerful small motor, a nickel metal hydride battery, a Prius car or even lasers. We can’t make cutting tools, military armor, or ammunition without tungsten. We can’t make high-efficiency cooling systems for our power plants no matter what their fuel source—oil, gas, coal, wind, solar or nuclear—without molybdenum. Either we’re running out of oil or we’re running out of rare earth.