Biden agenda, lithium mine, tribes, greens collide in Nev.
RENO, Nev. — Opponents of the largest lithium mine planned in the U.S. have urged a federal judge in Nevada to vacate the U.S. government’s approval of the project until it completes additional environmental reviews and complies with all state and federal laws.
U.S. District Judge Miranda Du said after a three-hour hearing Thursday in Reno that she hoped to make a decision “in the next couple months” on how to proceed in the nearly 2-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 courthouse during the hearing, beating drums and waving signs at passing motorists.
Du has refused twice over the past year to grant temporary injunctions sought by tribal leaders who say the mine site is on sacred land where their ancestors were massacred by the U.S. Cavalry in 1865.
Lithium Nevada and the Bureau of Land Management say the project atop an ancient volcano is critical
to meeting the growing demand for lithium to make electric vehicle batteries — a key part of President Joe Biden’s push to expedite a transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy through a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
“It is the largest known lithium deposit of its kind,” Laura Granier, a lawyer representing the company, told Du on Thursday. “Our nation and the world will suffer if this project is delayed further.”
Opponents say it will destroy dwindling habitat for sage grouse, Lahontan cutthroat trout, pronghorn antelope and golden eagles, pollute the air and create a plume of toxic water beneath the open-pit mine deeper than the length of a football field.
“We need a smart energy future that transitions our economy from fossil fuels to renewables without sacrificing rare species in the process,” said Greta Anderson, deputy director of the Western Watersheds Project, which also petitioned in September for protection of a tiny nearby snail under the Endangered Species Act.
The Bureau of Land
Management fast-tracked the project’s approval during the final days of the Trump administration. The Biden administration continues to embrace it as part of the president’s clean energy agenda.
Demand for lithium is expected to triple by 2030 from 2020. Lithium Nevada says its project is the only one on the drawing board that can help meet the demand.
Roger Flynn, a lawyer for the Western Mining Action Project representing several environmental groups, said the agency wants the project to move forward even though it botched the environmental reviews it was determined to complete before President Donald Trump left office.
“Meanwhile, there will be this immediate, permanent massive environmental damage,” Flynn said.
Thursday’s hearing marked the first on the actual merits of the lawsuit filed in February 2021. It will set the legal landscape going forward after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling in Arizona that voided federal approval of a copper mine.