{"id":121702,"date":"2024-11-03T20:02:44","date_gmt":"2024-11-03T13:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=121702"},"modified":"2024-11-03T20:02:44","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T13:02:44","slug":"nevada-lithium-mine-will-crush-rare-plant-habitat-us-said-is-critical-to-its-survival-lawsuit-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=121702","title":{"rendered":"Nevada lithium mine will crush rare plant habitat US said is critical to its survival, lawsuit says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>RENO, Nev. (AP) \u2014 Conservationists and a Native American tribe are suing the U.S. to try to block a Nevada lithium mine they say will drive an endangered desert wildflower to extinction, disrupt groundwater flows and threaten cultural resources.<\/p>\n<p>The Center for Biological Diversity promised the court battle a week ago when the <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/lithium-mine-endangered-flower-nevada-biden-ioneer-a943364661c24a928d590eb17b00a92b\">U.S. Interior Department approved<\/a><\/span> Ioneer Ltd.\u2019s Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron mine at the only place Tiehm\u2019s buckwheat is known to exist in the world, near the California line halfway between Reno and Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<p>It is the latest in a series of legal fights over projects President Joe Biden\u2019s administration is pushing under his <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/clean-energy-offshore-wind-election-biden-trump-harris-4a6d561ff06841504b6713ed48c920f1\">clean energy agenda<\/a><\/span> intended to cut reliance on fossil fuels, in part by increasing the production of lithium to make electric vehicle batteries and solar panels.<\/p>\n<p>The new lawsuit says the <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/lithium-mine-endangered-flower-nevada-biden-ioneer-a943364661c24a928d590eb17b00a92b\">Interior Department\u2019s approval of the mine<\/a><\/span> marks a dramatic about-face by <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/business-nevada-plants-climate-and-environment-9df49213286bb886e15b87f81a82351f\">U.S wildlife experts who warned<\/a><\/span> nearly two years ago that Tiehm\u2019s buckwheat was \u201cin danger of extinction now\u201d when they listed it as an endangered species in December 2022.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne cannot save the planet from climate change while simultaneously destroying biodiversity,\u201d said Fermina Stevens, director of the Western Shoshone Defense Project, which joined the center in the lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Reno.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe use of minerals, whether for EVs or solar panels, does not justify this disregard for Indigenous cultural areas and keystone environmental laws,\u201d said John Hadder, director of the Great Basin Resource Watch, another co-plaintiff.<\/p>\n<p>Rita Henderson, spokeswoman for Interior\u2019s Bureau of Land Management in Reno, said Friday the agency had no immediate comment.<\/p>\n<p>Ioneer Vice President Chad Yeftich said the Australia-based mining company intends to intervene on behalf of the U.S. and \u201cvigorously defend\u201d approval of the project, \u201cwhich was based on its careful and thorough permitting process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are confident that the BLM will prevail,\u201d Yeftich said. He added that he doesn\u2019t expect the lawsuit will postpone plans to begin construction next year.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit says the mine will harm sites sacred to the Western Shoshone people. That includes Cave Spring, a natural spring less than a mile (1.6 kilometers) away described as \u201ca site of intergenerational transmission of cultural and spiritual knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But it centers on alleged violations of the Endangered Species Act. It details the Fish and Wildlife Service\u2019s departure from the dire picture it painted earlier of threats to the 6-inch-tall (15-centimeter-tall) wildflower with cream or yellow blooms bordering the open-pit mine Ioneer plans to dig three times as deep as the length of a football field.<\/p>\n<p>The mine\u2019s permit anticipates up to one-fifth of the nearly 1.5 square miles (3.6 square kilometers) the agency designated as critical habitat surrounding the plants \u2014 home to various pollinators important to their survival \u2014 would be lost for decades, some permanently.<\/p>\n<p>When proposing protection of the 910 acres (368 hectares) of <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/science-technology-business-flowers-wildlife-8ac608ad3c485760fa1d8c0dd12c2ed7\">critical habitat<\/a><\/span>, the service said \u201cthis unit is essential to the conservation and recovery of Tiehm\u2019s buckwheat.\u201d The agency formalized the designation when it listed the plant in December 2022, dismissing the alternative of less-stringent threatened status.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe find that a threatened species status is not appropriate because the threats are severe and imminent, and Tiehm\u2019s buckwheat is in danger of extinction now, as opposed to likely to become endangered in the future,\u201d the agency concluded.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit also discloses for the first time that the plant\u2019s population, numbering fewer than 30,000 in the government\u2019s latest estimates, has suffered additional losses since August that were not considered in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service\u2019s biological opinion. <\/p>\n<p>The damage is similar to what the bureau concluded was caused by <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/general-news-5aeef981d5418dc3b3036975b997d4ce\">rodents eating the plants<\/a><\/span> in a 2020 incident that reduced the population as much as 60%, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n<p>The Fish and Wildlife Service said in its August biological opinion that while the project \u201cwill result in the long-term disturbance (approximately 23 years) of 146 acres (59 hectares) of the plant community &#8230; and the permanent loss of 45 acres (18 hectares), we do not expect the adverse effects to appreciably diminish the value of critical habitat as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>\n  window.fbAsyncInit = function() {\n      FB.init({\n              appId : '870613919693099',\n          xfbml : true,\n          version : 'v2.9'\n      });\n  };\n  (function(d, s, id){\n     var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n     if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;}\n     js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n     js.src = \"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\";\n     fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n   }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/climate-lithium-mine-endangered-species-energy-nevada-2b61e65f6d06ec1e1517a03364c34d4f\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RENO, Nev. (AP) \u2014 Conservationists and a Native American tribe are suing the U.S. to try to block a Nevada lithium mine they say will drive an endangered desert wildflower &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=121702\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}