Certainly, we are going to have to import a great deal of lithium for the battery-run green economy; although not a rare earth is still a very scarce commodity. Thank God the Canadians are working on the problem. We could mine lithium here in the USA, expecially in Nevada, but the NIMBY group have aleady won that battle, just as they have won the battle to halt the mining of rare earths.
Is it time to start ignoring (or taking out) NIMBYs yet?