Eco-groups push for EVs, but refuse to back U.S. mining for necessary materials

(Image by Stefan Schweihofer from Pixabay)

By Bronson Winslow
Daily Caller News Foundation

Environmental advocacy groups continue to oppose mining efforts within the US, despite pushing for a green future through electric vehicles that require large amounts of copper and other mined resources.

The advocacy groups, the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Earthjustice and Center for Biological Diversity have pushed to decarbonize the grid and the auto market in the coming years, but continue to advocate against mining projects that would support the green transition. The advocacy groups on Tuesday celebrated the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Final Determination that restricted the possible mining of 1.4 billion tons of copper, gold, molybdenum, silver and rhenium, which could have provided “tens of millions” in tax dollars for the state of Alaska and helped source crucial EV materials.

The Sierra Club, NRDC, Earthjustice and Center for Biological Diversity did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for examples of a single mine in the US that they support.

In February, environmental activists threatened to stop two mining projects that were critical to Biden’s climate agenda. The groups, the Great Basin Resource Watch (GBRW), the Western Watersheds Project, Basin and Range Watch and Wildlands Defense, filed a lawsuit to block the Thacker Pass and the Rhyolite Ridge lithium mines.

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Lithium is a crucial component for electric vehicle batteries.

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The Biden administration’s push for 50% of all vehicles being electric by 2030 aligns with the advocacy groups’ mission of transitioning away from fossil fuels as a major source of energy, but both the Biden administration’s EPA and the advocacy groups have worked to restrict mining efforts within the US, most recently the Pebble Limited Partnership’s copper-heavy mine in Alaska.

A standard vehicle uses 18 to 50 pounds of copper, and an EV powered by a battery requires 85 to 183 pounds, according to the Copper Development Association. The demand for copper due to electric vehicles is expected to increase by 1,700 kilotons by 2027.

Since Biden’s land grab prevents mining on 280,000 acres in Colorado, where is he going to get the minerals for all his electric vehicles, children mining with their bare hands in the Congo?

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) October 12, 2022

The administration has canceled numerous mining efforts within the US over the past two years, opting to outsource mining efforts to other countries.In January, the Biden administration agreed to a memorandum of understanding with Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to strengthen the EV battery value chain.

Just one week prior, the administration canceled a major mining project on 200,000 acres of land in Minnesota, saying it was for water protection.

Before the administration signed the memorandum of understanding, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) found in October that Chinese lithium-ion EV batteries were possibly tainted by child labor, as the cobalt used to make the batteries is often mined by children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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