RENO, Nev. — Environmentalists, ranchers and others have fought for years against lithium mining ventures in Nevada. Yet opposition to mining one particular desert tract for the silvery white metal used in electric car batteries is coming from unusual quarters: space.
An ancient Nevada lakebed beckons as a vast source of the coveted metal needed to produce cleaner electric energy and fight global warming. But NASA says the same site — flat as a tabletop and undisturbed like none other in the Western Hemisphere — is indispensable for calibrating the razor-sharp measurements of hundreds of satellites orbiting overhead.
At the space agency’s request, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has agreed to withdraw 36 square miles (92 square kilometers) of the eastern Nevada terrain from its inventory of federal lands open to potential mineral exploration and mining.
NASA says the long, flat piece of land above the untapped lithium deposit in Nevada’s Railroad Valley has been used for nearly three decades to get measurements just right to keep satellites and their applications functioning properly.
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“No other location in the United States is suitable for this purpose,” the Bureau of Land Management concluded in April after receiving NASA’s input on the tract 250 miles (400 kilometers) northeast of Las Vegas.
The bureau has spent nearly three years fighting mining challenges of all sorts from environmentalists, tribal leaders, ranchers and others who want to overturn approval of a huge lithium mine in the works in northwest Nevada near the Oregon line.
In December, the bureau initiated a review of plans for another lithium mine conservationists oppose near the California line where an endangered desert wildflower grows, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) southeast of Reno.
U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei answers a question during a town hall at the Reno Sparks Convention Center in Reno, Nev., April 17, 2017. At the request of NASA, U.S. land managers have withdrawn about 36 square miles of federal land otherwise open to mineral exploration and mining at the site 250 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Amodei has introduced legislation that would rescind the land withdrawal and potentially reopen it to mining. Credit: AP/Andy Barron
In Railroad Valley, satellite calculations are critical to gathering information beamed from space with widespread applications from weather forecasting to national security, agricultural outlooks and natural disasters, according to NASA, which said the satellites “provide vital and often time-critical information touching every aspect of life on Earth.”
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That increasingly includes certifying measurements related to climate change.
Thus the Nevada desert paradox, critics say. While lithium is the main ingredient in batteries for electric vehicles key to reducing greenhouse gases, in this case the metal is buried beneath land NASA says must remain undisturbed to certify the accuracy of satellites monitoring Earth’s warming atmosphere.
“As our nation becomes ever more impacted by an evolving and changing environment, it is critical to have reliable and accurate data and imagery of our planet,” said Mark Moneza of Planet Labs, a San Francisco-based satellite imaging company that has relied on NASA’s site to calibrate more than 250 of its satellites since 2016.
A Nevada congressman introduced legislation earlier this month seeking to revoke the bureau’s decision to withdraw the land from potential mining use. Republican Rep. Mark Amodei told a House subcommittee last week that the decision underscores the “hypocrisy” of President Joe Biden’s administration.
“It is supposedly a goal of the Biden Administration to boost the development of renewable energy technology and reduce carbon in our atmosphere,” Amodei said. “Yet they support blocking a project to develop the lithium necessary for their clean energy objectives.”
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The Carson City, Nevada, company holding most of the mining claims, 3 Proton Lithium Inc., had not submitted any formal project plans in 2021 when NASA requested the land withdrawal. But the firm claimed to have done extensive research in anticipation of future plans to extract the brine-based lithium resource it said is one of the 10 largest deposits in the world.
Chairman Kevin Moore said the tract’s withdrawal likely will prevent his energy company from pumping the “super brine” from about one-third of its claims there, including the deepest, richest deposits holding about 60% of the site’s value. He joined Amodei in testifying last week before the House Resources Subcommittee on Mining and Mineral Resources.
“This project is a vital part of transitioning to a green economy, creating good-paying American jobs, combating climate change, ending America’s over-reliance on foreign adversaries and securing a domestic supply chain for critical and rare earth minerals,” Moore said.
Other opponents of BLM’s move include James Ingraffia, founder of the energy exploration company Lithium Arrow LLC. He told the bureau in earlier public comments that by establishing obstacles to Railroad Valley lithium mining, it was undermining efforts to combat climate change.
“Essentially, your actions are boiling down to, ‘There’s a problem that we want to keep worrying about but NOT allow to be solved,’ ” he said. “It’s self-contradictory.”
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3 Proton Lithium insists its brine pumping operations would cause little if any disturbance to the land’s surface. But NASA doesn’t believe the risk is worthwhile.
The area’s unchanged nature has allowed NASA to establish a long record of images of the undisturbed topography to assist precise measurement of distances using the travel time of radio signals and assure “absolute radiometric calibration” of sensors on board satellites.
“Activities that stand to disrupt the surface integrity of Railroad Valley would risk making the site unusable,” Jeremy Eggers, a spokesman for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, told The Associated Press.
“The ultimate decision was to protect Railroad Valley, which in turn protects the critical scientific data that multiple economic sectors rely on,” he said in an email Thursday.
San Jose State Spartans (7-6) at Nevada Wolf Pack (5-8)
Reno, Nevada; Sunday, 4 p.m. EST
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BOTTOM LINE: San Jose State visits Nevada after Sofia Kelemeni scored 27 points in San Jose State’s 100-44 win against the Bethesda (CA) Flames.
The Wolf Pack have gone 4-3 in home games. Nevada is seventh in the MWC in rebounding with 32.2 rebounds. Lexie Givens paces the Wolf Pack with 6.2 boards.
The Spartans are 1-2 on the road. San Jose State is 1-0 in games decided by less than 4 points.
Nevada’s average of 6.2 made 3-pointers per game this season is just 0.1 fewer made shots on average than the 6.3 per game San Jose State gives up. San Jose State’s 40.7% shooting percentage from the field this season is 2.7 percentage points lower than Nevada has allowed to its opponents (43.4%).
The Wolf Pack and Spartans meet Sunday for the first time in conference play this season.
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TOP PERFORMERS: Dymonique Maxie is averaging 6.6 points and 1.8 steals for the Wolf Pack.
Rylei Waugh is averaging 7.2 points for the Spartans.
LAST 10 GAMES: Wolf Pack: 4-6, averaging 68.5 points, 34.3 rebounds, 12.3 assists, 7.6 steals and 1.7 blocks per game while shooting 38.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 67.5 points per game.
Spartans: 5-5, averaging 64.4 points, 34.1 rebounds, 13.9 assists, 6.8 steals and 2.0 blocks per game while shooting 40.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 64.1 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – The report released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found that nationally, more than 770,000 people were experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2024.
Among the most concerning trends was a nearly 40% rise in family homelessness.
Here in Nevada more than 10,000 homeless people were counted, which is an increase from 8,600 last year.
“It’s very terrifying,” says Marie Baxter, CEO of Catholic Charities.
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“On a daily basis we can see upwards of 100 individuals, seniors, families, people who are coming in and most often what they’re asking for is some form of rental assistance,” says Baxter. “They’re facing eviction, their rents have gone up, or they’ve had a change in their circumstances.”
Baxter says that they have seen an increase in homeless grandparents, who are stepping up to take care of their grandchildren:
“A lot of grandparents are raising their grandchildren and they’re on a fixed income to start… They were barely getting by as it was, but now their food bills have gone up because they’re feeding their grandchildren, or their nieces or their nephews,” says Baxter.
HUD reports also look to blame soaring rents, and the end of pandemic assistance and officials also say the Maui fires and other natural disasters contributed to the rise.
However, homelessness among veterans dropped nearly 8% nationwide to an all-time low.
Las Vegas Hells Angels motorcycle club members accused of targeting a rival club in a Henderson highway shooting can be prosecuted as gang members under state law, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
The 2022 Memorial Day shooting on Interstate 11 — which Clark County prosecutors alleged targeted Vagos Motorcycle Club members — injured seven people.
Addressing that case, the higher court ruled that there was enough probable cause to classify the Hells Angels as a criminal gang.
Indicted Hells Angels members included local chapter President Richard Devries.
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District Court Judge Tierra Jones in 2023 dismissed some of the charges the suspects were facing, including racketeering, gang enhancements and 20 of 25 shooting-related counts.
Jones had sided with defense attorneys who had argued that the indictment failed to properly specify which defendants engaged in alleged racketeering activities.
Police told a grand jury that investigators recovered 25 spent bullets on the highway.
Jones noted that prosecutors only presented evidence from a witness who testified that one of the suspects fired five rounds.
Defense attorneys countered that the state failed to consider exculpatory evidence that some of the Vagos members had guns and that one of the indicted suspects, Rayann Mollasgo, had also been shot.
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‘Criminal gang’
“We conclude that this was an error because the State presented at least slight or marginal evidence to support a reasonable inference that Hells Angels members commonly engage in felony-level violence directed at rival motorcycle clubs, such that that group constitutes a criminal gang,” Supreme Court justices wrote in their ruling.
Added the higher court: “Because the District Court substantially erred in dismissing the gang enhancement, we reverse and remand.”
The other Hells Angels members indicted were Stephen Alo, Russell Smith, Aaron Chun, Cameron Treich and Taylor Rodriguez.
After Jones’ ruling, they still were facing 17 charges, including attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Roneric Padilla, who also was indicted, was charged with accessory to commit a felony.
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The Vagos group was returning to Las Vegas from Hoover Dam in a ride commemorating the holiday when Hells Angels motorcyclists rode behind the victims, according to prosecutors, who allege the Vagos were ambushed.
The suspects broke up the victims’ group and then shot at individual riders, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors alleged that the shooting might have been in retaliation for a California shooting that killed a Hells Angels motorcyclist, an accusation challenged by Vagos members during a grand jury hearing.
Nsc Hells Angels Decision by Las Vegas Review-Journal on Scribd
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Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.
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