Free Republic

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....

"Each mine usually consists of thirty-five to forty humongous 797 Caterpillar haul trucks along with hundreds of other large equipment," he writes. "Each 797 uses around half a million gallons of diesel a year. So, with an inventory of just thirty-five the haul trucks alone are using 17.5 million gallons of fuel a year for just one lithium site." A typical EV battery, Stein notes, weighs 1,000 pounds, contains 25 pounds of lithium, 60 pounds of nickel, 44 pounds of manganese, 30 pounds of cobalt, 200 pounds of copper and 400 pounds of aluminum, steel and plastic. Inside are over...

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...

Politicians are demanding that the U.S. become more self-sufficient in crucial metals and minerals, but then they block domestic mining at every opportunity. Alaska’s Pebble Mine project is the latest to join the casualty list. The Pebble site holds an estimated $300 billion to $500 billion in mineral resources and could be one of the world’s largest suppliers of copper and gold. Electric cars as well as wind and solar power require enormous amounts of copper. Investors have invested nearly $1 billion on exploration, engineering and studies to meet regulatory demands. Yet last week the Biden Environmental Protection Agency issued...

Geologist Matt Joeckel displays a core sample of carbonatite rock containing niobium and rare-earth elements, which was taken from a deposit near Elk Creek, Neb., in early February. (Associated Press) Elk Creek, Neb. (population 112), may not be so tiny much longer. Reports suggest that the southeastern Nebraska hamlet may be sitting on the world’s largest untapped deposit of “rare earth” minerals, which have proved to be indispensable to a slew of high-tech and military applications such as laser pointers, stadium lighting, electric car batteries and sophisticated missile-guidance systems.Canada-based Quantum Rare Earths Developments Corp. last week received preliminary results...

The mining company that wants to extract a rare heat-resistant element from the ground under southeast Nebraska says a new report shows the deposit it plans to mine holds a significant amount of other rare elements. NioCorp Developments said Thursday that the latest analysis shows the amount of rare earth elements present where it plans to build the mine about 80 miles south of Omaha near the town of Elk Creek is the second-largest deposit in the United States. The Centennial, Colorado-based company estimates that there are 632.9 kilotons of rare earth elements there. Those elements are needed to make...

President Biden has signed an order authorizing the military to once again deploy hundreds of Special Operations forces inside Somalia — largely reversing the decision by President Donald J. Trump to withdraw nearly all 700 ground troops who had been stationed there, according to four officials familiar with the matter. In addition, Mr. Biden has approved a Pentagon request for standing authority to target about a dozen suspected leaders of Al Shabab, the Somali terrorist group that is affiliated with Al Qaeda, three of the officials said. Since Mr. Biden took office, airstrikes have largely been limited to those meant...

Experts: U.S. could enter the lithium market in a very big way. U.S. must reduce its reliance on lithium imports from the lithium triangle. Geothermal technologies could unlock large lithium deposits in the U.S The US could enter the lithium market in a very big way. At least, that’s what some experts are claiming. The global demand for lithium is on the rise, especially in the US. This should come as no surprise, as lithium-ion batteries are essential to electric vehicles and energy storage. Still, the question remains: is the US capable of breaking its reliance on lithium imports from...

You can always count on government to make things more expensive when they claim they want to help make things more affordable. For example, President Biden and his green commandos are helping drive critical electric battery component LITHIUM through the roof! Lithium hydroxide futures prices are through the roof making already expensive electric cars even MORE expensive. So much for making electric cars affordable! Of course, The Federal government will now have to subsidize GM and Ford and increase Federal tax credits to encourage consumers to purchase outrageously expensive electric cars. Thanks Joe for issuing your enactment of the Defense...

Downside of Electric VehiclesAn electric vehicle requires six times the mineral inputs of a comparable internal combustion engine vehicle, according to the International Energy Agency.At one time, “Saving the Environment” and “Fighting Climate Change” were synonymous. That is no longer true. The quest for Clean Energy through electric vehicles (EVs) epitomizes “the end justifies the means.”According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), an electric vehicle requires six times the mineral inputs of a comparable internal combustion engine vehicle (ICE). EV batteries are very heavy and are made with some exotic, expensive, toxic, and flammable materials.The primary metals in EV batteries...

[NOTE: Rio Tinto Group is the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation] LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) - Rio Tinto on Friday said climate change was central to its new strategy at its first in-person annual general meeting (AGM) in two years in London, after shareholders demanded the miner set clear targets to cut indirect emissions. Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm said the company had committed to increasing research spending to develop technologies enabling its customers to decarbonise, and highlighted its investments in renewable power. "Climate change... is the defining issue for our age, and is at the heart of our new...

House Republicans have called on Hunter Biden to testify before Congress later this week, according to a letter from a senior House Republican. "House Committee on Oversight and Reform Republicans request the attendance and testimony of Hunter Biden," Ranking Member James Comer said in a letter to House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney. The committee hearing, titled "It’s Electric: Developing the Postal Service Fleet of the Future," is scheduled for Tuesday, April 5.

resident Joe Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg were roundly mocked by conservatives last week for suggesting that working-class Americans struggling to pay the ever-climbing prices at the pump should consider simply buying an electric vehicle instead. It was the Biden-era equivalent of Marie Antoinette’s (admittedly apocryphal) adage, “Let them eat cake.” Yet this simple solution floated by Democrat elites might just be even more fantastical than expecting average Americans to be in the financial position to switch to an EV as they struggle to afford groceries. Turns out, the U.S. doesn’t only rely on Russia for oil imports —...

The U.S. aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 as part of its commitment to tackling climate change, but might be lacking the critical minerals needed to achieve its goals.The American green economy will rely on renewable sources of energy like wind and solar, along with the electrification of transportation. However, local production of the raw materials necessary to produce these technologies, including solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles, is lacking. Understandably, this has raised concerns in Washington.In the graphic below, based on data from the U.S. Geological Survey, Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti lists all...

MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) -- It is almost forty years since those fine falsettos, the Bee Gees, put their pop classic, “Massachusetts”, on the top of the charts. They had no idea that their lyrics might become the alleged plot of a scheme by a trio of Ukrainian metal men to steal hundreds of millions of dollars in proceeds from the processing of manganese ore, and the sale of ferromanganese, ferrosilicon, and silicomanganese to steelmakers around the world. “And the lights all went out in Massachusetts,” sang Robin and Barry Gibb. “They brought me back to see my way with you.” On...

*snip* The little-known Haiti Development Fund, an LLC incorporated in Delaware in August 2010, was created by the Clinton Foundation with an initial endowment of $20 million from shady Canadian mining mogul Frank Giustra and Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. The Fund was supposed to supply desperately needed seed money to Haitian entrepreneurs after an earthquake devastated the country in January 2010. *snip* “This cries out for an audit or an investigation,” said Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center a Virginia-based watchdog group. “Its director was in bankruptcy and there’s almost nothing in the public record showing...

OROVADA, Nev. — Max Wilbert, standing on a hill overlooking a wide plain of brush and farmland, walks over to a black banner that’s grabbed a lot of media attention. In blood-red letters, the banner reads, “Lithium Lies.” Here in Nevada, activists like Wilbert are fighting against the largest lithium mine set for development in the United States. The mine is in the final stages of permits, and the lithium pulled from the ground here could fuel batteries for electric vehicles sold in the United States. But the grassroots movement against the project has been torn apart over an unrelated...

Prelates call for unified effort in the fight against climate changeCatholic leaders in the Philippines have vowed never to accept donations from exploitative industries such as mining as part of their efforts to fight climate change. The vow came in a Jan. 28 pastoral letter issued by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). They said that church leaders should lead by example in fighting for a greener environment. “We continue to suffer in an increasingly warming world with an ailing biosphere triggered by exploitative practices that benefit the wealthy few but cause poverty and hunger to many,” the...

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — State regulators who three years ago issued an air quality permit for a proposed copper-nickel mine in northwestern Minnesota stood by their decision in a report released Monday that said the mine did not provide misleading information on its plans. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency report...does not clear the way for construction. Other major permits remain up in the air because of ongoing court cases or administrative work. Even so, PolyMet CEO Jon Cherry said the action on the air permit “moves us one big step closer” to building the estimated $1 billion mine, which...

The union representing workers at Chile’s La Escondida copper mine said its members voted to reject the most recent contract offer from the mine’s owner and go on strike, potentially risking disruptions to the supply of a key metal as the world’s economy continues to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. BHP Group Ltd. -controlled Minera Escondida, located in Chile’s northern Atacama Desert, is the world’s largest copper mine, producing almost 5% of the world’s supply of the metal, which is used to make electrical wiring and motors and in construction, among many other applications. By law, the...