In the news today…
Mining:
- E&E Daily reports most everyone in Congress agrees that the U.S. needs to step up its game on securing critical minerals and overhauling the nation’s mining laws, but a House hearing Thursday showcased the pitfalls that could trip up those efforts as well as bipartisan opportunities.
- Wall Street Journal carries an op-ed which argues Alaska should be allowed to use its resources, mentioning the Pebble Mine project.
- E&E Greenwire reports Vice President Kamala Harris’s trip to Minnesota on Thursday to tout the economic and climate benefits of electric vehicles is also highlighting concerns about a contentious nickel project in that state that’s poised to receive financial support from the Biden administration.
Minerals:
- Reuters reports the U.S. Energy Department on Thursday made a conditional commitment to Redwood Materials for a $2 billion low-cost government loan to help build out a $3.5 billion recycling and remanufacturing complex in Nevada for battery materials.
- E&E Energywire reports one day, Nevada’s leaders imagine, a chunk of desert rock could be refined into lithium powder, poured into a battery cell and finally inserted into a giant electric truck, all without ever leaving Nevada.
- E&E News PM reports the Energy Department unveiled a conditional $2 billion loan guarantee Thursday for a project in Nevada slated to produce electric vehicle battery components, part of the Biden administration’s larger vision of shoring up vulnerable supply chains in this country.
- Politico Pro reports the Energy Department on Thursday tentatively awarded a $2 billion loan to battery recycling company Redwood Materials, which the company says will allow it to produce enough battery materials to enable the production of more than a million electric vehicles a year.
Energy:
- Bloomberg Law reports a clash pitting the lack of US-sourced materials against a made-in-America provision required for adding an extra boost to lucrative new tax credits has developers in the solar industry unsure of the impact for potentially billions of dollars in new clean-energy projects.
- E&E Energywire reports Petra Nova — the largest U.S. retrofit of a coal plant with carbon capture — could resume operations in 2023, three years after shuttering because of low oil prices.