Liberal court shafts indigenous tribes over lithium mine

For the past couple of years, the Western Shoshone and Paiute indigenous tribes along the border between Nevada and Oregon have been fighting in court to halt the development of a massive mining project on their ancestral lands. They have pointed out that the land is considered sacred because some of their people were massacred there in the 1800s. Further, they have some allies among the environmentalists who report that the land is home to the endangered sage grouse. Their case was finally heard by the 9th Circuit, one of the most liberal courts in the country, so the tribes’ appeal should have been a slam dunk, right? Sorry, indigenous people, but that’s going to be a hard “nope.” There’s lithium in them there hills and we’ve got some massive batteries to build, so you’ll just have to go pound sand.

The latest bid by conservationists and tribal leaders to block construction of a huge lithium mine already in the works along the Nevada-Oregon line was denied by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday.

A three-panel judge of the San Francisco-based appellate court rejected a half-dozen legal arguments the opponents had put forth in their appeal seeking to overturn federal land managers’ approval of one of the projects at the forefront of President Joe Biden’s plans to combat climate change.

The critics have been fighting it in federal court for two years. They claim the open-pit mine, as deep as the length of a football field, will violate multiple environmental laws and destroy lands tribal members consider sacred because they say dozens of their ancestors were massacred there in 1865.

This is yet more proof of the abject hypocrisy that surrounds the entire climate change discussion. First of all, we’re talking about ancestral tribal lands here. Disruptions of tribal lands tied up the Keystone XL pipeline in the courts for years and caused the final route to be altered wildly and at great expense. And then there’s the question of the sage grouse. You remember the sage grouse, right? If you tried to poke one hole in the ground to look for oil within fifty miles of a sage grouse, federal agents would show up and throw you in prison for the rest of your life.

But all you have to do is bring up a reference to “President Joe Biden’s plans to combat climate change” and the red carpet is rolled out for you. Lithium Nevada Corp. is digging a massive open pit mine as deep as the length of a football field on lands where some of the tribes’ ancestors’ remains may be buried. But if it results in more lithium to make batteries for electric vehicles, that’s apparently just part of the price of doing business. Perhaps the local diner can add sage grouse to the menu for the miners when they take their lunch break.

Incidentally, this same court blocked the construction of a copper mine in Arizona last year. They have admitted that the plans for this mine are not fully in compliance with the mining law in question but said they chose to defer to the guidance issued by the Bureau of Land Management. That would be the same BLM that is currently run by Biden appointee Tracy Stone-Manning, who accepted the position while promising to fight for conservation and “preserve our nation’s land and waters.” But we’re talking about lithium here, so the priorities have changed.

Hey, Tracy… what about the Alvord Chub? That fish is literally only found in a very small range along the border between Nevada and Oregon. It’s only found in a handful of small waterways and it’s the number one endangered species listed for that region. Are you going to let them start dumping a bunch of mining wastewater and lithium flakes into the poor Alvord Chub’s stream? Well, if we’re going to do it for the sake of lithium, the fish will apparently have to be yet another sacrifice to appease the Green Goddess. We’ll send some chub recipes to that diner so they can serve it alongside the sage grouse for a daily special.