The judge approves the giant project for extracting lithium lithiev and ends the search for activists

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Imperial County Judge Open the Road to the Project The hellish kitchenOne of the largest lithium mines in the world when he recently rejected a request filed by civil and environmental groups.

Hell’s kitchen in Salton promises to dig a lithium vein, a major mineral for electric cars, mobile phones and other electronic devices. Although the court’s ruling opens the production of lithium in the United States, the organizers of the community are disappointed, who fear the mine will endanger the people of the surrounding area.

The Civic Committee of Non -Profan Organizations of Thermal Resources Controlled by Valle does not consult with local local tribes, as required by law. On January 9, Supreme Court Judge Jeffrey Jones ruled that controlled thermal resources met these requirements, allowing him to resume construction.

Opponents said the decision was giving green light to the project without sufficient environmental protection or community involvement.

“A fair transition to renewable energy requires not to believe in new areas of victim in order to

“Lithium yield is one of the priorities,” said Jared Narock, a California mining organizer at Earthworks.

Rodney Collewell, CEO of controlled thermal resources, said he was pleased with the decision and hoped to start construction in five or six months. However, demand delayed the project for a year or more.

“We are happy to have overcome it, but it costs us a lot of time and put the project at risk,” he said. “We were unable to raise capital. We were unable to progress with development at all. “

Now that everything worked again, Colorwell said the company expects to start generating geothermal energy at the end of 2026 and extract Lithium afterwards.

California leaders are determined to get the public to accept electric vehicles over the next decade as part of the state’s struggle against climate change. To do this, they will need a lot of lithium.

It is there that the Salton Sea enters the game of hell. Energy companies are already producing geothermal energy at the site, extracting high pressure at high pressure to generate electricity. The brine is MineralIncluding more than 3400 lithium kilos: enough to produce more than 375 million batteries for electric vehicles, according to the Energy Division. The hellish kitchen will extract minerals from the brine and then rearrange them in the aquifers around Salton.

State and federal officials were excited about the prospect of obtaining this amount of lithium across the country and predicted that the area they call “Lithium Valley” can become one of The largest sources of “white gold “In the world, freeing the United States from dependence on other countries to obtain this critical mineral.

“Development in the Imperial Valley Declared controlled thermal resources in press releaseS

But local and academic organizers have warned of uncertainty about the extraction process and pollution.

“Direct lithium technology for extraction that plans the Hell’s Kitchen lithium project has been tested only at the demonstration level and its Imperial County project will be one of the first commercial plants on this scale in the United States,” he said Louis Olmedo, Executive Director, Executive Director, CEO in a statement director of the Valley Civil Committee.

“There are many unknown air quality,” added James Blair, a professor of geography at Cal Poly Pomona, who published Project investigationS “This is already a degraded region, not only because of the impact of agriculture, but also because of the retreat of Salton Marton.”

Blair told Calmatters that the environmental examination is not clear about the amount of toxic dust that will produce the mine, the amount of water required to dilute the brine, and if the production process will release harmful substances such as hydrogen sulfide or radon.

“Hell’s Kitchen’s project can do much more to mitigate environmental impact,” especially in water and drought shortages, “he said.

Colww said these concerns are unfounded and describes the process of extracting lithium as a “closed circle system” that will not generate waste or air pollution.

“This is the cleanest lithium technology on the planet,” he said.

Jones ruled that the company has adequately addressed the effects of the project on water supply and cannot analyze the possible future impact on air quality.

Olmedo said the court’s decision did not satisfy the concerns of non -profit organizations. They want more strength measures to protect water, better protection for tribal resources and more details about the generation of waste and recycling of water. They are looking for a legal agreement between the company and the inhabitants of the Imperial Valley to ensure that these requests have been fulfilled.

Olmedo said that his organization “will exhaust all legal channels and public policies, including consideration of the appeal of the process decision to ensure that the inhabitants and the environment of the imperial valley receive the highest threshold of protection.”

This article was originally published by CalmattersS