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| | | | | |  | | By Jordan Wolman, Lorraine Woellert and Catherine Boudreau |
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The Salton Sea, green energy’s savior? | (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Photo) | BATTERIES REQUIRED — The critical minerals needed to power the green economy promised by President Joe Biden are fast becoming a headache for his administration. The problem isn’t finding the stuff. It’s digging it up. Lithium is a key component of the high-density, rechargeable batteries that power electric cars and solar operations, and other green tech. Fortunately, the U.S. has about 9 percent of the world’s known lithium reserves. Unfortunately, the country has only one operating lithium mine. Given growing public concern about climate change, mining lithium might sound like a no-brainer. But the material comes with its own environmental challenges. Metals mining is among the most toxic industries in the U.S., and among all minerals, lithium poses the biggest environmental risk. Mining it requires large quantities of water, and producing a ton of lithium carbonate causes three times the emissions of producing a ton of steel, according to the International Energy Agency. “It’s considered worse than oil and gas from an environmental perspective,” said Jordy Lee , a program manager at the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines. “It’s a weird mess of a problem.” Biden is eager to show that he’s making headway on meeting lithium demand. In December, the administration highlighted mining projects planned in Nevada and North Carolina as evidence of that progress. But those sites and others are no sure thing. State and local leaders have thrown up legal and legislative obstacles, citing environmental risk. Activists have set up camp on a lithium deposit in protest. Some community leaders have used local zoning ordinances to put the brakes on mining companies. So even as Americans, in poll after poll, demand action on climate change, some communities are just saying no to lithium mines. “I don’t know how to bring people along,” said Eric Norris, president of the lithium unit at Albemarle Corp., which runs the lone U.S. lithium mine in Silver Peak, Nev. “There is a difference between what at the federal level we know needs to happen and the state level what people are willing to tolerate.” Jordan has lots of good detail here. Meanwhile, in Mozambique, Tesla is on the hunt for non-Chinese graphite for its batteries, the AP reports. | | | If you haven’t visited the Salton Sea in Southern California, Lorraine highly recommends the trip. Got travel tips? Send them to lwoellert@politico.com and cboudreau@politico.com. Find us on Twitter @ceboudreau and @Woellert . FOMO? Sign up for The Long Game. Thanks to Christopher Cadelago, Jonathan Custodio and Thomas Frank for the helping hand today.
| | | | BECOME A GLOBAL INSIDER: The world is more connected than ever. It has never been more essential to identify, unpack and analyze important news, trends and decisions shaping our future — and we’ve got you covered! Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Global Insider author Ryan Heath navigates the global news maze and connects you to power players and events changing our world. Don’t miss out on this influential global community. Subscribe now. | | | | | | | | THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT — Corporate executives are gung-ho on the economic outlook. Meeting their net-zero commitments, not so much. A global survey of 4,446 CEOs by accounting giant PwC found that only one in three identified climate change as a top concern for the coming year, reflecting a belief that it won’t affect revenue growth in the near term. Fewer than one in four said their companies had pledged to reach net-zero emissions. Such promises were more common in the energy and power sectors and at large companies, the annual survey found. Consumers and investors gripe that some climate pledges amount to little more than feel-good advertising. They might be right. While 63 percent of CEOs cited climate risk as the top reason behind their net-zero commitments, nearly as many — 61 percent — said they were “meeting customer expectations” when they issued their pledges. “Taking action to address climate change is increasingly central to a company’s brand,” PwC wrote. Another executive survey, this one from the National Association of Corporate Directors, ranked climate change pretty low on a list of concerns, behind hiring, cybersecurity, inflation, and mergers and acquisitions. | | | PLASTIC, PARIAH — Federal efforts to reduce plastic waste are going exactly nowhere in Congress, but state lawmakers will be busy this year enacting their own policies. New Jersey is on track to become the third state to require that bottles and bags be made with a certain amount of recycled plastic, glass or paper. The state Legislature last week sent a bill to Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, which he’s expected to sign. Beginning in 2024, plastic bottles, bags and other containers in New Jersey would need to contain between 5 percent and 15 percent recycled material, an amount that would increase over time. The measure also would ban the use of plastic foam packaging. Some of New Jersey’s neighbors might be next. Recycling officials from 11 states, including Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Vermont, have circulated model legislation for plastic and glass. They’re seeking public comment on the measure through next month. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wants companies — not taxpayers — to cover the cost of recycling. The Democratic governor, in her inaugural State of the State speech this month, proposed an extended producer responsibility program for packaging. The goal is to slash the amount of waste going to landfills. The program would lift New York climate goals, too, Hochul said, because the solid waste sector is responsible for 12 percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. Refresher: California and Washington already have enacted recycling mandates similar to New Jersey’s. Maine and Oregon last year became the first states to enact extended producer responsibility laws that require companies to pay packaging fees and invest in recycling. At least eight other states, including California and New York, could move extended producer responsibility bills this year, according to the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators. One step back: For the third time during the pandemic, some municipalities are suspending waste and recycling services. Too many workers are out sick with Covid-19 as the Omicron variant spreads, the AP reports. | | | BUILD BACK BETTERISH — With little progress on Build Back Better, Biden’s signature legislation, Democrats are plotting how to run midterm campaigns without the benefit of a bill to bolster the social safety net and make generational investments to address climate change. Party leaders and campaign strategists hold out hope that the White House can revive nascent talks, but there‘s a growing sense that political inertia might well win out. On the plus side, geothermal is still looking hot. Clean energy pioneers captured the power of wind and sun. Now they want to do the same with the Earth’s own heat. JUMP-STARTING ROAD FUNDS — The internal combustion engine is at the beginning of its end. As drivers ditch their dirty tailpipes, the tax code can’t keep up, and a federal watchdog agency wants Washington to take a closer look what states are doing to replace the gasoline tax, which has funded roads and highways since 1956. A quick history lesson: Taxes levied at the pump kept the federal Highway Trust Fund flush for decades. But things went south in the 1990s. Congress refused to raise the 18.4-cent-per-gallon tax and cars started getting a lot more fuel efficient, leaving the fund dry. The infrastructure bill enacted in November included a $118 billion in stopgap funding. In short, the gas tax is a relic in the making. Now 13 states, armed with some $100 million in federal grants, are experimenting with new ways to make drivers pay for the roads they use. In Oregon and Utah, car owners can opt into a system that charges them a fee for every mile they drive. Kansas and Minnesota are exploring how mileage fees might affect long-distance rural drivers. And a coalition of East Coast states is examining how to impose fees on drivers who frequently cross state lines. Some states are using smartphones and other GPS devices to track vehicle miles. Late-model cars have built-in telemetric systems that can do the counting automatically. But, privacy. Plenty of drivers don’t want governments tracking their every move, which is one reason Washington state and Hawaii are looking into the old-school odometer reading. Missouri and New Hampshire are tinkering with vehicle registration fees that would charge EV and hybrid drivers more to make up for the gas taxes they don’t pay. So what? The Federal Highway Administration is monitoring all this, but has no way to know which state programs might scale to a national level, the Government Accountability Office said in a report this month. After all that work and grant money, the agency might not be able to tell Congress what works and what doesn’t, the GAO concluded.
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A four-letter word for clean? | Robert Cianflone/Getty Images | CLEANUP ON 47 ACROSS — The New York Times last week published a correction to a crossword clue that, editors conceded, “may have implied incorrectly that coal is a viable source of clean energy.” The trouble started when Molly Fisch-Friedman, an analyst at the environmental group Climate Nexus, began fuming about 47 across. The clue: “Greener energy source.” The answer: “clean coal.” Incredulous, Fisch-Friedman took to Twitter to tell the newspaper to “do better.” That set off a cascade of complaints. Our friends at E&E have the gritty detail. Still confused about “clean coal”? The Department of Energy last year abolished the Office of Clean Coal and Carbon Management established under President Donald Trump. And the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity recently changed its name to America’s Power. Speaking of coal, GreenPower Motor Co. said it will build zero-emission school buses in West Virginia after the state agreed to spend at least $15 million buying the vehicles. Manufacturing is set to begin this year. As of 2020, West Virginia was the second-largest coal producer in the U.S., and coal-fired plants generated 88 percent of the state’s electricity, according to the Energy Information Administration. | | | — “Chinatown”, the movie inspired by California’s shadowy water cabals, was set in 1937. But the water wars are still being fought. The latest skirmish has Nebraska and Colorado duking it out over the South Platte River, The Colorado Sun reports.
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