There is a (super nutty) environmentalist group and some Native Americans protesting and trying to delay the mine, but it looks like they have so far been unsuccessful at convincing judges, and blockers have been getting cleared out.
I consider myself an environmentalist, so I'm a bit sensitive about descriptions like "nutty environmentalist", but... the group protesting the Thacker Pass mine is weird and I think largely repudiated by other environmentalists. I mean, they're trying to stop the transition to clean energy. These guys advocate for total deindustrialization, return to a pre-agriculture way of life, only as many humans as the hunter-and-gatherer lifestyle can support, and they're... deeply anti-trans?
They should start reducing the population with themselves, obviously
I agree it will have limits, I doubt I'll see long flights like 200 miles. But I see no reason it can't improve by 10% a year just like the batteries. I believe the ones in service are using lfp batteries, which are safer than lithium batteries, but also have lower energy density - and these have gone up over time too in energy density.
It does unfortunately mean that you need to excavate a lot to mine it which is not great for the environment either (even though lithium is currently key to most renewable technologies)
The lithium mine in question is 0.22%, doesn't seem like your range is that typical.
It could make sense in some very specific situations, but that really depends on the details.
Also there’s a lawsuit ongoing here with Native Americans suing to stop any mining. I suspect that there’s going to be a lot of pressure to not start a mine because of how destructive they are to the environment. At the same time, I’m pretty sure the mine will happen. However, at that point you want to have the highest price of lithium possible and this is a substantial amount of lithium that would be coming on the market which would counteract any price growth.
Exactly my point. All other extraction industries in America are grandfathered in from before NEPA, before anyone gave a damn that a dead guy from the far past thought the stones were holy. America is paralyzed by its own legal system which can be wielded as a weapon by any bad-faith actor who doesn't want electrification to happen.
I’m not aware of any serious challenge to the construction of this mine.
Sure, there may be governmental red tape (eg environmental assessment impact studies and whatnot) but most “no build” laws I believe would be at the state not federal level. Federal environmental legislation itself tends to be quite conservative. There’s an argument to be made the administrative state sets up additional regulations but in this specific case I believe the Trump administration was in favor and the Biden administration never changed course so I suspect the EPA doesn’t have any major objections (not sure if it really passes regulations or if there’s just selective enforcement in favor of the mine)
[1] https://www.nevadacurrent.com/2023/12/07/nv-tribes-will-not-...
Your argument would be stronger about the Maine mine but this mine was approved in 2021 and afaik production is ongoing.
The mining is being done by the Chinese as Lithium Americas’ majority owner is a Chinese company. GM has already invested 650M to get access to the mine. This does not seem like the right hill to argue about bureaucratic lethargy. And again, I don’t see how any of this has any relevance as to whether America has the capability to build and run a lithium mine - we do. We may not have refining capabilities (not sure - haven’t researched) but that’ll come online once we have significant mining operations.
At the end of the day, you don’t want to mine too aggressively because you’ll shoot yourself in the foot economically. The US has some of the largest lithium reserves in the world. This mine alone would represent 25% of the world’s current production capacity. Ignoring environmental damage from mining (which is quite considerable), if you bring it online too quickly you’ll lose out on a lot of money which is probably a larger factor than anything else.
Making a new house used to actually cost less than buying an existing one. Today, the calculation has changed, and it is more expensive, mostly because of the labor costs. They're only able to build in areas where there are fewer available jobs so there's no price pressure.
Literally people leaving the skilled trades because job pricing pressure to work somewhere else. I've even met jr developers that used to be electricians. It's going to be hard to "remember" the trades.
Permits are taking 5 years in esoteric oddball projects. The reality is a permit for a SFH takes a few months to get approved, even less for ADUs.
The driving force behind high construction prices is soft costs and contractor profits. Labor costs in construction have been roughly inline with overall labor inflation across all industries. See https://twitter.com/FactChecker23/status/1730738575292113347...
Also, I think the state has taken some positive action against NIMBY legislation but it will be a long fight to undo it. If things keep going SF is likely to run afoul of the build-positive regulations and end up suing the state/developers to fight needing to be in compliance. But again don’t see the relevance of California housing which is a municipal / state level issue to mining in Nevada on federal lands.
https://www.agc.org/sites/default/files/Files/Communications...
Wow you're waaaay off. As someone in this industry I am acutely aware of how way off base you are.
Look at answers 4 - 10, the rest of it backs this up too.
I just got a recent permit done in 5 months - plan, submit, approval (submit->approval was 3). ADUs in CA are mandated at 60 days max for approval
Also, outside of CA approvals in some jurisdictions are weeks: https://www.reddit.com/r/Homebuilding/comments/sk3bd2/how_lo...
There's an argument to be made that the tradeoffs are worth it in this case, but you don't seem to be making an argument so much as completely dismissing groups of locals and environmentalists who have a number of valid concerns.