• Energy

Deep-Sea Mining Becomes Battleground Between Conservation and Clean Energy

• deep sea
• electric vehicles
• mining
• Rare Earth Minerals

by Amy Lupica, ODP Staff Writer The Biden administration and automakers are hatching plans to make electric vehicles (EVs) represent 40% of all car sales by the end of this decade. But as the government and the public begin to embrace the idea of an electric future, engineers and environmentalists struggle to balance new demand for […]

• Energy

EVs Continue to Take Off, Possible Biden Victory Would Boost Industry

• #30x30
• Detroit
• electric vehicles
• Ford
• GM
• Hummer
• Rare Earth Minerals
• SUV

General Motors (GM) is pushing ahead aggressively with the development of electric vehicles, with its Detroit factory – recently renamed “Factory Zero” — being retooled to begin to build its Hummer EV electric truck late next year.

Why This Matters:  The investments in electric vehicles are clearly market-driven, but it cannot hurt to have Presidential frontrunner Joe Biden on the campaign trail talking about using the federal purchasing power to transition the federal fleet to electric vehicles.

• Forests

Scientists Perfect Technique to Harvest Metals from Trees

• mining
• Rare Earth Minerals
• trees

While metallic soils often kill plants, scientists have been studying certain species of trees that are able to thrive in these soils and store metals–like nickel–in their tissue and seeds as a result. As the New York Times recently wrote, “This vegetation could be the world’s most efficient, solar-powered mineral smelters. What if, as a […]

• Energy

New study underscores the need to make rare earth metal use more sustainable

• Rare Earth Minerals
• renewable energy

The supply of rare earth metals necessary for building solar panels and wind turbines might not be able to keep pace with growing global demand spurred by the growth in renewable energy technology. We don’t recycle these metals and their extraction is rife with human rights abuses. As Phys reported, a new study, commissioned and […]