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Twenty people were evacuated Wednesday night from Hanegev Street in the northern city of Haifa, after a fire broke out in the courtyard of a residential building, Behadrey Haredim reported. The initial report claimed that the fire was in the building itself, but upon firefighters' arrival at the scene, it became clear that the blaze was in the courtyard, and not in an apartment. Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics provided medical care to 20 victims. Eighteen of the victims had suffered mild injuries, while the other two were moderately injured, all of them from smoke inhalation. ..... A fire investigator...

While car makers are increasingly moving toward electric vehicles, some representatives said they believe the EU’s plan is too quick. European Union lawmakers reached a political agreement on Thursday for emissions rules that will effectively ban the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines beginning in 2035. The planned law is set to require new cars and vans to have significantly lower carbon emissions by 2030 and to reach zero emissions by 2035, adding to pressure on auto makers and suppliers to accelerate the shift away from cars that run on gasoline and toward electric vehicles. ...The legislation still...

SILVER PEAK, NV — On the edge of Western Nevada, hours from a major city and miles down private dirt roads, lies the United States' only lithium-producing plant...The scale of Silver Peak is hard to grasp from picturs. It spans 13,000 acres...Salty brine that contains lithium is pumped from between 300 and 2,000 feet underground to the surface. Then, over the course of 18 to 24 months, solar evaporation concentrates the lithium.

... “For me, playing to win also means doing things differently. Doing things that others may question, but that we believe will put us in the winner’s circle the longest,” he said Wednesday during Toyota’s annual dealer meeting in Las Vegas, which, by the way, was called “Playing to Win.” Toyoda, who described Toyota as a large department store, said the company’s goal “remains the same, pleasing the widest possible range of customers with the widest possible range of powertrains.” Those powertrains will include hybrids and plug-in hybrids like the Prius, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles like the Mirai and 15...

Conservationists are seeking Endangered Species Act protection for a tiny snail half the size of a pea that is known to exist only in high-desert springs near a huge lithium mine planned in Nevada along the Oregon state line. The Western Watersheds Project filed the listing petition last week with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the Kings River pyrg, a springsnail found in 13 isolated springs around Thacker Pass 200 miles (321 kilometers) northeast of Reno. It says the biggest threat to the snail’s survival is disruption of groundwater flows as a result of the 370-foot-deep (113-meter), open-pit...

...companies in Europe and the U.S. are furiously building dozens of gigafactories—Elon Musk’s term for massive EV battery factories. The upshot is that every $2 billion gigafactory will, over a decade of operation, purchase some $20 billion of battery minerals and materials. One might reasonably wonder: Purchase from where? And who benefits? ...companies in Europe and the U.S. are furiously building dozens of gigafactories—Elon Musk’s term for massive EV battery factories. The upshot is that every $2 billion gigafactory will, over a decade of operation, purchase some $20 billion of battery minerals and materials. One might reasonably wonder: Purchase from...

A federal judge in Los Angeles on Friday dismissed the criminal indictment against a dive boat captain charged with manslaughter in the deaths of 34 people when the vessel caught fire and sank off the California coast three years ago. The 75-foot (23-meter) Conception caught fire while most of those onboard were sleeping, killing 33 passengers and a crew member. It is considered one of California’s worst maritime disasters. U.S. District Judge George Wu said in a ruling that the indictment, handed down on December 2020 against captain Jerry Nehl Boylan by a federal grand jury, must be thrown out...

Hamden FD, Facebook photo of the burning electric bus in CT Connecticut’s governor Ned Lamont and Senator Chris Murphy spent $25.7 million on a project to replace buses with electric buses. Twelve were delivered, and one went ablaze just sitting, parked, engine turned off, and with no one in it. The federal taxpayers fully paid for the project. According to CT Insider, they received a dozen with ten more on the way, but they’re all pulled from service over the bus going ablaze due to a lithium battery fire. It’s “out of an abundance of caution,” said the spokesperson. Nothing...

Elon Musk is pleading for more investment in lithium, the silvery-white metal that's crucial to making electric-car batteries. He recently complained about the metal's "insane" costs and said anyone who enters the refining business basically gets a "license to print money." The billionaire has a point. As the auto industry shifts away from dirty fossil fuels and toward cleaner battery power, lithium is in the spotlight. Demand for the metal has skyrocketed in recent years, as has its price. Questions still remain about whether the world will manage to mine, refine, and ship enough lithium to support the green revolution...

A plan to tax lithium, which is widely used in the production of electric vehicle batteries, has been approved in California as part of the state’s efforts to generate revenue for environmental remediation projects. The decision was pushed despite reservations from players in the battery industry, some of whom argued that a lithium tax would harm the sector. Two of California’s most notable lithium companies such as Controlled Thermal Resources Ltd and EnergySource Minerals LLC have suggested that the tax could scare off potential clients. The California lithium tax was approved by Governor Gavin Newsom as part of a must-pass...

The umbrellas were produced by California-based SunVilla Corp., the news release says. They feature LED lights on the inside arms and a solar panel with a black cover at the top of the umbrella. "The lithium-ion batteries in the umbrella's solar panels can overheat, posing fire and burn hazards," the CPSC said. The umbrellas were sold at Costco warehouses and online for between $130 and $160 from December 2020 through May 2022, the CPSC said.

According to Footman James' study, reality is far different because classic cars with those evil, gas-burning engines are better for the environment than new electric vehicles. The thing is people who believe the opposite just look at tailpipe emissions, behaving as if that’s everything in the equation. They don’t consider pollution generated by the manufacturing process. In the study, Footman James mentions that in the UK a classic car on average is driven 1,200 miles a year and puts out 563 kg of CO2 as a result. But a new VW Golf is made by generating 6.8 tonnes of CO2e....

Ford Motor Co.’s hot-selling Mustang Mach-E electric SUV and other plug-in models are being rendered unprofitable by rising raw material costs. “We actually had a positive bottom line profit when we launched the Mach-E, commodity costs have wiped that out,” Chief Financial Officer John Lawler said Wednesday at the Deutsche Bank Global Automotive Conference, referring to 2020, when the vehicle went on sale. “You’re going to see pressure on the bottom line when we launch our EVs, they’re not going to be positive.”

Clash comes as global demand surges to power batteries for electric cars.. A northern Nevada mine that is the largest-known source of lithium in the United States for electric car batteries is facing resistance from a radical environmental group and some of its American Indian supporters. The mine at Thacker Pass is on Bureau of Land Management property in rural Nevada between two mountain ranges about 25 miles south of the border with Oregon. The fight reflects other political battles between liberals and far-left factions within the Democratic Party, with larger ramifications for the party’s agenda. Lithium is the key...

Top lithium producer Albemarle Corp (ALB.N) may have to shut its Langelsheim plant in Germany if the metal used in electric vehicle batteries is declared a hazardous material by the European Union, its finance chief told Reuters. Lithium's pivotal role in electric vehicles makes it an important commodity in meeting global targets to cut carbon emissions, and it was added to the EU's list of critical raw materials in 2020.

President Biden has tucked another $500 million to fund production of the minerals used to make batteries for electric cars into the Ukraine aid bill passed by Congress. Both Biden and Ukrainian leaders had said that the $40 billion emergency aid package was essential for Ukraine's war against Russia. But tucked into that package was not only military aid but half a billion dollars to be allocated under the Defense Production Act to companies obtaining critical battery minerals like nickel, cobalt, lithium and graphite, Bloomberg first noted. That's in addition to the $750 million the Defense Department (DOD) was authorized...

Battery technology is the new bull's-eye for companies striving to meet the world's growing appetite for electric vehicles. Battery companies and automakers are investing heavily to build cheaper, denser and lighter batteries. New technologies run the gamut. Some give old battery chemistries a new twist for incremental improvements. Others change the battery form factor or battery assembly for significant gains in performance or costs. In the future, radically different chemistries and other big breakthroughs are expected to emerge. "Batteries are the new gold rush as far as automakers are concerned," said Ram Chandrasekaran, a mobility analyst at Wood Mackenzie who...

Study finds that faults beneath the Salton Sea ruptured during Colorado River floods and may have triggered large earthquakes on the southern San Andreas FaultSouthern California's Salton Sea, once a large natural lake fed by the Colorado River, may play an important role in the earthquake cycle of the southern San Andreas Fault and may have triggered large earthquakes in the past. Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the University of Nevada, Reno, discovered new faults in the Salton Sea near the southern end of the San Andreas Fault. By examining...

A short film about my favorite post-apocalyptic hell-hole, the Salton Sea.

In and around the shrinking, toxic Salton Sea, there’s enough lithium to meet the United States’ entire projected demand and fuel the electric vehicle revolution. Three companies are working to demonstrate new lithium extraction technologies in the area, and if their tech works at scale, it could produce the greenest lithium that the world has ever seen.How The Troubled Salton Sea Could Become The World’s Largest Lithium Supplier | May 4, 2022 | CNBC