Wisconsin Reporter’s M.D. Kittle has picked up on our issues and has an article on watchdog.org this week. The piece explores the irony of the (often tech-savvy) environmentalist movement’s opposition to mining projects that produce the materials needed for green technologies.
Citing American Resources principal Daniel McGroarty throughout his piece, Kittle outlines the challenges associated with the “not in my backyard” mentality, and points to the fact that a large percentage critical minerals mined in “unfriendly nations,” with lax environmental and labor standards.
Here’s an excerpt:
As to the assertion that environmentalist offer “selective indignation” about using products made from metals mined in nation’s with few or no regulations, [state mining committee chairman of the Sierra Club Wisconsin John Muir Chapter David] Blouin has an interesting theoretical argument with no application.
“The statement has nothing to do with mining overseas and everything with getting social license here,” he said. “The reality is that neither the U.S. public nor the mining industry has any control over where mining is done or how it is conducted away from here.”
“The act of buying a cell phone has little to do with the decision of an Indonesian mining company to expand an open-pit mine and dumping its waste into a river,” Blouin added.
But U.S. resource expansion advocates like McGroarty counter that where and how metals are mined has everything to do with a safer, secure U.S. economy. He said several stable nations have strong mining regulations, with more certainty in the permitting process.
