Permit Wars: Local Environmentalists Fight Global Climate Solutions

Not for the first time, environmentalists with a (worthy) focus on local land use issues are at odds with mining projects that appear critical to the development of clean energy and climate solutions. A recent story on a major proposed lithium mine in Nevada, excerpted here, gives the gist of this unfortunate conflict between two environmental priorities that may clash in the permitting process:

In less than half a day, you could walk all the way around the 10 acres the endemic species Tiehm’s buckwheat calls home in the Silver Peak Range of Nevada, where the small wildflower with yellow pom-poms grows in part thanks to the soil beneath it being filled with lithium and boron.

Those two minerals have attracted the attention of Ioneer LLC, a mining company, which if permitted to begin construction would destroy 22 percent of Tiehm’s buckwheat’s critical habit while degrading 100 percent of the flower’s range via dust from construction, the disruption of pollinating insects and the introduction of more invasive plant species to the area, according to a report sent to the Bureau of Land Management by environmental groups and scientists fighting to save the species from the proposed mine. The BLM is overseeing the permitting of the project given its location on public lands owned by the federal government. . . . 

The coalition’s review comes as the public comment period for the draft environmental impact statement for the Rhyolite Ridge mine comes to a close and is the latest in a years-long push to save Tiehm’s buckwheat. In 2017, Ioneer proposed mining the area, particularly for lithium, the metal critical for the energy transition needed for the batteries essential for electric vehicles and storing energy from solar and wind farms being built at scale around the country. 

In a statement, Ioneer said the mine’s plan “ensures there will be no direct impacts to Tiehm’s buckwheat subpopulations” on the 10 acres of land where Tiehm’s buckwheat is currently located and “minimized and mitigated for indirect impacts within the plant’s critical habitat”— land protected under the Endangered Species Act where the wildflower could eventually grow. The species has seen steep population declines since the mine was first proposed, due to rodents eating them, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, though environmentalists dispute that.

However, Ioneer conceded the mine “will eventually incur into roughly 21.6% of the critical habitat—but 10% will be impacted during the project’s first ten years.” The company claims it will revegetate the disturbed land with native plants, including replanting Tiehm’s buckwheat, and has spent millions of dollars in conservation efforts for the endangered species and will continue to do so. 

“Ioneer strongly believes Tiehm’s buckwheat can and will safely coexist alongside our operations,” said Chad Yeftich, Ioneer’s vice president of corporate development and external affairs.

From the get-go, the project drew scrutiny from environmentalists hoping to protect the wildflower, which led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the plant as endangered in late 2022 following a lawsuit and a public campaign supporting listing the species. Despite the listing under the Endangered Species Act, intended to prevent the species’ extinction, Tiehm’s buckwheat continued to face threats to its habitat from cattle grazing and Ioneer, which trespassed onto the wildflower’s protected habitat.

Through it all, the proposed mine has continued to move forward. The Australian mining company has secured agreements to provide lithium to automotive companies, including Toyota and Ford Motor Company, and last year received a loan of $700 million from the Department of Energy contingent on it passing its environmental review, something Donnelly said was the equivalent of the federal agency putting “their thumbs on the scale with the permitting process.”

The project is estimated to hold enough lithium for nearly 370,000 electric vehicles each year.  

The story of Rhyolite Ridge has become one of the biggest fights on how the renewable energy transition can impact intact landscapes and protected species, an issue of growing concern as the Biden administration attempts to confront climate change. 

“Our public lands have an important role to play in powering the economy of the future,” said BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning when the draft environmental impact statement for the project was released in April. “Under President Biden’s leadership, BLM continues to support the development of critical minerals to power electric vehicles, renewable energy, new technologies, and critical infrastructure.” . . .