In Transit: ‘Lithium Valley’ Could Meet Entire U.S. Demand for EV Batteries

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Australia, Chile and China are the top three sources of the world’s lithium – the element essential to build the batteries that power electric vehicles. But that could change as mining operations progress in California’s Imperial Valley. “Lithium Valley,” a vast underground reserve near the Salton Sea, contains enough lithium to meet all of U.S. future demand and more than one-third of global demand, according to the Governor’s office. We learn more about the project and its impacts as part of Forum’s “In Transit” series. Guests: Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Program at the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, UC Berkeley School of Law; podcast host, Climate Break Eduardo Garcia, Assemblymember, representing California's 36th State Assembly District in eastern Riverside County and Imperial County Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:33.2	Thank you. From KQED in San Francisco, this is Forum. I'm Mina Kim.
0:52.5	Australia, Chile, and China are the top three sources of the world's lithium, an element essential to building the batteries for electric vehicles.
1:00.0	But that could soon change as mining operations begin in California.
1:04.0	Imperial Valley contains enough lithium to meet all our nation's future demand and more than a third of global demand.
1:11.4	Governor Newsom described it as one of the greatest economic opportunities for California
1:15.2	of a lifetime.
1:16.7	We learn more about the lithium gold rush happening near the Salton Sea and its impacts
1:21.4	as part of Forum's In Transit series.
1:24.3	Join us.
1:39.8	Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim.
1:47.0	Electric vehicle batteries rely crucially on lithium, an element that right now, the U.S. sources from abroad. But that could change in just a few years as the area around the Salton Sea in California's Imperial Valley
1:53.0	gears up to become a leading source of the mineral.
	...

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