Biden Administration Locks Horns With Green Groups, Native Indian Tribes Over Nevada Lithium Mine

Lithium is a key component in manufacturing batteries for electric vehicles. Despite the Biden administration’s war on fossil fuels, they are still playing favorites and Kabuki Theater with the U.S.’s resources while environmentalist groups and their allies tie it up in court.

U.S. District Judge Miranda Du said after a three-hour hearing in Reno that she hoped to make a decision “in the next couple months” on how to proceed in the nearly two-year-old legal battle over the Bureau of Land Management’s approval of the mine Lithium Nevada Corp. plans near the Nevada-Oregon line.

Lawyers for the company and the Bureau of Land Management insisted the project complies with U.S. laws and regulations. But they said that if Du determines it does not, she should stop short of vacating the agency’s approval and allow initial work at the site to begin as further reviews are initiated.

Lawyers for a Nevada rancher, conservation groups and Native American tribes suing to block the mine said that should not occur because any environmental damage would be irreversible.

Dozens of tribe members and other protesters rallied outside the downtown courthouse during the hearing, beating drums and waving signs at passing motorists.

The obvious beneficiary of this (ahem) controversy is, of course, China. However, a massive rare earth metals deposit discovery in Sweden could help break China’s lock on the lithium market.

Yet again, we see that neither the Biden administration nor environmentalists are serious about their proposals to transition the U.S. from using fossil fuels to so-called renewable energy.