Thoughts on several mining companies wanting to mine lithium in maine?

25 comments

1. It’s not just Maine. We are going to ravage the entire planet for lithium.

2. Oh baby you’ve…you got what I need, but you say he’s just a friend…

3. We should definitely be concerned about the environmental impacts of mining, the extraction industry doesn’t exactly have a sterling reputation for protecting the earth.

4. I think there should be an environmental impact report and an evaluation of whether or not mining it is a net benefit for humanity, not just mining companies. That should be the basis for the decision going forward

5. Unless everyone here is willing to live without battery for the foreseeable future, there remains a need for lithium and it is going to be mined somewhere anyway.

   I would rather the mining happens here where we can control regulations to limit negative effects rather than in some undeveloped country with no environmental concerns and slave labor.

   Besides, more jobs never hurt.

6. Lithium should be mined, but it should be done so in a more environmentally friendly manner. We can absolutely pull shit out of the ground without destroying everything, it’s just that companies don’t want to pay for that process.

7. Mines in Appalachia are still causing huge issues for people and the environment and many of them have been closed for 100 years and the solution is mostly a shrug. You really shouldn’t do it, but if you do, you have one shot and one shot only to get it right.

   Mining companies will be doing their best to grease the wheels of democracy. If you allow regulations to be bent once, they’ll continue to be bent until your wondering why you can’t drink the water and all the fish are dead.

8. Good.

   Yeah I said it, *good*.

   Maine’s built its entire industry on natural preservation, and we’ve seen the absolute shitshow lithium mining has created in other regions. Why should Maine bow to them?

9. Regardless of if we get it here or abroad, we’re going to need lots of lithium for the forseeable future. In my view, it’s better to mine it here in a clean(ish) manner that creates high paying mining jobs rather than importing it on massive diesel ships from countries with no environmental or labor regulations.

10. I’d assume Maine will want a lot of assurances around the environmental impact before giving the OK. Problem is a lot of mining companies are aggressive about leaving messes behind and dodging environmental obligations.

    Cool if they can figure all that out.

11. That sounds like something the people of Maine should get to decide.

12. I don’t think the US should touch any of it’s own resources until we’re at a huge disadvantage using another countries resources.

13. Electric cars need batteries. And electric. And lots of petroleum to manufacture them.

14. I think that a lot of people who are against this either want all renewable energy with none of the associated costs, or they want those costs to be done in third world countries where they don’t have to look at it.

15. We want our electric cars but we want to shove the externalities of them onto poor third world countries rather than mine our own minerals with our evironmental standards, employing hard working Americans.

16. If we have the resources we should be using them. Right now most of the lithium comes from Africa…and child labor. If we’re going to use it anyways it would serve us better to have well paid professional miners going at it instead.

17. It’s a very strategic resource that we will need for developing clean energy and also for being able to produce our own electronics without being dependent on other nations for imports.

    Of course it should be mined responsibly, but the benefits of mining it are well worth the risks.

18. They should watch out for that Harcourt Fenton Mudd guy.

19. I mean… mining is bad for the environment, but there’s not a great way to get the resource otherwise.

    Maine likely won’t have a choice if the federal government says they want the lithium.

    Probably not fair for the states to watch other countries be mined to hell by child labor while having a rich supply stateside.

20. I feel like everyone is just going to have to put on their big boy pants or big girl panties and deal with it. Because the only other viable option is 100% nuclear, and that comes with it’s own costs and challenges. Not to mention you can’t run cars, bikes, buses, trucks, tractors, airplanes, or trains off nuclear reactors anyway.

    ​

    Degrowth is fundamentally anti-human, anti-prosperity and totalitarian. And I don’t have to tell reddit about the utter jackassery of right wing climate denial.

21. Threads like this are the perfect reminder that while its popular to say climate change is an existential threat, when it comes to doing something about it beyond the performative, its all crickets.

    We need lithium to electrify our transport and industrial sectors and to provide backup for intermittent renewable generation. It is going to get mined *somewhere* and mining it in the US ensures labor standards, environmental protection, and a domestic lithium supply. Ideally it can also lead to local jobs further up the value chain, like battery assembly.

    The lithium will still get mined, except somewhere with worse environmental regulations, longer supply chains and potentially unfriendly geopolitics. I’m not going to pretend the mining site will be some kind of paradise, but there are real costs to decarbonizing and domestic supply chains. And honestly those costs are always there. We are just a lot more comfortable pretending they don’t exist while we export them to China, Africa and South America.

22. I mean there is a reasons companies perfer australian hardrock lithium mining over brine extraction. Less water damage (which can be very political), cheaper, and easier

23. The Salton Sea in California is a better place to mine lithium.

24. Huh, I am in Maine and didn’t know we had that sweet sweet lithium.

    Manie used to have a lot more mining and quarrying than it does now.

    I’d have to see the actual proposals to form an opinion so call me agnostic for now.

    Also you should link the [actual article[(https://time.com/6294818/lithium-mining-us-maine/?utm_source=ground.news&utm_medium=referral) rather than that weird link aggregator.

    I have been in that area and it is gorgeous. So I get the resistance. But it seems a bit much to just have a blanket aversion to all mining. Mainer’s like jobs and industry and the state has a long history of quarrying stone. So like I said, I am kind of agnostic on the issue.

25. Lithium mining is a generally pretty bad thing for the environment, but realistically it’s the price we have to pay for renewables

    Localized/regionalized environmental issues are better than globalized environmental issues like climate change

    It’s not an easy decision but in a sobering way it’s the situation we have to work with right now