Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities


** Cobalt mining once devastated an Idaho forest. Could it happen again?
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Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Scars from the Blackbird Mine, a former cobalt mine in Idaho that is now a Superfund site. NOAA ([link removed])

Demand for electric vehicles is skyrocketing, as is demand for the batteries that power them, and that could drive a mining boom ([link removed]) in Idaho's Salmon-Challis National Forest. Located in the central-eastern part of the state, the forest contains Idaho's so-called Cobalt Belt, which is rich in one of the key metals needed to manufacture electric vehicle batteries.

EV batteries typically consist of lithium, cobalt, and nickel—all of which are in short supply ([link removed]) . Right now, 70% of the global supply of cobalt is currently produced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ([link removed]) , and the majority of that is sold to China. But the U.S. Department of Energy is looking to increase domestic production of the metal, which it considers to be the highest material supply chain risk for electric vehicles ([link removed]) .

Much of that will likely come from Idaho's Cobalt Belt—where construction of a new cobalt mine is already underway ([link removed]) —but mining for cobalt has left a toxic legacy in the Salmon-Challis National Forest in the past. A former cobalt mine there that closed down in the 1980s is now a Superfund site. Heavy metals from the mine seeped into surrounding creeks, killing off all life and turning them blue ([link removed]) . The companies responsible have so far spent over $100 million to clean the site up.

Of course, regulations have come a long way. The company building the new mine, Jervois Global, has pledged to ([link removed]) fully reclaim the mine ([link removed]) . And it took the company eight years to get a permit in the first place. But many concerns remain, like whether the federal government will enact strong enough standards ([link removed]) to protect aquatic insects and whether Jervois Global will actually be able to return the forest to its natural state.

“Man is imperfect,” said Daniel Stone ([link removed]) , a policy analyst for the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, whose ancestral homelands encompass a huge portion of Idaho and the surrounding states. “Small flaws could lead to big problems down the road.”
Quick hits


** Supreme Court to consider limiting EPA's authority to protect wetlands
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W ([link removed]) ashington Post ([link removed]) | Associated Press ([link removed]) | CNN ([link removed]) | Reuters ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** Low runoff continues to stress Colorado River, Lake Powell
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National Parks Traveler ([link removed])


** Underground coal mine possible cause of Colorado's Marshall Fire
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CBS Denver ([link removed])


** Rare yellow flower faces off against lithium mine in Nevada
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Fast Company ([link removed])


** New data reveals New Mexico oil and gas operators are inefficient
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Source NM ([link removed])


** How Biden can close coal plants without help from Congress
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E&E News ([link removed])


** 500 acres of California redwoods returned to tribal management
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Associated Press ([link removed])


** Why the word "conservation" doesn't exist in most Indigenous languages
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Popular Science ([link removed])
Quote of the day
” To actually transition off of fossil fuels will take an evolved environmental ethic informed by indigenous wisdom and the latest scientific knowledge, along with an understanding of the deserts of the American Southwest as home to vast old-growth forests still keeping us alive, not as wastelands awaiting plunder.”
—Ruth Nolan, Shannon Salter, and Claire Vaye Watkins on balancing conservation with renewable energy development in Nevada, T ([link removed]) he Nevada Independent ([link removed])
Picture this


** @G ([link removed]) randCanyonNPS ([link removed])
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"This cataclysm of the earth, this playground of a river was not inscrutable; it was only inevitable—as inevitable as nature herself." – Zane Grey For a list of what is open this week and the hours of operation: [link removed] ([link removed]) NPS photo/Jake Frank #GrandCanyon ([link removed])

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