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Less than a week after the federal government provided a $700 million loan to an Australian mining company to help it build a lithium mining project in Nevada, the company has been cited for trespassing within the habitat of an endangered flower.
The Tiehm's buckwheat is a small desert wildflower with yellow blooms that is found only in western Nevada's Silver Peak Range. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service designated it as an endangered species in December 2022 and designated 910 acres as critical habitat for the species. The flower also happens to grow near a huge deposit of lithium, a mineral used in electric vehicle battery production. Ioneer Rhyolite Ridge LLC received a permit in November 2022 to drill for lithium samples in the area, and its equipment was reported to be found inside the Tiehm's buckwheat's designated habitat last week.
The Bureau of Land Management said disturbing the flower's habitat is prohibited under the permit it issued to Ioneer to drill for samples. Ioneer said no plants were disturbed but acknowledged “what occurred was a violation of BLM regulatory requirements.”
It's unclear if the violation will impact the $700 million federal loan recently received by Ioneer. The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office announced the loan last Friday, adding that the loan is contingent on the completion of an environmental impact statement. Ioneer says it plans to begin mining the site by 2026.
Laura Daniel-Davis renominated as Interior assistant secretary
The White House announced it is renominating Laura Daniel-Davis to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management at the Interior Department. This marks the third time Daniel-Davis has been submitted to the Senate. In 2022, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer declined to place Daniel-Davis’s nomination on the Senate floor calendar, despite her having gone through two full confirmation hearings before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
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We are thankful that Laura Daniel-Davis agreed to go through a third nomination process in the Senate. Her knowledge and experience on America’s public lands are crucial to President Biden’s energy agenda. The Assistant Secretary position is also key to implementing the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, two of the most consequential bills to come out of Congress in the last decade. This job is simply too important to leave empty for another year.”
