WEBVTT - Nevada Lithium Mine a Boon for EVs, But at What Cost? 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:01.680 Where do you go when they want to build a 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:05.760 mine in your backyard and both Republicans and Democrats support it, Well, 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:08.520 you go to court, of course. On today's podcast, we 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:11.880 talk about the proposed lithium mind that everyone seems to support. 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:22.040 That is, everyone except the folks who live nearby. Hello, 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:24.040 and welcome back once again to Parts per Billion, the 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:27.760 environmental podcast from Bloomberg Law. I'm your host, David Schultz. So, 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:30.560 of the two major political tribes in our country, the 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:33.519 Democratic Party is the one that's generally seen as more 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:37.360 environmentally minded, and that means Democrats often clash with heavily 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:43.120 polluting industries think chemicals, manufacturing, power generation, and most certainly mining. 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.279 So then why are Democrats from the State House all 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:48.720 the way up to the White House so bullish on 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:52.880 a proposed mega mine in remote northern Nevada. That's because 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:57.440 it's a lithium mine, and lithium is well different, and 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.000 we'll get to that in a second. The company Lithium 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.680 America's wants to build a one billion dollar open pit 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:05.520 mine near an area called Backer Pass, and the Biden 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:10.000 administration is backing it one but an unusual coalition of 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:14.560 environmentalist tribes and ranchers are taking the administration to court 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:17.959 to try to block construction of this mine. Bloomberg Law 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:20.520 reporter Daniel Moore went out to Thacker Pass to find 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:22.319 more about what's going on and to speak to the 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:25.360 people on the ground who would be most affected. And 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:28.240 I started off my discussion with Daniel by asking him, well, 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:33.120 where exactly is Backer Pass? Yeah, this is the far 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:37.160 northern reaches of Nevada, near the border of Oregon. It 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:42.399 is far away from populated areas, um from cities. It's 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:45.640 about an hour north of the nearest town, win Amacca. 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:49.040 It's very, very dry. It's high desert scrub land with 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:52.360 lots of lots of sage brush. It's a lot of 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:58.040 cattle ranches, alfalfa fields, um and and it's a pretty 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:01.120 desolate area to drive through. Just to give the listeners 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:06.000 a sense of how isolated this is, I wanna hear 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:08.080 how you actually got there, Like where did you fly 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:10.400 into and then where did you you know, I'm assuming 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:12.079 you had to fly into somewhere and then rent a car. 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:14.560 How did you do it? Yeah? I was actually at 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:17.880 a conference beforehand, So I was in Colorado at an 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:21.840 energy conference and I drove from Colorado through Nevada and 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:24.880 it was about a twelve hour drive total. Uh. And 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:27.600 it's in part on the loneliest Road in America, which 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:30.840 is called that because there's not a whole lot there. Uh. 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.000 Nevada has hundreds of ghost towns within the state, and 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:38.120 so you know, it's a it's a pretty desolate long drive, 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:41.520 but strikingly beautiful given all the mountain ranges and valleys 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:43.560 that you go through. One thing you just said that 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:45.960 caught my ear was ghost towns. I'm assuming those are 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:48.520 towns that were set up to do, you know, mining 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:52.760 of silver and other minerals back in in the day. However, 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:55.920 now we're talking about mining of a different element, and 0:02:55.960 --> 0:03:00.240 that would be lithium. Let's get into lithium it's self. 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:08.240 It went up fo last year's insane. What's going on here? 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:12.800 Why is lithium so valuable? Yeah, Lithium is the lightest 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:16.680 metal in the world and the universe on the periodic table, 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:19.840 and as such, it's a it's a key ingredient in 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:25.160 batteries for consumer electronics and crucially electric vehicles, and so 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:27.880 because it's very light, it can be used in these 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:31.760 batteries that can be transportable. And what's happened over the 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:36.040 last few years is you have electric vehicle manufacturers demanding 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:41.160 lithium to use in batteries to make electric vehicles. Um 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:44.880 At the same time as as manufacturers are driving that demand, 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:48.800 you have policymakers saying, we need to find a secure 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:51.080 supply of this stuff. We don't want to import it 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:54.400 from other countries. We want to develop supplies of lithium 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:57.520 and other critical minerals to like graphite and cobalt and 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:00.840 other other minerals that go into batteries. We want to 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:05.000 develop these supplies in our own country. And so those 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:08.280 two things kind of converge to create this huge demand 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:12.400 for lithium globally but also in the US. So let's 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:16.040 specifically talk about this proposed mind near Thacker Pass in 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:18.960 northern Davata where you visited. How much lithium are the 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:21.920 companies saying they think they can get there, because I 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:24.920 get the sense it's not just like a little bit, 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:28.279 it's a lot of lithium. Yeah, that deposit is the 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:33.920 largest known lithium deposit in the US, and Lithium America's 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:36.560 at its mind, which is just a small part of 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:39.479 the deposit says it can produce eighty thousand tons a 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:44.320 year at full capacity for forty one years. Now listeners 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:46.840 can do the math on that um. But what that 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.440 means is that annual amount is roughly what was produced 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:56.720 across the world in so it's it's a lot of lithium, 0:04:56.920 --> 0:04:59.920 simply put. Uh. And there's a lot of lithium in 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:03.599 deposit even beyond the Lothian America's mine. But now let's 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:06.279 get into the environmental issues here. And one of the 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:08.960 things I really loved about your story is that it 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:12.280 seems like everyone is of two minds here. You know, 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:14.839 it seems like everyone can really, you know, see the 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:19.720 benefits but also see the downsides. For example, environmentalists, obviously 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:22.640 you'd think that they would be on the one hand, 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:25.200 in favor of this, because we need lithium to make 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:31.279 electric batteries, uh, and that can help decarbonize our economy. 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:34.240 But also this is a huge mind and mining is 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:38.320 one of the most polluting industries out there. Can you 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:40.720 give me a sense of where environmentalists are coming down 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.080 on this? Yeah, you're exactly right. I mean, this is 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:47.320 a classic example of national and global views on climate 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:50.960 change and the local impacts that building this clean energy 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:55.479 supply chain will cause. UM. So locally, people some people 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:58.799 really support this mind UM support this project. They support 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:01.960 the jobs and that can mac benefit that will come 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:07.200 UM and certainly environmental groups see benefit from mining lithium 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:11.599 and producing these batteries as a key climate policy. People 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:15.760 near the mind they'll have these concerns about well, mining 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:18.000 is destructed to the land. I mean, first of all, 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:22.279 it's scooping up earth and it's destroying, you know, impacting 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:26.279 certain habitats. Uh. There's a concern, a big concern about 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:29.840 water about UM, what happens if the water gets contaminated. 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:33.440 There's not a whole lot of water in this area. UM, 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.400 A lot of it is already allocated for agriculture and 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.599 is drinking water. There's a concern about the water table 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:43.120 possibly dropping as a result of this and and killing 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:47.640 off some wild rye that cattle depend on. And then 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:50.960 there's a concern about just the whole processing side of it. 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:53.760 Bringing in sulfur, which is key to their process of 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:56.520 actually extracting the lithium. They bring in sulfur, they truck 0:06:56.560 --> 0:07:00.800 it in, They produce sulfuric acid and use that acid 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:04.440 to separate the lethium from clay um and all of this, 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:07.680 you know, all of the effect that would have on air, 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:12.360 on water, on just the environment is a big concern 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:16.120 for people who um. Again, this is pretty sparsely populated. 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:19.600 It's a beautiful mountain pass people. A lot of people 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:22.080 don't want to see that um turn into a mine. 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:26.560 And specifically I want to focus on cattle because one 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:29.360 of the plaintiffs who is suing to block this mind 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.160 is a guy by the name of Edward Bartel. He 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:35.160 is a rancher in this area that you spoke to. 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:38.280 And another one of his co plaintiffs is a group 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:41.360 called Great Basin Resource Watch, which is an environmentalist group. 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:45.520 So we have ranchers and environmentalists on the same side 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:49.920 of a lawsuit. That's pretty unusual. Tell me about Bartel, who, 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:52.240 who is he and what are his arguments? Why? Why 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:55.000 is he involved in the suit? Yeah? So every Bartel 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:58.600 has been a cattle rancher, rancher in that area, uh 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:02.040 since two thousand eight, and he's been his family has 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:04.240 been ranching for generations in that in that part of 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:08.720 the country, and he's concerned about impacts the water and 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.720 air in that area. And specifically with the water. I mean, 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:15.960 he's very familiar with what it takes to raise cattle. 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:19.360 He has about five dred cows um that he puts 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:21.640 up on blm land above the Mind and then and 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:24.040 then he brings them down onto his ranch, which is 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:26.720 a little bit below the Mind, but very close to it. 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:30.920 And he's concerned about um the water quality and the 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:35.840 water table potentially dropping as the Mind withdraws water, which 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:40.640 again is already allocated the minus purchased water rights from 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:43.920 a neighboring ranch. But he's still concerned that even though 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:46.120 they're using the same amount of water that's what the 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:48.959 company says they're going to do, that that could affect 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:52.440 his water supply, which then affects the rye that just 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.760 naturally grows on his property, which then could affect his 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:58.960 cattle that that feed us. So it's a very um 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:02.760 he see it as a threat. Yeah, you spoke to 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:05.800 Bartel and one of his neighbors, Gen williams Uh, and 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:10.120 he talked about, you know what happens if the projections 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.840 on the water here are wrong. Let's hear from him. 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:16.200 And so if we get this wrong, if we have 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:20.160 a four hundred foot tall mountain a waste here, and 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:23.600 that starts leaching into the groundwater. What do you do 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:27.280 at that point? It's not like you can instantly move 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:31.280 that mountain a waste And everybody says, oh, this is wonderful. 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:34.240 We're going to give three hundred jobs. What about our 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:39.679 three hundred jobs and our private property and all the 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:45.240 farmers and their families and the employees that benefit out here. 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:49.080 I bet we got more than three hundred, all right. 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:52.040 And then let's get to another stakeholder here, which are 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:54.560 the nearby tribal lands. And this is where things get 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:58.160 really ambiguous. Um, can you talk about the tribes and 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:03.199 their interests here and who among them are opposing this mine? Sure? So? 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:07.760 About fifty miles north of the proposed mind the for 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:13.079 the Fort McDermott tribe um is a relatively small reservation. 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.800 It's about five people who lived there. Um. Their main 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:21.560 concern is, um that they weren't consulted about this mind 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:24.559 quite frankly. I mean that the Trump administration had approved 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:29.280 it in January one, just days before leaving office, and 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:32.440 the Biden administration has defended the project and backed backed 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:36.319 up that approval. But they're concerned about again impacts the 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:41.079 water air. They see this um Mountain Pass where the 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:44.920 mind would go as sacred to their ancestors. They also 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:48.360 are concerned about this massacre that took place in eighteen 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:52.640 sixty five that they say happened on the mountain Pass 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:56.080 or near the mountain Pass, and and they see a 0:10:56.240 --> 0:11:00.760 long history of mining in this area, contaminate, eating the 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:05.560 water and the land, and they they don't believe the 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:10.680 promises that the lithium company UM has made about being 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:13.080 a good steward of the land. Yeah, and one of 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:16.000 the people that you spoke with is Deronda Hinckley, who's 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:19.720 twenty four year old tribal activist, and you know, speaking 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:21.959 of water, she's very, very concerned about how this will 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:25.040 impact water. Let's hear from her. But yeah, the environmental 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:29.560 impacts of water, we're really concerning, just because you know, 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:32.040 this is a high desert ecosystem. If you look at it, 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:35.200 there's not much water already. And if there is water, 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:39.000 it's mostly groundwater. And we all know the story of groundwater. 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:41.760 It's gonna get polluted, you know, it gets in those aquifers, 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:44.920 that's it. You could like really damage it for that 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:47.400 years and years and years and so that was like 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:50.480 a big one. And like in our ceremonies and stuff, 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:52.920 we pray to water, we pray with water, and so 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:56.599 like that was one of my core like values. Just 0:11:56.720 --> 0:12:00.320 the overlap between the cultural and environmental I mean absolutely, yeah. 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:04.640 I tell people that your environmental concerns are cultural concern us. 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:23.280 Like there is a like, I don't see the line. 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:27.720 There are also people in the you know, tribal administration 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:29.679 who are concerned about what happens if the mind doesn't 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:32.440 get built. Uh, can you tell me a little bit 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:35.920 about that. You spoke with one person, Maxine red Star, 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:41.680 the cheerwoman of the four McDermott put shone tribal council. Um, 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:45.760 she's really worried about, you know, the other side of 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:49.439 this coin. What's what's what are her concerns? Yeah, Maxine 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:53.320 came into office, by the way, just a few weeks 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:56.240 before this mine was approved and said she found out 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:59.680 about it a few weeks after was approved from an 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:02.800 angry tribal member and claims that she didn't really fully 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:06.120 understand the scope of the project. But you know, she 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:11.120 said she she took um a collaborative approach with the 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:13.280 Bureau of Land management and wanted to sit down with 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:16.760 officials and understand it. And she said she gained assurances 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:20.559 that this mine would be well regulated, would not impact 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:24.800 the environment unlike previous mining in the area. And to her, 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:29.760 you know, she wants to create economic opportunity for the 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:32.800 next generation of tribal members who live on that reservation. 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:36.800 There's not a whole lot around aside from a few 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:41.400 rest stops, gas stations. There's a small casino nearby, and 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:43.880 there's just you know, she says that she's gotten calls 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.160 from people who live across the country, members who had 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.320 to leave the reservation who now want to come back 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:51.920 and work at work at this mine, and she thinks 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:55.360 that it can be done in a sustainable way and 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:59.600 with about three hundred jobs full time jobs and a 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:03.080 thousand construction jobs that the company has promised. You know, 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:06.959 she sees this as an opportunity that could work for 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:09.720 people who live in that area and don't you know, 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:14.000 really have a comparable job that they can go take. Yeah, 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.800 and you spoke with Maxine, of course, because this is Nevada. 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:20.440 You spoke with her in a casino and here's her 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:24.760 talking about, you know, the tension between the environment and 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:28.840 the economy. You know that one of my my councilman 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:34.080 mentioned one time. You know, we're all focused on the histories, 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:38.480 were all focused on right now, what about these young kids? 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:40.920 What about the people that are in school? We have 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:43.760 not heard what they have to say? Are yet our 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:48.280 young people are young adults, our youth, We're not We're 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:51.480 not hearing them. Those are our future. What are we 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:53.360 going to leave them? Are we going to leave them 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:56.440 with this desolate land and do nothing with that and 0:14:56.600 --> 0:15:00.320 fight you know this this corporate giant, or are gonna 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:04.800 work with that corporation and provide benefits to our young people? 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:06.880 That's going to carry us into the future, because, like 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:10.560 I said, this is where it's at. Okay, Well, there's 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:13.920 one other stakeholder here who we haven't talked about yet, 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.440 and that's Lithium America's, which is the company that wants 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:19.200 to build this mine. Um, what do they say? I 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:21.720 get the sense that their their argument, in their line 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:24.800 of thinking is just because promises were broken in the 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:27.240 past doesn't mean the promises will be broken in the future. 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:31.520 Is that a fair characterization of their you know their line? Yeah, 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:34.680 that's right. I mean, they don't shy away from talking 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:38.640 about the concerns that people have locally, and they've in fact, 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:42.040 they've said they've engaged with all the tribes in the area. 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:45.960 They've engaged with the ranching community, the people who live 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:49.840 on either side of this mountain pass, and they've been 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:53.480 engaging for years and years. They see this as a 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:56.600 mind that can be operated sustainably, as kind of a 0:15:56.640 --> 0:16:00.800 new breed of mine. UM. They mind for for about 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:03.240 four decades and then they restore the land to what 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:06.920 it was UM. And of course they also portray this 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:10.360 as as meeting the call of the Biden administration of 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:14.200 of demand for this lithium which has increased in value. 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.800 And they've been they've been working on this for more 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:20.440 than ten years UM in different you know, they've been 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:23.840 doing exploration, they've been developing it. They've been developing this 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:28.640 um extraction process UM. They've opened a new laboratory and 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:31.520 reno where they can bring people in and show them 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:34.320 how it's done. And so, you know, they would say 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:38.680 that they've they've developed this safe process UM and they've 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:41.400 put a lot of time and investment into it. They 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:43.760 point to people in the community who really support this. 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:45.400 I mean there are a lot of supporters of this 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:49.680 mind and see this as you know, necessary for local 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:52.800 economic development and also you know, the global fight against 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:56.640 climate change. Yeah, and it's worth noting here that it 0:16:56.760 --> 0:16:59.920 does seem like the environmentalists and the other people who 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:03.040 opposing this mind from a political standpoint are kind of 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:05.919 out on their own because Republicans, of course, are very 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:08.600 you know, in favor of this. But so we're Democrats, 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:10.760 not just in the Biden administration, but you talked about 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:14.360 how the Democratic governor of Nevada is also very much 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:18.399 in favor of building this mind. Both parties seem to 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:21.840 be united on this. Oh that's right. Yeah, this is 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:27.919 securing battery minerals is a bipartisan goal in Washington, and 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:30.120 that goes down to Nevada. And Nevada is a very 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:33.160 mining friendly state too. I mean, I think the Silver State, 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:35.840 the Silver state exactly. I mean, there's there's a long 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:41.520 history there of mining and permitting mining and regulating it. Um. 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:45.160 And yeah, I think I think that the Nevada officials 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:48.720 and local officials in the state see this as being 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:54.560 another boom akin to gold and silver in the past. Okay, finally, 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:58.040 let's talk about the suit Um, you know, and what 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:02.120 the status is there. It sounds like if and when 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:05.200 a judge makes a ruling on this case, mining could 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:09.640 start very very soon after that, maybe almost immediately. Um, 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:12.359 what's the status of the lawsuit? And you know, what 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:15.520 are the potential outcomes here? Yeah, so briefing in the 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:19.520 suit has finished and both parties, all parties are are 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:22.720 waiting for arguments to be scheduled, So there could be 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:25.639 some arguments coming up. Um, the judge could rule at 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:28.000 any time. And whenever the judge rules, if they rule 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:33.200 against Bartel and the tribes and the environmental groups, um, 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:37.720 mining yeah, could begin pretty immediately and Lithium America's has 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:42.320 said they fully intend to start construction, you know, whenever 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:47.640 this legal issue is resolved, and if the judge extends 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:49.560 the case in any way, I mean, the legal fight 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:52.239 could continue. Um, it's been going on for more than 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:55.639 eighteen months right now. M Bartel filed is lasted in February, 0:18:56.640 --> 0:19:00.280 so it's been a lengthy legal process and it would 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:04.359 be even longer until the judge makes a ruling either way. 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:07.760 All right. Well, that was Daniel Moore speaking with us 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:12.320 about his recent voyage to northern Nevada, Daniel, Thank you 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:16.119 so much for talking. Yeah, thanks for having me. And 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:18.160 that's it for today's episode of Parts per Billion. If 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:20.159 you want more environmental news, check us out on Twitter. 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:23.359 We used the handle at environment just that at environment. 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:26.160 I'm at David B. Schultz if you want to chat 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:28.919 with me. Today's episode of Parts for billions produced by myself, 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:31.760 David Schultz. Parts per Billion was created by Jessica Combs 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:34.960 and Rachel Daglan. Is edited by Zach Shrwood and Chuck McCutcheon. 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:38.560 Our executive producer is Josh Block. Thanks everyone for listening 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:43.240 and we'll see you next time. Have you ever thought 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.680 to yourself, how is that legal? Why is that legal? 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:49.399 Have you ever seen a big trial in the news 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:52.840 and wondered what's really happening there? Have you ever pondered 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:55.440 the question why are lawyers the way that they are? 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:58.800 And how much money do they really make? Anyway? These 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:00.840 are the things we live in. Breathe over it on 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:05.080 the Merits, Bloomberg Law's weekly legal news podcast On the 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:07.639 Merits looks into the biggest stories playing out in the 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:11.280 legal industry right now, and we feature the finest journalists 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:15.399 covering the biggest legal stories from across the Bloomberg Law newsroom. 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:18.440 You can hear it wherever fine podcasts are found. Thanks 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:19.080 for listening.