LETTER: Environmentalists want it both ways

Currently, electric vehicle batteries depend on lithium for efficient storage and the capacity to deliver reasonable amounts of energy when needed. What is believed to be the world’s largest deposit of lithium is found at Thacker Pass in northern Humboldt County. Environmentalists have found a tiny, unique snail in 13 springs in the vicinity of the Lithium America’s mine at Thacker Pass. Environmentalists want to have the snail declared endangered to block the mining operation because the mining operation might dry up those springs and endanger those snails.

Conservationists and environmentalists seem to want it both ways: Don’t use fossil fuels, but don’t disturb the environment to develop sources of energy that will eliminate our need for fossil fuels. They have blocked a geothermal plant in Dixie Valley because of a small toad. They have blocked another lithium mine in Esmeralda County because of a small plant. Another geothermal plant in the Black Rock desert was objected to because of the view.

We can only hope that climate change will not harm all those small things that environmentalists work so diligently to protect.