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Electric Vehicles

What Lies Beneath Arkansas

On critical minerals, climate voters, and EV battery recycling

What Lies Beneath Arkansas
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Tropical Storm Trami is taking aim at the Philippines • Heavy downpours triggered severe flooding in South Africa’s Eastern Cape • The southern Alaskan mainland is bracing for a major storm system that is expected to bring high winds and flooding.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Study suggests Arkansas has huge lithium reserves

There could be between 5 million and 19 million tons of lithium underground in southwest Arkansas, according to a new study from the United States Geological Survey. Researchers said that even the low-end of this estimate “would meet projected 2030 world demand for lithium in car batteries nine times over.” Lithium, of course, is a critical mineral for the energy transition, and demand is expected to grow in coming years. Most lithium is produced in Australia and South America, and then processed in China. “The potential for increased U.S. production to replace imports has implications for employment, manufacturing, and supply-chain resilience,” said USGS director David Applegate.

The Smackover Formation in Arkansas could hold vast lithium reserves.USGS

2. SCOTUS to decide which courts can handle cases challenging EPA rules

The Supreme Court yesterday agreed to take on a handful of cases that could determine which federal courts can hear challenges to Environmental Protection Agency rules. The move “could undercut the nation’s top environmental regulator by opening the door to industry groups and Republican-led states seeking to challenge certain EPA rules in more favorable courts,” explainedE&E News. The Clean Air Act stipulates that legal challenges to national EPA rules must go through the D.C. Court of Appeals, which leans liberal. But if lawsuits go through regional courts, they may have more favorable outcomes for groups challenging things like pollution laws. The Supreme Court decision is expected by next summer.

3. First-time climate voters are turning out in swing states

Nearly 50,000 first-time climate voters have already cast ballots in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, according to the nonpartisan nonprofit Environmental Voter Project. By examining early voting data, the group determined that climate voters are turning out at higher rates than the general electorate in key swing states like Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Nevada. The one exception EVP found is Georgia, where climate voters are underperforming in early voting. “Early voting is not predictive of overall turnout, and so I never get too excited or too despondent from the data,” EVP founder and executive director Nathaniel Stinnett told Heatmap. “But what we can see is that in 18 of our 19 states, people who list climate as their number-one priority are early voting at a higher rate than the overall electorate, so I feel really good about that.”

EVP

4. NOAA’s top scientist joins JPMorgan

Sarah Kapnick, previously the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s chief scientist, is rejoining the JPMorgan Chase as global head of climate advisory, where she will “advise its corporate and investment banking clients on how to navigate the impacts of climate change,” Bloombergreported. Kapnick has worked for JPMorgan Chase before as a senior climate scientist and sustainability strategist for the company’s asset and wealth management business.

5. Mercedes-Benz opens in-house battery recycling facility

Mercedes-Benz yesterday announced the opening of Europe’s first battery recycling plant. The facility, located in Kuppenheim, southern Germany, uses an “integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical process” that the automaker says can recover 96% of used battery materials, such as critical minerals, for recycling into new EV batteries. With this development, Mercedes-Benz is “the first car manufacturer worldwide to close the battery recycling loop with its own in-house facility.”

THE KICKER

Alcon Entertainment, the production company behind Blade Runner 2049, is suing Tesla CEO Elon Musk for using AI to create images that look similar to scenes from the film to promote the Cybercab.

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Economy

Trump Is Disabling the Agency That Could Fight China’s Rare Earths Embargo

The Loan Programs Office is good for more than just nuclear funding.

Xi Jinping and Donald Trump.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

That China has a whip hand over the rare earths mining and refining industry is one of the few things Washington can agree on.

That’s why Alex Jacquez, who worked on industrial policy for Joe Biden’s National Economic Council, found it “astounding”when he read in the Washington Post this week that the White House was trying to figure out on the fly what to do about China restricting exports of rare earth metals in response to President Trump’s massive tariffs on the country’s imports.

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A conversation with VDE Americas CEO Brian Grenko.

This week's interview subject.
Heatmap Illustration

This week’s Q&A is about hail. Last week, we explained how and why hail storm damage in Texas may have helped galvanize opposition to renewable energy there. So I decided to reach out to Brian Grenko, CEO of renewables engineering advisory firm VDE Americas, to talk about how developers can make sure their projects are not only resistant to hail but also prevent that sort of pushback.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

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The United States.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. Long Island, New York – We saw the face of the resistance to the war on renewable energy in the Big Apple this week, as protestors rallied in support of offshore wind for a change.

  • Activists came together on Earth Day to protest the Trump administration’s decision to issue a stop work order on Equinor’s Empire Wind project. It’s the most notable rally for offshore wind I’ve seen since September, when wind advocates protested offshore opponents at the Preservation Society of Newport County, Rhode Island.
  • Esther Rosario, executive director of Climate Jobs New York, told me the rally was intended to focus on the jobs that will be impacted by halting construction and that about a hundred people were at the rally – “a good half of them” union members or representing their unions.
  • “I think it’s important that the elected officials that are in both the area and at the federal level understand the humans behind what it means to issue a stop-work order,” she said.

2. Elsewhere on Long Island – The city of Glen Cove is on the verge of being the next New York City-area community with a battery storage ban, discussing this week whether to ban BESS for at least one year amid fire fears.

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