- The Biden administration has launched an accelerated environmental review for the Rhyolite Ridge mine in Nevada.
- Environmentalists vowed to challenge the mine’s approval, arguing that it violates the Endangered Species Act and threatens the survival of the endangered wild flower.
- Nevada currently hosts the only existing lithium mine in the US, while another is under construction.
Biden administration An accelerated environmental review of what could become the third lithium mine in the US has taken a significant step forward, amid potential legal challenges from conservationists who say it threatens endangered Nevada wildflowers.
The Bureau of Land Management last week released more than 2,000 pages of documents in the draft environmental impact statement for the Rhyolite Ridge mine. Lithium is a metal key to manufacturing batteries for electric vehicles – a centerpiece of President Joe Biden’s “green energy” agenda.
The bureau and its parent Interior Department officials trumpeted the news, saying progress in reviewing the lithium-boron mine project was “another step by the Biden-Harris administration to support responsible, domestic development of minerals critical to clean energy.” represents a step.” Energy Economy.”
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Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior Steve Feldgus said, “Federal agencies collaborating to efficiently resolve issues while protecting sensitive species and other irreplaceable resources is exactly what we will need moving forward if we are to lead the United States are going to produce these critical minerals.” Land and Mineral Management.
This photo shows Tiehm’s buckwheat plant near a proposed lithium mine site in Nevada on May 22, 2020. The Biden administration has taken a significant step forward in its accelerated environmental review of what is next in line to become only the third US lithium mine, as conservationists fear it would drive endangered Nevada wildflowers near the California line to extinction. (Patrick Donnelly/Center for Biological Diversity, via AP, file)
Environmentalists who have vowed to fight the mine say it is the latest example of the administration undermining U.S. protections for native wildlife and rare species in the name of reducing reliance on fossil fuels and slowing climate change by cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Is.
Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center for Biological Diversity, described it as “greenwashing extinction”. The nonprofit conservation group first petitioned in 2019 for federal protection of the rare flower, Tieham’s grain, which grows near the California line.
“We believe the current conservation plan would violate the Endangered Species Act, so if the BLM approves it as proposed, we will almost certainly challenge it,” he told The Associated Press last week.
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Nevada is home to the only existing lithium mine in the US and another is currently under construction near the Oregon line, 220 miles north of Reno. By 2030, worldwide lithium demand is projected to grow six times compared to 2020.
The bureau said it published a draft review and opened public comment for the new mine until June 3, when Australian mining company Ioner Ltd., which has been planning to drill for lithium at the site for years, filed a motion to minimize significant destruction. Adjusted his latest blueprint for. Habitat for the plant, which does not exist anywhere else in the world.
Ionair managing director Bernard Rowe said lithium production could begin as early as 2027. He said the company has spent six years adjusting its plans so the mine can co-exist with the plant, investing $2.5 million in conservation efforts and pledging an additional $1. million annually to ensure that the plant and its surrounding habitats are safe.
“Rhyolite Ridge will help accelerate the electric vehicle transition and secure a cleaner future for our children and grandchildren,” said James Callaway, Executive Chairman of Ionair.
In addition to reducing encroachment on the 6-inch-tall (15 cm long) wild flowers with yellow and cream-colored flowers, the strategy also includes a controversial propagation plan of growing and transplanting the flowers nearby—conservationists say it Will not work. ,
The plant grows in eight sub-populations, which combined cover about 10 acres – an area equivalent to the size of about eight football fields. They are located midway between Reno and Las Vegas in a kind of high-desert oasis for the plants and the insects that pollinate them.
The Fish and Wildlife Service added the flower to the US endangered species list on December 14, 2022, citing mining as the greatest threat to its survival.
Less than a week later, the government published a formal notice of intention to begin work on the draft Environmental effect statement. Three weeks later, the Department of Energy announced a $700 million conditional loan to Ioner for the mining project, which it said could produce enough lithium to support the production of about 370,000 electric vehicles annually for four decades. Is.
The Center for Biological Diversity said a series of internal documents obtained from the Bureau of Land Management through a request under the Freedom of Information Act show that the administration rushed its review of the mine.
Scott Distel, the BLM project manager in charge of the review, raised concerns about the accelerated program in an email to his district boss when it was suddenly accelerated to December 2023.
“This is a very aggressive schedule that deviates from other project schedules on similar projects recently completed,” Distel wrote in a Dec. 22 email.
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The draft environmental impact statement outlines three different options for the project, including a “no-action option”, meaning no mines would be built. The bureau said it estimated that Ionair’s protection plan would allow direct destruction of about 22% of the plant habitat in the 910 acres (368 ha) that the Fish and Wildlife Service designated as critical habitat. when it listed it as endangered. This is down from an estimated 38% in the earlier version of the plan.
“For an extremely rare species restricted to such a small area, any destruction of its critical habitat is not acceptable,” said Naomi Fraga, director of conservation at the California Botanical Garden.
Donnelly points to the Endangered Species Act requirement that federal agencies consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service whenever a project could impact a threat or threat. endangered species To ensure that it will not “result in destruction or adverse modification of designated critical habitat.”
Donnelly said, “Reducing the destruction of this rare plant’s habitat from 38% to 22% is like amputating one leg rather than both.” “They are still dealing a lethal blow to this precious, rare wild flower.”
