Sen. Cortez-Masto pressing Dems on mining
from WaPo Climate 202
| Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) has a message for her Democratic colleagues: If they want to accelerate the nation’s shift to clean energy and electric vehicles, they should embrace mining for critical minerals instead of worrying about its environmental consequences.
“If we really want to go in that direction of clean energy and reduce our carbon footprint, it starts with these critical minerals,” Cortez Masto said in a recent interview in her office. “Lithium hydroxide is key. And so we should, as a country, be making that investment.” Cortez Masto, who won reelection in a battleground state last year, has championed the clean-energy sector since coming to Congress in 2017. During the Trump administration, she helped extend tax incentives for solar energy that were later expanded by the Inflation Reduction Act. Now, the Democrat is tackling one of the thorniest debates surrounding America’s transition to clean energy: whether mining for minerals used in electric cars, solar panels and other green technologies is worth the potential harms to wildlife, ecosystems and tribal rights. The debate is augmented by growing concerns over U.S. reliance on goods from China, which accounts for more than 70 percent of EV battery production capacity globally. The issue is front and center in Nevada, which has benefited from a flurry of EV spending from the Biden administration, including: |