Blood Batteries
Lithium demands have inequitable impacts on Indigenous people and their territories
EPhoto Credit: https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/02/01/south-america-s-lithium-fields-reveal-the-dark-side-of-our-electric-future
A switch from fossil fuels to electric vehicles does not negate the need for extractive resources that cause environmental harm and human rights abuses — the unintended consequences of the dream of reduced environmental harm from EV.
The policy of moving to electric vehicles (EV)1has driven a tremendous increase in the demand for EV batteries containing Lithium as one major component. However, the unintended consequences have been to replace one extractive mineral (oil and gas) with another group (lithium, nickel and cobalt), all with devastating and long term destruction to the environment and contamination of the water supply. Unfortunately, in the U.S., 3/4ths of the lithium resources are located on or near indigenous lands.
The global demand for lithium will increase by 40 times if the world keeps up with its commitments to reduce emissions2 in the IPCC Paris agreement. Further, the Biden Administration committed to 50% EV on the road by 2030 and in a recent statement from Pres. Biden he committed to supporting domestic mining of lithium, cobalt and nickel for the support of his EV intiative.3
All of these minerals are probably familiar to you. Lithium has been used to treat bi-polar disorder for decades (and its effect on the nervous system is exactly why it requires safety precautions for miners4). Cobalt is part of vitamin B12 and its a color and used to color things its rich cobalt blue color. Nickel is all around us from coins called a nickel to costume jewelry to the extent that dermal allergies to nickel are common. But Lithium and cobalt are expensive to mine and also cause devastating damage to the environment that takes more than a hundred years for recovery, if ever.
Lithium, taken as the metallic component of the alkali Lithion, probably based on Greek litheîon, neuter of litheîos "of stone," derivative of líthos "stone, rock," of obscure origin. It was named in a Letter of Chemistry and Physics around 1817 by the Swedish chemist Johan August Arfwedson (1792-1841). It was so named because the first two metals (sodium and potassium) on the periodic table were found in organics; whereas Lithium was found in a mineral substrate, hence the Greek word “of stone”.5
A single car lithium-ion battery pack, known as NMC532, calls for a recipe of 8 kg of lithium, 35 kg of nickel, 20 kg of manganese and 14 kg of cobalt.6 Of all the minerals used in energy, lithium and cobalt are predicted to be the most critical and in demand of any other mineral through 2050,7 driven by the demand for EV batteries.
The most costly element in an electric vehicle battery is cobalt. Two-thirds of global supply come from mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, already known for its human rights abuses, child labor and harm to its mining workers. Combine that with the health risk of exposure to cobalt with radioactivity, it can be toxic if working conditions are not made to protect workers.8 Despite the U.S. signing an MOU with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia this week to create a value added supply chain so they build the batteries after mining the minerals, it does not lessen the destruction of the environment and damage to water supplies that the mining will cause.9
The impact to indigenous communities has been documented in Chile where at more than 8,000 feet elevation, the indigenous community of Tococano has one of the largest extraction operations for lithium in the world. The photo at the beginning of this article shows the water contamination in drying pools in an arid area where water is already scarce.
Focus on Lithium
Australia is the world's largest lithium producer, accounting for nearly half of global production in 2020. Bolivia, Chile and Argentina (the “lithium triangle”) have the largest estimated resources, with nearly 50 million tonnes of lithium between the three countries.10
In September 2022, Pres. Biden committed 2.8 billion to increase mining and manufacturing for EV batteries in the U.S.. 11 Three-quarters of all known lithium deposits in the United States are near tribal lands. 12
The biggest lithium deposit in the United States is located on a sacred site to several tribes near the Nevada-Idaho-Oregon border. The 18,000-acre Thacker Pass mine overlaps into ancestral lands and sacred lands of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe, the Burns Paiute Tribe, Reno Sparks Indian Colony and the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of Duck Valley Indian Reservation.13 Thacker Pass, Peehee Mu’huh (Paiute for rotten moon), crescent shaped and called rotten because of the two massacres that occured there.14 This site is sacred to the tribes whose ancestors lived here and were massacred here.15 These Native Nations have filed an injunction to stop the project because of the lack of compliance with several federal statutes including the National Environmental Policy Act that requires an environmental impact statement. At the end of the Trump Administration, an EIS was hurried to completion within less than a year, which is inadequate given the devastation that is the signature of lithium mining.16 (I wrote about another case where the EIS was deemed final when it was far from complete in the Trump Administration to hurry through the destruction of another sacred site in Arizona for copper mining here
Map credit: https://planevada.org/issue/mining/28047/
Shelly Harjo, a member of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe was quoted as saying the lithium mine “will turn what is left of my ancestral homelands into a sacrifice zone for electric car batteries”, Shelley Harjo, a member of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe. She compared this to the mining company coming to Arlington Cemetery and digging up the cemetery and destroying it.17
Meanwhile, there is a mine in North Carolina now made attractive due to the skyrocketing price of lithium due to EV batteries. The land around Kings Mountain in western North Carolina was just permitted for a lithium “facility” in October 2022.18, shortly after Pres. Biden announced he would contribute $2.8 billion to increase mining to support EV battery production. (This mining area is about 1.5 hours from my home where my ancestors have lived since before colonization; and 44 miles from the Catawba Indian Nation.)
Alternatives and Policy choices
There is much talk about finding substitutes for Lithium and Cobalt but those are still on the drawing board. The choices are really going to require new combinations of minerals because there is no one obvious mineral to replace Lithium or Cobalt. Take a look at the periodic table. You see the circles around the minerals in an EV battery — lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese (not to be confused with magnesium). As a scientists you might look for other minerals next to the one you would like to replace for a substitute but in this case there are not alternatives that are not more rare or more expensive for the most part.
We have been waiting for breakthroughs on batteries for a decade and incremental improvements have been made, but a major shift will be needed to modify the EV battery for mass production.
Hydrogen v. EV
I need to make clear that EV uses batteries while Hydrogen powered cars use fuel cells. Fuel cells produce energy in the case of hydrogen, from water; while batteries are made of a combination of metals and store energy. I served as the Chair of the Bush ‘43 task force on regulating the hydrogen economy, and I do have a bias toward what I have learned about destruction to the environment based on years of study and research about our next step in the energy economy.
It is not unusual for Presidents from different political parties to avoid promoting or continuing programs started by Presidents of the opposite party. But every President should consider the unintended consequences of whatever policy they decide to promote.
There is now $2.8 billion toward mining and manufacturing and no end to the demand for lithium under the Biden EV plan. The craters in the earth and the deaths from unsafe mining practices will be his legacy, mainly on the ancestral lands of Native Americans. These destructive policies falsely claim to be green in the face of growing evidence. Thus “blood batteries” (like the infamous “blood diamonds” that paid for death and destruction) drive U.S. green energy.
FACT SHEET: President Biden Signs Executive Order Catalyzing America’s Clean Energy Economy Through Federal Sustainability, (Dec 8, 2021) at https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/12/08/fact-sheet-president-biden-signs-executive-order-catalyzing-americas-clean-energy-economy-through-federal-sustainability/
https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/ffd2a83b-8c30-4e9d-980a-52b6d9a86fdc/TheRoleofCriticalMineralsinCleanEnergyTransitions.pdf?te=1&nl=climate-forward&emc=edit_clim_20221011
“These recommendations include supporting sustainable and responsible domestic mining and processing of key battery minerals, such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel . . .” https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/12/13/fact-sheet-the-biden-harris-electric-vehicle-charging-action-plan/ (Sept 13, 2021).
https://nj.gov/health/eoh/rtkweb/documents/fs/1119.pdf
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lithium
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02222-1
https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-energy/the-minerals-used-by-clean-energy-technologies
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02222-1
https://subscriber.politicopro.com/eenews/f/eenews/?id=00000185-cb3c-de44-a7bf-eb3fa5d70000
https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/our-natural-resources/minerals-mining/minerals-metals-facts/lithium-facts/24009
https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-awards-28-billion-ev-battery-grid-projects-2022-10-19/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/18/lithium-mining-nevada-boom-car-battery-us-climate-crisis
https://ictnews.org/the-press-pool/thacker-pass-protectors-to-march-and-rally-outside-federal-court-on-thursday-january-5th
https://ictnews.org/news/green-energys-hidden-costs-spark-opposition
https://ictnews.org/the-press-pool/thacker-pass-protectors-to-march-and-rally-outside-federal-court-on-thursday-january-5th
https://www.rsic.org/thacker-pass-ancestors/
https://www.protectthackerpass.org/do-not-be-fooled-by-lithium-nevadas-publicity-tactics/
https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2022/10/20/albemarle-wins-grant-to-build-lithium-facility-in-north-carolina/