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The Big Story
Top global lithium exporter weighs stricter mining rules
Lithium mining stakeholders say a new state-led effort in Chile could dissuade investment in one of the world’s richest deposits — potentially raising prices for products like electric vehicles (EVs).
The Chilean government’s plans to increase scrutiny of foreign mining activities in the region could ultimately disperse lithium production to countries with less regulation, mining executives told The Financial Times.
“If it was my money, I would explore Argentina, Brazil and Africa. You’ll get ripped off in Chile,” Daniel Jiménez, an industry consultant promoting a lithium mining project in Argentina, told the Times.
The criticism followed an April announcement from Chilean President Gabriel Boric that the government would take a majority stake in the country’s lithium industry.
Chile, the world’ssecond-largest lithium producer, is moving to control the lithium boom, which Boric said offers “the best chance we have at transitioning to a sustainable and developed economy.”
“We can’t afford to waste it,” he added.
As climate news site the Grist reported, “the policy also takes a more ambitious approach to environmental standards across the lifecycle of the industry.”
But many Chilean communities in the mining zone surrounding the lithium-rich Andean salt flats want their government to do far more to protect their homes.
While lithium is essential to the production of modern batteries, its production often damages local environments.
“The salt flats aren’t mines, they’re wetlands,” reads a statement from the Plurinational Observatory of Andean Salt Flats (OPSAL), a mostly Chilean group of Indigenous rights organizations, environmental groups and citizens councils.
The groups argued that the electric vehicle (EV) revolution risked being less about cutting climate change than about helping rich countries cut emissions.
As opposed to electric buses and trains, private electric cars are “a false solution to climate change that benefits the most polluting economies on the planet,” OPSAL argued.
Pedro Glatz, a former adviser to Chile’s environmental minister, told the Grist that Chile should consider stricter concessions from customers over how its resources are used.
“It might be a better use of that lithium to provide batteries for public transportation in the Global South, rather than to support an unsustainable lifestyle in the Global North,” Glatz said.
Regardless of complaints about new restrictions, the West will soon no longer “have much of a choice,” Patricia Vasquez, a lithium specialist at the Wilson Center, a D.C. think tank, told the Times.
“Latin America produces the only lithium that has been refined already outside of China,” she added. “That’s a big advantage today.”
Welcome to The Hill’s Sustainability newsletter, we’re Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin — every week we follow the latest moves in the growing battle over sustainability in the U.S. and around the world.
The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) might be helping curb pollution in California’s wealthier neighborhoods, but such improvements may be occurring at the expense of disadvantaged communities, a new analysis has found. Although widespread EV adoption is likely leading to an overall decrease of greenhouse gas emissions, the reduction may be redistributing such pollutants from the vehicles themselves to electric generating …
California officials are urging residents to begin preparing for this summer’s wildfire season — which may be delayed due to this year’s abundant winter weather, but will arrive sooner or later. “This time of year, Southern California is beautiful. We have green hills, rolling hills behind us,” Dan Munsey, San Bernardino County fire chief, said at a state fire press conference Monday. “With this cloudiness, you can almost …
In a time of crisis, evolution favors the little guy. Smaller birds are more successful in raising chicks in a hotter world than large birds, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published Monday. “It’s not good to be big in a warming world,” Lucyna Halupka, a biologist at Poland’s University of Wroclaw told The Hill. The global study surveyed 100 species, identifying …
In an arid pocket of Arizona’s rural southwest, thirsty tufts of alfalfa are guzzling unlimited amounts of groundwater — only to become fodder for dairy cows some 8,000 miles east. This Sonoran Desert field of green, cultivated by a Saudi Arabian dairy giant, has become a flashpoint among residents, who resent the Middle Eastern company’s unbridled — and steeply discounted — usage of a dwindling regional resource. But …
Although monthly water bills swelled on average by 6 percent over the past year, Americans grew more satisfied with their residential utilities, a new survey has found.
The increase was largely driven by improvements in communications, such as proactive contact with customers about supply issues and pricing, according to the report, released on Wednesday by data analytics firm J.D. Power.
As price increased, so did satisfaction: Overall customer satisfaction with water utilities rose 3 points to 734 — on a scale from 0 to 1,000 — in comparison to last year’s results, according to the survey.
This rise occurred despite an average increase of $5.80, or 6 percent, in monthly water bills nationwide.
Water consumption remained relatively flat in comparison to last year’s usage.
Who was included in the survey? The U.S. Water Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study, now in its eighth year, surveyed residential customers of 92 utilities that serve at least 400,000 people.
The report focused on four geographic regions and two size categories — midsize and large utilities in the Midwest, the Northeast, the South and the West.
Conclusions were based on the responses of 36,833 residential water users in four waves from June 2022 through March 2023.
Which utilities performed the best?
Midwest Large: Illinois American Water, with a score of 781, for the fourth consecutive year.
Midwest Midsize: Aqua, with a score of 752, for the second consecutive year.
Northeast Large: NYC Environmental Protection, with a score of 784, for the second consecutive year.
Northeast Midsize: Boston Water and Sewer Commission, with a score of 761, for the second consecutive year.
South Large: Miami-Dade County, with a score of 786, for the second consecutive year.
South Midsize: Cobb County Water System, with a score of 791.
West Large: California Water Service, with a score of 797.
West Midsize: Irvine Ranch Water District, with a score of 766, for the second consecutive year.
Coping with Western drought: Although the federal government has proposed cuts across the dwindling Colorado River system, some 44 percent of customers surveyed in the region said they believe their utilities are adequately securing future supplies.
This response was consistent among U.S. states supplied by the Colorado River system, as well as in those that are not, according to the survey.
‘Bucking the trend’ of consumer dissatisfaction: It has become critical for utilities to engage with residents “about what they are doing to protect our drinking water today and into the future,” Andrew Heath, senior director of utilities intelligence at J.D. Power, said in a statement.
Heath credited many utilities for hearing that message — and for taking steps to “buck the trend of declining customer satisfaction that we have seen in other utilities in this inflationary environment.”
On Our Radar
Upcoming news themes and events we’re watching:
The 2023 Water for Food Global Conferencewill convene next week both in person and in hybrid format at the University of Nebraska. The conference will focus on ways to improve worldwide water and food security by boosting the resilience of farmlands to the impacts of climate change.
Congressional Democrats and Republicans are squaring off over the federal budget — with the GOP lawmakers insisting they won’t let the government borrow more money without slashing the nearly $400 billion in clean energy stimulus funds passed last year. With a GOP-controlled House, a Democrat-controlled Senate and neither side looking likely to blink, it will be a tense May for the clean energy industry.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday proposed baseline water quality standards for tribal waters, which the agency said would protect more than 500,000 people who live on reservations.
You’ll have to act quickly if you want to use any Bed Bath & Beyond coupons still floating around the house. Here are some other important deadlines for shoppers in the wake of the bankruptcy announcement: Read more
Story at a glance Mattel Inc. launched its first-ever Barbie doll with Down syndrome on Tuesday. The doll is part of the company’s 2023 Fashionistas lineup. All of the Fashionistas dolls can be purchased for $10.99 at major retailers. Mattel Inc launched its first-ever Barbie doll with Down syndrome Tuesday to allow even … Read more
What People Think
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