Joe Biden, the President of the US, is relying on a law from the Cold War period to boost the creation of minerals, including lithium, that will power EVs. However, experts claim that the move alone is not likely to confirm the robust local mining that Biden looks for while promoting cleaner sources of energy.
Biden’s action comes in his bids to discover fossil fuel alternatives and address climate change. As per a White House statement, the act does not suspend or waive existing labor and environmental standards or address the long-drawn process required to get a federal government permit for mines. The process is the main hurdle to more extraction of critical minerals in the US.
Even so, supporters in US Congress and the mining sector cheered the use of Biden of the Defense Production Act of 1950 to boost American supplies of nickel, lithium and other mineral types required for EV batteries and alternative renewable energy technology.
National Mining Association President cum CEO Rich Nolan described Biden’s executive order as a historic White House step to identify why minerals matter and a push to make the car sector electric. However, as per Nolan, failing to approve fresh hardrock mining locations and keep building on the action, runs the risk of feeding the dominance that geopolitical rivals like Russia and China have over the minerals.
Nolan said that the US has mineral resources in abundance and needs policy to confirm that it can not only produce the resources but also build the reliable and secure supply chains.
Environmentalists, meanwhile, wonder whether the US president is making a wartime tool active to improve mineral extraction, which can not only contaminate groundwater but also damage wildlife and ranching.
Earthworks Policy Director Lauren Pagel recommends against using dirty mining as a basis for the renewable energy transition. For your information, Earthworks is an environmental organization, which has made an effort for stronger hardrock mining restrictions.
The order from Biden directs the Department of Defence to consider lithium, graphite, cobalt, manganese and nickel at the least. Those five metals are essential for national security. The order also authorizes measures to boost domestic supplies. Donald Trump and Biden tried to accelerate the national response to this pandemic with the aforesaid law during their presidency periods.
Biden wishes to confirm that the nation has enough minerals required for electric vehicle batteries, large-capacity batteries and heat pumps for the grid. The bulk of international lithium creation comes from Australia, Chile, Argentina and China. On the other hand, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is still the largest cobalt source in the world, and Russia continues to dominate the international nickel market.
Biden stated that the US should end its long-term dependence on other nations for input that would power its future. At the same time, Biden vows to use all tools at his disposal to end the aforementioned.
Lithium reserves may be widely distributed across the world, but there is only a single active lithium mining location in the US. New and prospective lithium mining projects are still in many different development phases in Maine, Nevada, California and North Carolina. Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom of California has compared the state to Saudi Arabia when it comes to lithium production. Two projects in California could produce it in two years.
Until the order of Biden, the Pentagon can use millions of US dollars to back an array of activities. The activities include feasibility analysis to not only determine whether a proposed mining location is economically viable but also develop programs for the process of recycling mineral waste. The Pentagon stated that money could also aid industrial sites, including existing mines, in producing valuable materials. For instance, it is also possible to produce nickel with a new copper mine.
The amount of money available for the mining purpose is not clear, but the department can set as much as $750 million aside for its critical and strategic material stockpile.
Senator Catherine Marie Cortez Masto described Biden’s order as a good measure toward expanding the nation’s EV battery production and infrastructure. However, Cortez Masto and other legislators said that the nation needs a strategy to boost the domestic critical mineral supply chain over a long time.
As for Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, if the president does not streamline permitting, no meaningful increase is likely in the US mineral production. For your information, Barrasso is the top Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee member from the Republican Party. At a committee hearing in the recent past, Barrasso encouraged Biden to resist mining opponents from his political party.
Representative Raul Grijalva of Arizona described Biden’s order as being misguided. Grijalva said that it is not right to fast-track mining when there are outdated standards that pose a permanent damage threat to public health, sacred sites and wilderness.
Grijalva and Senator Martin Heinrich introduced legislation for modernizing the law from 1872 governing the hardrock mining process in the nation.
Grijalva said that the present mining law in the nation was instated before the advent of the electric car. As for Grijalva, it is not against the industry or not extreme to make the law from 1872 modern but rather sensible.
Heinrich and Grijalva said that mining organizations have extracted minerals such as gold, copper, silver and others worth billions from federal pieces of land over the last 150 years for free in US federal royalties. The bill from the House would set 8% as a royalty for existing mining operations and a royalty of 12.5% on new operations. It would also establish the so-called Hardrock Mining Reclamation Fund in order to cause the industry to pay for abandoned mine site cleanup.
As per data from the Environmental Protection Agency, hardrock mining drainage contaminated around 40% of western US watersheds. Several nickel, lithium, cobalt and copper reserves are situated inside 35 miles of tribal land.
Indigenous people who live around a Nevada-based proposed mine for lithium, assailed the order of Biden.