The left ‘hates’ fossil fuels the same way they ‘hate’ guns. They need them, you don’t. Fracking was a logical target because it produces the energy we need at prices everyone can afford. Killing it was a priority, and kill it they did, but new research suggests it might be a critical part of the supposed green energy transition.
It turns out that the Marcellus Shale — a long swath of sedimentary rock in the northeastern United States that holds huge amounts of frackable gas — holds huge quantities of lithium too. Justin Mackey and other researchers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Pennsylvania were pleasantly surprise when they studied the contents of wastewater dredged up in the fracking process at 515 sites in the Keystone State, reports Science Alert. …
When they analyzed the wastewater data, they were stunned by the volume of lithium. The shale “has the capacity to provide significant lithium yields for the foreseeable future” he says. Their detailed findings were published in Scientific Reports.
No one is concluding that all frackable shale despots will likewise result in a commensurate connection to lithium, but how amusing would that be? The Marcellus deposits, if continuously developed, address a pressing need of the climate cult and its energy transition. Lithium is essential and we don’t have much capacity. There is a goal to develop US capacity as a drunken nod to the notion of domestic lithium independence. And it turns out that getting there from here – aside form being totally unnecessary for the scores of reasons we’ve covered elsewhere – might require the tin-foil-hat-left to support fracking.
The Thacker Pass mine in northern Nevada, which is supposed to be the nation’s largest open-pit lithium mine. Indian tribes sued, claiming the mine is too close to the site of an 1865 massacre. Environmentalists sued, saying the mining process will destroy animal habitats and harm groundwater. Now the federal Fish and Wildlife Service is doing a year-long study on the potential impact to a tiny snail.
The Frackers are already established and operational. The physical footprint of oil and gas installations if tiny compared to traditional lithium extraction. It is a solution to a non-problem they’ll have to swallow their pride and ignorance to embrace but they may have no choice.
How amusing is that?
