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This is a NY Times Magazine article with a colorful view of Nevada’s debates about lithium mining, heavily from a frame of view around Patrick Donnelly, the pugnacious head of the Center for Biological Diversity in Nevada. Sample:

The proposed mine, the company replied, would be in Pahrump, Nev., a town where Donnelly did his grocery shopping. The precise location was next to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, a beloved and biodiverse wetland near Donnelly’s home.

“Just saw your map,” Donnelly’s message began. “I would abandon that project right now, because you stand zero, and I mean zero, chance of getting it permitted.” He ended, “No chance that mine moves forward.” [The threats then get more specific; click to read more.]

Here are some items reported by Heatmap News as the year wraps up:

• Permian Basin methane emissions drop 26% in 2023 as new EPA rules hit.
• Biden approves 11th large-scale offshore wind project near Nantucket; construction to start in 2025.
• A large coal plant in Texas is being converted into a solar and battery power facility, financed by a federal grant.
• A surprising finding about the eco-friendliness of real vs. fake Christmas trees!

In September 2023, scientists found what could be the largest deposit of lithium in an ancient US supervolcano. Now public researchers have uncovered another untapped reservoir. It’s hiding in wastewater from Pennsylvania’s gas fracking industry.

If scientists can extract even a conservative amount of lithium from fracking wastewater in the state, they calculate it could meet more than 30 percent of the current US demand.