The mine vs. the flower

 

Short note:

Lithium is really, really important to the global economy due to its use in batteries. So more lithium from the U.S. would be a great thing, right?

Well, not for an endangered flower. And I'm torn. We need the lithium. And we need the biodiversity of the environment.

So, what to do, what to do?

U.S. approves massive lithium mine in Nevada, overriding protests

"In a final permit issued Thursday afternoon, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management found that the mine would not jeopardize the survival of Tiehm’s buckwheat, a rare, cream-colored wildflower that grows only on lithium- and boron-rich soil in Esmeralda County, Nevada. The agency noted that Australia-based Ioneer, the company behind the project, plans to protect roughly 719 acres designated as critical habitat for the wildflower."

However, it's not over yet.

"But Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the conservation group plans to challenge the final permit in court. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cited mining as the greatest threat to the survival of Tiehm’s buckwheat when the agency listed it under the Endangered Species Act in 2022; Donnelly said the suit will argue that the BLM violated the law in allowing the mining operation to move forward.

“There’s this real question of how our bedrock environmental laws are going to hold up under the pressure of the energy transition,” Donnelly said. “The Endangered Species Act does not have carve-outs if we really, really want the minerals that are going to drive a species extinct.”

It's not too far away from California's Mono Lake, but I don't think that's a consideration.