CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) – One of the keys to President Joe Biden’s plan for $ 2 trillion in clean energy could be a mineral lying in a salt flats above a prehistoric volcano just south of the Oregon-Nevada line.
But the question of how lithium can be extracted and whether former President Donald Trump’s Home Office rushed a mine through the approval process could be an early test for Biden and his nominee for Home Secretary Deb Haaland , New Mexico.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has released a report of Trump’s final Friday in the office of an open-pit lithium mine at Thacker Pass, located about 85 miles north of Winnemucca, Nevada.
Lithium Americas, the company behind the mine, believes it can deliver a quantity that is critical to establishing a strong local lithium supply chain needed to support a low-carbon economy, “said Jon Evans, president. said.
Lithium, which has long been used for rechargeable batteries found in cell phones and laptops, is expected to become an increasingly valuable commodity if the new government pushes carmakers to increase the production of electric vehicles. But its exploitation has shattered environmentalists. While technologists are eager to use it to switch from carbon-based fuels, conservationists are concerned about the impact new mines have on endangered species and the environment.
The mine’s approval is among the eleventh-hour decisions issued by Trump’s Department of the Interior to advance energy and mining projects, including an oil pipeline in West Virginia and a copper mine in Arizona on the land that the San Carlos Apache tribe considered sacred. Contrary to the decisions that can be reversed, Thacker Pass has obtained the final federal permit needed to begin construction – one that is difficult to reverse.
“We are not going to fix the climate if we do not do it right,” said John Hadder, CEO of Great Basin Resource Watch, about the approval. “There is nothing ‘green’ about sloppy consent.”
Hadder said he was concerned about efforts to launch a “green revolution” and overshadowed the need to comply with established environmental review processes required by federal law.
Protected by Trump’s executive orders to simplify the discussions, he said the project’s environmental impact statement is about a third of the length of the reviews prepared for projects of similar size. Hadder said the lithium mine would harm wildlife, including sage dogs, and threaten water and air quality.
Unlike other projects followed in Trump’s last days, lithium production could bolster Biden’s plans to turn the fossil fuel economy around.
The Trump administration listed lithium among the minerals critical to national security and, amid trade disputes, thought mines could help wean the country from foreign supply. For Biden, boosting domestic production could potentially lower the price of an important part of its climate plan: to offer discounts to consumers to trade in gas-powered electric cars.
Biden’s Department of Home Affairs did not respond to a request for comment, but an executive order issued Wednesday revoking the Keystone XL oil pipeline permits cited plans “to reduce harmful emissions and work well” with clean energy. ” And in October, his campaign reportedly told miners he wanted to increase lithium production domestically.
The enthusiasm could put him at odds with conservationists, who are fighting another proposed Nevada lithium mine, which they say would destroy Tiehm’s Buckwheat, a desert flower that does not exist elsewhere.
The Australian mining company Ioneer Ltd. is developing plans to reduce damage to the flower by trying to grow replacement plants. The executive chairman of his board does not understand why environmentalists want to prevent the development of a key element for future ‘clean energy’.
“Climate change poses an immediate threat to all species on earth,” James Calaway said late last year. “This will enable the country’s transformation from oil and gas drilling to renewable energy.”
A large part of the world’s lithium supply comes from Australia and South America, where Chinese companies are heavily invested. Thacker Pass would be the second commercial lithium mine in the U.S. to follow a central Nevada plant that plans to invest between $ 30 million and $ 50 million in dual production. Elsewhere, thousands of claims for the mineral have been filed in federal lands by speculators expecting carmakers to expand investments in electric vehicles.
Lithium helped lure Tesla to Nevada. The company opened a massive battery factory near Reno in 2016. The state considers the mineral the key to diversifying its tourism-dependent economy, and Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak specifically mentioned it in his Tuesday state of the nation address.
Lithium Americas said in a statement that the company now intends to seek funding for the project. Nevada offered the company $ 9 million in tax rebates over a ten-year period. The mine is expected to require 1,000 jobs during construction and 300 once completed will generate approximately $ 75 million in state and local tax revenue over a decade.
Ken Tipton, chairman of the Humboldt County Commission, said the mine has gained local opposition, but most support it for the work it can bring.
“Every time a country our size gets the amount of work they talk about, it’s a huge blessing to our economy,” he said.
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Metz is a corps member of the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit service program that puts journalists in newsrooms to cover hidden issues.