{"id":5615,"date":"2021-07-15T19:17:53","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T19:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5615"},"modified":"2021-07-15T19:17:53","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T19:17:53","slug":"bidens-green-agenda-meets-environmental-red-tape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5615","title":{"rendered":"Biden&#8217;s Green Agenda Meets Environmental Red Tape"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\n\n&#8220;One test is unfolding in Nevada in<a href=\"https:\/\/news.bloomberglaw.com\/us-law-week\/u-s-lithium-production-hinges-on-a-mine-or-wildflower-decision\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&nbsp;a fight over a planned lithium mine<\/a>&nbsp;and a rare desert wildflower. A mining company, ioneer Ltd., has proposed building a large-scale lithium-boron mine in western Nevada (the first of its kind in the United States) to supply materials for electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines, and other clean-energy technologies. If approved, the mine could quadruple domestic lithium production and help build 400,000 electric cars each year, according to the company&#8217;s estimates, helping to advance Biden&#8217;s goal &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/statements-releases\/2021\/03\/31\/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">to win the EV market<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But a rare plant may stop the project from breaking ground. The site is also home to<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/05\/10\/cars\/evs-species-extinct-nevada\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&nbsp;Tiehm&#8217;s buckwheat<\/a>, a pale yellow wildflower that is only found on a 10-acre patch of lithium-rich soil within the project area. Last year, the Center for Biological Diversity, a litigious environmental group,<a href=\"https:\/\/biologicaldiversity.org\/w\/news\/press-releases\/lawsuit-seeks-emergency-protections-rare-nevada-wildflower-2020-09-29\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&nbsp;sued<\/a>&nbsp;the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, demanding emergency protections for the buckwheat to block the mine. On Thursday, in response to a court order, the service&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sierranevadaally.org\/2021\/06\/03\/tiehms-buckwheat-to-be-protected-under-the-endangered-species-act\/?fbclid=IwAR2bN_sFiZVgNeLjeWJ3-0TaItVJjwwJk3sbhzQ3mKCMfcXdy8ZII6r9IGE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">proposed<\/a>&nbsp;listing the buckwheat under the Endangered Species Act. The Biden administration now has until September 30 to issue a proposed rule to protect the plant, which could all but doom the lithium mine.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s a familiar story: A tangled web of environmental laws and regulations gives litigious groups ample opportunities to stall development projects or thwart them altogether. That strategy works well when environmentalists&#8217; goal is to stop things from happening, but it&#8217;s<a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/blog\/the-avenue\/2021\/05\/13\/environmental-permitting-might-block-bidens-clean-energy-targets\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&nbsp;likely to be a major obstacle<\/a>&nbsp;to building the infrastructure and technological capacity to achieve Biden&#8217;s clean-energy vision, which will require many new mining operations, solar and wind farms, transmission lines, and other forms of development.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-wordpress wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-reason-com\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"pHz8nJhqtX\"><a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2021\/06\/07\/bidens-green-agenda-meets-environmental-red-tape\/\">Biden&#8217;s Green Agenda Meets Environmental Red Tape<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Biden&#039;s Green Agenda Meets Environmental Red Tape&#8221; &#8212; Reason.com\" src=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2021\/06\/07\/bidens-green-agenda-meets-environmental-red-tape\/embed\/#?secret=hbpRsqGOH5#?secret=pHz8nJhqtX\" data-secret=\"pHz8nJhqtX\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;One test is unfolding in Nevada in a fight over a planned lithium mine and a rare desert wildflower. A mining company, ioneer Ltd., has proposed building a large-scale lithium-boron mine in western Nevada (the first of its kind in the United States) to supply materials for electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines, and other clean-energy technologies. If approved, the mine could quadruple domestic lithium production and help build 400,000 electric cars each year, according to the company&#8217;s estimates, helping to advance Biden&#8217;s goal &#8220;to win the EV market.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But a rare plant may stop the project from breaking ground. The site is also home to Tiehm&#8217;s buckwheat, a pale yellow wildflower that is only found on a 10-acre patch of lithium-rich soil within the project area. Last year, the Center for Biological Diversity, a litigious environmental group, sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, demanding emergency protections for the buckwheat to block the mine. On Thursday, in response to a court order, the service proposed listing the buckwheat under the Endangered Species Act. The Biden administration now has until September 30 to issue a proposed rule to protect the plant, which could all but doom the lithium mine. <\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a familiar story: A tangled web of environmental laws and regulations gives litigious groups ample opportunities to stall development projects or thwart them altogether. That strategy works well when environmentalists&#8217; goal is to stop things from happening, but it&#8217;s likely to be a major obstacle to building the infrastructure and technological capacity to achieve Biden&#8217;s clean-energy vision, which will require many new mining operations, solar and wind farms, transmission lines, and other forms of development.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[217,165,103,780,236,551],"class_list":["post-5615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-economics","tag-economy","tag-environment","tag-joe-biden","tag-regulation","tag-regulations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5616,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5615\/revisions\/5616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}