Environmentalists and Native Americans will argue before a U.S. appeals court on Tuesday against the progress of a Biden-backed lithium mine in Nevada, according to The Associated Press.
The Biden administration’s shift away from fossil fuels and support of lithium and copper mining has received backlash from environmentalists and Native Americans for almost two years. Last year, the administration’s efforts to construct a copper mine in Arizona were shot down, according to the AP; those in opposition are hoping for a similar outcome on Tuesday after they contest efforts to move forward with the construction of a lithium mine in Nevada, and plan to extract the lithium and use it to produce electric vehicle batteries.
Lithium Americas, the Canadian mining company heading the project, will be present in court, along with environmentalists, Native Americans, the U.S. government, and a rancher from Nevada, who will speak before a three-judge panel during the Tuesday hearing in California. The appeal stemmed from the blocking of a mine in Arizona in 2021, and the need for Lithium Americas to prove to the 9th Circuit that there are valuable minerals within the lands of Nevada in order to extend the construction.
WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 13, 2021: Climate Activists Continue Protests Outside White House (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The Thacker Pass Mine project began in March, following a denied request by those in opposition for the court to intervene in the project. Since then, tribal leaders have been leading activists to protest, and some protesters have been arrested. Lithium Americas has filed a lawsuit to prevent trespassing and to obtain a protective order to ban the protesters and continue the project, according to the AP.
“Our people couldn’t return to Thacker Pass for fear of being killed in 1865, and now in 2023 we can’t return or we’ll be arrested,” said Bethany Sam, relative of a massacre victim and a spokesperson for the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony. “Meanwhile, bulldozers are digging our ancestors’ graves up.”
Tribal leaders in opposition have made little progress in blocking the Thacker Pass Mine, which lies on the Oregon line and is on the land where hundreds of Native Americans were killed by the U.S. Calvary in 1865, the AP reported. (RELATED: Biden Blocks Oil, Gas Leases In Large New Mexico Region At Request Of Native American Tribes)
Lithium Americas claims the Thacker Pass Mine would provide lithium for over 1.5 million electric vehicles per year for 40 years and help Biden reach his goal of making half of all new vehicles electric by 2023, according to the AP.
“There are no other U.S. alternatives to Thacker Pass to provide lithium at the scale, grade, or timeline necessary to begin closing the gap between the lithium available and the lithium needed to achieve the U.S.’s clean energy and transportation goals,” Lithium America’s lawyers said in briefs filed with the 9th Circuit, according to the AP.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) allowed the construction of the mine to progress under the Trump administration, and the Biden administration has upheld the effort. “The BLM has admitted that the Thacker Pass mine will have multifaceted impacts to groundwater, sage grouse, golden eagles, wetlands, visual and other resources, yet permitted the project based on a flawed environmental review,” co-founder of Basin and Range Watch, and plaintiff Kevin Emmerich said.
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