FORD'S FOLLY — Ford Motor Co. announced a big deal Thursday to secure critical minerals for its electric vehicle push. But the lithium mine Ford signed up to rely on is a project criticized by environmentalists for potentially eradicating a desert wildflower that only grows on a patch of federal land in Nevada, as Jael Holzman reports for POLITICO's E&E News. Ford said it signed a binding agreement to get 7,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate, a key ingredient of EV batteries, over five years from the Rhyolite Ridge project, a proposed mine in Nevada overseen by Australian mining company Ioneer Ltd. The agreement was one of several the automaker announced with mineral companies. While the agreement indicates a way Ford could one day make and sell electric vehicles with a supply chain based entirely in the United States, the response to the deal from a key mine opponent indicates the kind of criticism automakers could face from conservationists as they try to shore up electric vehicle supplies from U.S. mines. “Ford is buying extinction,” said Patrick Donnelly , Great Basin director for the Center for Biological Diversity, which has fought Ioneer for years to protect the rare flower, Tiehm's buckwheat. Read more from Jael here . MAJOR QUESTIONS MULTIPLY — The fallout from last month's Supreme Court decision striking down carbon dioxide regulations on power plants is spreading fast, POLITICO's Alex Guillén reports. The decision, which deemed EPA action on power plant emissions a "major question" that Congress hadn't delegated to the agency, has cast uncertainty on federal policies on abortion, immigration, corporate disclosures, highway planning, asbestos, nuclear waste and even amateur auto racing. Just in the past two weeks, people have deployed the doctrine against high-profile Biden-era rulemakings, including a climate disclosure rule from the Securities and Exchange Commission, a highway emissions proposal from the Transportation Department and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s long-running deliberations about how to factor greenhouse gases into its permitting decisions. Areas of policy where Congress deliberated but failed to act might be particularly vulnerable. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is applying that argument to EPA’s proposed asbestos ban — even though regulating cancer-causing substances is the kind of task that the agency has carried out for decades. Alex has a lot more here .
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