Public Policy & NGOs
Here's a look at documents from public policy and non-governmental organizations
Featured Stories
Eight SwRI hydrogen projects funded by ENERGYWERX
SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Dec. 15 [Category: Business] -- Southwest Research Institute posted the following news release:
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Eight SwRI hydrogen projects funded by ENERGYWERX
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December 15, 2025 Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has received $1.75 million in funding from the ENERGYWERX program to support a set of hydrogen-related projects. The eight projects focus on testing components for the hydrogen industry to improve energy infrastructure and support the use of this clean-burning fuel.
The ENERGYWERX program strives to increase cooperative research activities between the DOE and nonprofits,
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SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Dec. 15 [Category: Business] -- Southwest Research Institute posted the following news release:
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Eight SwRI hydrogen projects funded by ENERGYWERX
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December 15, 2025 Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has received $1.75 million in funding from the ENERGYWERX program to support a set of hydrogen-related projects. The eight projects focus on testing components for the hydrogen industry to improve energy infrastructure and support the use of this clean-burning fuel.
The ENERGYWERX program strives to increase cooperative research activities between the DOE and nonprofits,private companies, utilities, localities and other organizations by accelerating the development of clean energy technologies and solutions.
Eight SwRI projects have been funded by the program:
* SwRI will perform pressure cycle testing on a hydrogen check valve to support high-pressure gaseous hydrogen refueling. The testing will be based on guidance from the widely accepted international standard ISO 19880-3. SwRI will commission a new facility to safely test the integrity of the check valve at hydrogen gas pressures of up to 15,000 psi. Jacqueline Manders, P.E., an assistant program manager in SwRI's Fluids Engineering Department, leads this project.
* At the same high-pressure hydrogen facility, Manders will also oversee testing valves used for underground hydrogen storage wells. SwRI will evaluate the reliability of the valves under repeated exposure to high-pressure hydrogen gas and extreme temperatures, which can embrittle metals and damage sealing elements, making them prone to leaks.
* Expanding SwRI's liquid hydrogen infrastructure is part of a wider effort to establish facilities and methodologies to support comprehensive hydrogen component testing, highlighting safety, reliability, performance, and compliance with global standards. Its focus will be liquid hydrogen pumps, valves, and other cryogenic components, providing significant benefits by testing with liquid hydrogen instead of substitutes like liquid nitrogen. SwRI Senior Research Engineer Brandon Ridens will lead the project, which is designed to gather performance test data of cryo-compressed hydrogen storage systems.
* SwRI assistant program manager Matthew Godush will lead efforts to test ultrasonic meters adapted to measure the flow of hydrogen-natural gas blends accurately. Because hydrogen has different flow properties than methane, existing meters do not provide accurate readings for natural gas and hydrogen blends. To help utilities safely adapt to hydrogen gas blends without massive infrastructure overhauls, SwRI will test the efficacy of the new meters with existing pipeline transmission technology.
* SwRI will test a new gas analysis sensor that detects hydrogen and methane content in hydrogennatural gas blends. The sensor will contain a rapid analysis tool to instantly assess the percentage of hydrogen and methane. This project, also led by Godush, will develop and test the tool's speed and accuracy in real-world gas conditions with different blend ratios.
* SwRI will test and validate a hydrogen gas analysis sensor for sensitivity, response time and accuracy. Godush will lead evaluations of the sensor for low-level leak detection, at higher concentrations and under different environmental conditions. When testing is complete, SwRI will provide recommendations to improve detection reliability.
* Godush will also lead an effort to detect hydrogen leaks under operational conditions. Leaks are difficult to detect in high-pressure hydrogen systems, because hydrogen is colorless and odorless, spreads quickly, and has a wide flammability range. SwRI will calibrate detection methods against known hydrogen leak scenarios to reinforce safety protocols with real-time detection.
* SwRI's Fassett Hickey leads a project that tests the compatibility of O-ring materials with hydrogen gas environments. O-rings are vital to safely operate hydrogen equipment in aerospace, energy, and industrial applications. Because hydrogen molecules are so small, they penetrate polymeric materials used for O-rings and the entrained gas can cause blistering or rupture during rapid decompression events. SwRI is testing the reliability and safety of the O-rings in hydrogen environments.
Many of the projects will be conducted in SwRI's Metering Research Facility, a world-class, high-accuracy, high-technology flow measurement facility that simulates actual field conditions. SwRI scientists and engineers across multiple disciplines are working together to prepare for a future hydrogen economy. The ENERGYWERX projects are underway and are expected to be completed by the end of 2026.
For more information, visit Hydrogen Energy Research or contact Joanna Quintanilla, +1 210 522 2073, Communications Department, Southwest Research Institute, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, TX 78238-5166.
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Original text here: https://www.swri.org/newsroom/press-releases/eight-swri-hydrogen-projects-funded-energywerx
New Balance's Home Turf Hit With Blitz of Anti-Leather Appeals From PETA
NORFOLK, Virginia, Dec. 12 -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals issued the following news release:
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New Balance's Home Turf Hit with Blitz of Anti-Leather Appeals from PETA
Boston - Shoppers hoping to snag some sneakers at the New Balance store on Newbury Street may be kicking those leather kicks to the curb once they spot a thought-provoking new appeal PETA has plastered throughout Massachusetts Ave Station and Copley Station--just a small jog away from the Boston-based brand's special concept store. The visual shows a mother cow nuzzling her baby but quickly transitions to reveal
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NORFOLK, Virginia, Dec. 12 -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals issued the following news release:
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New Balance's Home Turf Hit with Blitz of Anti-Leather Appeals from PETA
Boston - Shoppers hoping to snag some sneakers at the New Balance store on Newbury Street may be kicking those leather kicks to the curb once they spot a thought-provoking new appeal PETA has plastered throughout Massachusetts Ave Station and Copley Station--just a small jog away from the Boston-based brand's special concept store. The visual shows a mother cow nuzzling her baby but quickly transitions to revealthe calf standing alone--along with the pointed message, "Your New Shoes Stole My Mom. Leather Costs Lives. Please, Wear Vegan." PETA hopes the ad will prompt New Balance to embrace a new concept: shoes without suffering.
"Behind every pair of leather sneakers is a thinking, feeling being who loved their family, valued their own life, and didn't want to be killed for a shoe," says PETA Founder Ingrid Newkirk. "PETA is encouraging shoppers everywhere to put their best foot forward by choosing trendy vegan sneakers that leave cows in peace."
Cows have friends and mourn when a loved one dies or when they're separated from each other. Yet cows killed for leather are skinned and dismembered--some while still conscious--after they've endured castration (for males), branding, and tail docking, often without painkillers. In addition to inflicting horrific cruelty on animals, the leather industry is a major contributor to climate change, land devastation, deforestation, water pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Vegan leathers are durable and fashionable without the cruelty or environmental destruction of leather.
PETA's ad can be seen on a dozen digital displays located throughout Massachusetts Ave Station, just a short walk from New Balance's Newbury Street location, as well as on nearly two dozen displays throughout Copley Station once it reopens on December 22--even closer to New Balance's Newbury store.
PETA--whose motto reads, in part, that "animals are not ours to wear"--points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kitsfor people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
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Original text here: https://www.peta.org/media/news-releases/new-balances-home-turf-hit-with-blitz-of-anti-leather-appeals-from-peta/
[Category: Animals]
Johns Hopkins APL-Led Team Releases Predictive Space Weather Model to Public
LAUREL, Maryland, Dec. 12 [Category: Science] -- The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory posted the following news release:
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Johns Hopkins APL-Led Team Releases Predictive Space Weather Model to Public
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A predictive space weather model designed to simulate how solar storms affect Earth has been publicly released for researchers in the broader scientific community as well as the general public to use for their own research.
The physics-based Multiscale Atmosphere-Geospace Environment (MAGE) model one of the most comprehensive suites of space weather models simulates solar
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LAUREL, Maryland, Dec. 12 [Category: Science] -- The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory posted the following news release:
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Johns Hopkins APL-Led Team Releases Predictive Space Weather Model to Public
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A predictive space weather model designed to simulate how solar storms affect Earth has been publicly released for researchers in the broader scientific community as well as the general public to use for their own research.
The physics-based Multiscale Atmosphere-Geospace Environment (MAGE) model one of the most comprehensive suites of space weather models simulates solaractivity to study how events generated by the Sun impact the planet and helps NASA achieve its strategic goals for exploring the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
The model, available now under a permissive open-source license, is being developed at the NASA-supported Center for Geospace Storms (CGS), which launched in 2020 and is headquartered at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.
"The public release of MAGE represents a major milestone for CGS and the space science community," said Slava Merkin, director of CGS at APL. "Our team is looking forward to working with heliophysics researchers on making scientific discoveries and helping to better predict space weather."
Why Space Weather Matters
Space weather events impact everyday life, with the potential to damage power grids; hamper global positioning systems for pilots, farmers, and other users; and affect rail systems.
This activity stems from solar events such as flares and coronal mass ejections releasing charged particles and radiation into geospace, a roughly one-million-mile region around Earth that includes the magnetosphere, ionosphere, and upper atmosphere.
Monitoring and forecasting space weather storms is even more critical as plans to maintain a sustained presence on the Moon, Mars, and beyond accelerate. For example, NASA's Artemis campaign will send humans to live and work on the Moon in preparation for missions to Mars and potentially other worlds.
Interactions in geospace produce stunning auroras but can also harm key assets both on and above Earth. Space weather can disrupt communications, increase radiation risk to astronauts and hardware, and elevate drag on low-Earth-orbit satellites.
In August 1972, a massive solar storm destabilized satellites and communications. Apollo astronauts who would have been in orbit or on the Moon's surface during the heightened solar activity would have sustained dangerous levels of radiation.
Summon the MAGE
The MAGE model developed by CGS will help space weather experts better predict how solar events impact Earth.
MAGE pulls together several smaller predictive models such as the GAMERA magnetosphere model and TIEGCM for the upper atmosphere that study complex physical processes in geospace and their effects on space weather across the near-Earth space environment to provide a comprehensive picture of how geospace reacts to solar disturbances.
Since May 2024, MAGE has been available to researchers, educators, and students worldwide for runs-on-request through NASA's Community Coordinated Modeling Center. Last year, it was used to simulate the reaction of geospace to the May 10-11 geomagnetic storm.
"With this public release, anybody can download the source code, run it, and make modifications in the spirit of NASA's Open Science initiative," said Merkin.
Access to the MAGE model is available through GitHub. The CGS team has also developed an analysis and visualization package to allow scientists to process results of MAGE simulations. This package is also openly available via GitHub.
CGS is part of NASA's Diversify, Realize, Integrate, Venture, Educate (DRIVE) Science Centers program, which aims to encourage collaborative science by establishing multi-institutional centers that can address major research challenges in space and solar physics.
"The NASA DRIVE Science Centers program is unique in its ability to support transformative large-scale efforts like MAGE development and the scientific discovery that it enables," Merkin said. "We are very grateful for the support that we have received and strive every day to deliver on our promises."
APL leads CGS, partnering with multiple institutions including the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research, the University of New Hampshire, Rice University, Virginia Tech, University of California, Los Angeles, and Syntek Technologies.
Established Expertise
APL has established itself as a leading authority on space weather through multiple spacecraft missions, instruments, and exercises.
On Sept. 24, NASA launched the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), led by Princeton University in collaboration with APL, to study the heliosphere and provide space weather information.
Data from some of IMAP's instruments will support the IMAP Active Link for Real-Time (I-ALiRT) system, which will broadcast frequent and reliable information that enhances space weather predictions and warnings.
In May 2024, APL hosted the nation's first end-to-end Space Weather Tabletop Exercise (TTX), convening space weather experts with leaders in emergency management and response and recovery to engage in a hypothetical scenario simulating a series of solar events with wide-ranging effects on Earth and beyond. An After-Action Report highlighting key findings was published in March 2025.
Also in March, NASA launched the APL-led Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) mission, which will study Earth's auroral electrojets electrical currents flowing near Earth's poles to better understand the impacts of space weather.
Parker Solar Probe, launched in 2018, is revolutionizing what we know about the Sun and events like CMEs by flying closer to the solar surface than any other spacecraft. On Dec. 24, 2024, Parker completed the first of multiple closest approaches to the Sun, flying at a record-breaking 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) from the surface.
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Original text here: https://www.jhuapl.edu/news/news-releases/251212-center-geospace-storms-mage-model
Donald Trump's AI Order Threatens Everyday Georgians' Wallets
WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 [Category: Environment] -- The Sierra Club posted the following news release:
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Donald Trump's AI Order Threatens Everyday Georgians' Wallets
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ATLANTA - Donald Trump has issued an executive order seeking to remove state guardrails around artificial intelligence and the infrastructure needed to run AI, including popular state-level initiatives to require data center build transparency, protect privacy, and reduce impacts on electric affordability and pollution.
The critical state protections that Donald Trump wants to prosecuteincluding guardrails like large load tariffs
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WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 [Category: Environment] -- The Sierra Club posted the following news release:
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Donald Trump's AI Order Threatens Everyday Georgians' Wallets
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ATLANTA - Donald Trump has issued an executive order seeking to remove state guardrails around artificial intelligence and the infrastructure needed to run AI, including popular state-level initiatives to require data center build transparency, protect privacy, and reduce impacts on electric affordability and pollution.
The critical state protections that Donald Trump wants to prosecuteincluding guardrails like large load tariffsare in place to ensure everyday Americans are not held liable for data centers' massive power and infrastructure needs. Sierra Club has helped utilities, regulators, and consumer advocates implement commonsense safeguards like long-term contracts, credit guarantees, and minimum bills that protect affordability for residential customers.
The executive order also seeks to get rid of state standards that protect Americans from toxic fossil fuel pollution at data centers. If these protections get rolled backwhich Trump's Environmental Protection Agency is already trying to doAmericans will be exposed to far more pollutants in their air and water.
Georgia Power has been rolling the red carpet out for AI data center projects, cancelling planned retirements of coal plants, expanding nuclear power at Plant Vogtle, and increasing our reliance on methane gas to support the data center bubble. However, several cities and counties have passed ordinances and restrictions on the projects after residents voiced their opposition.
In response, the Sierra Club issued the following statements:
"If data centers want to come to Georgia, it's only fair that they be good neighbors. Communities across our state have worked hard for protection against these disruptive, energy-guzzling projects and local governments have responded," said Hannah Baker, Organizer with the Sierra Club's Georgia Chapter. "By destroying guardrails around AI data centers, Trump is destroying our right to do what's best for our communities."
"This executive order is nothing more than federal overreach that will further increase costs and remove protections for the American people," said Sierra Club Principal Advisor Jeremy Fisher. "These state protections are in place because Americans have a right to privacy and transparency, and must not be held responsible for the massive costs of data centers operated by some of the richest companies in the world. Utility bills have already been skyrocketing due to growing energy demand from data centers and utilities' reliance on expensive fossil fuels, and we must be doing everything we can to lower these costs and prioritize affordability.
"If Donald Trump cares at all about lowering costs for Americans, he should work on setting up more safeguards for customers, rather than bulldozing the progress states have made thus far," Fisher added. "Unfortunately for us, this order makes it clear he's only interested in bolstering profits for his billionaire buddies in Big Tech at our expense."
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Original text here: https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2025/12/donald-trump-s-ai-order-threatens-everyday-georgians-wallets
China: Veteran Journalist Charged with 'Picking Quarrels'
NEW YORK, Dec. 12 [Category: International] -- Human Rights Watch posted the following news:
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China: Veteran Journalist Charged with 'Picking Quarrels'
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(New York) - Chinese authorities have formally charged well-known journalist and author Du Bin (Du Bin ) with "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," Human Rights Watch said today.
Police in Beijing took Du, 53, into custody on October 15, 2025, a day before he had scheduled trip to Japan, his sister said in a statement. He has since been held at Beijing's Shunyi Detention Center. He faces up to 5 years in prison under article 293
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NEW YORK, Dec. 12 [Category: International] -- Human Rights Watch posted the following news:
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China: Veteran Journalist Charged with 'Picking Quarrels'
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(New York) - Chinese authorities have formally charged well-known journalist and author Du Bin (Du Bin ) with "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," Human Rights Watch said today.
Police in Beijing took Du, 53, into custody on October 15, 2025, a day before he had scheduled trip to Japan, his sister said in a statement. He has since been held at Beijing's Shunyi Detention Center. He faces up to 5 years in prison under article 293of China's Criminal Law, and up to 10 years if found to be "seriously disrupting public order."
"The baseless charges against a prominent journalist like Du Bin highlight the growing intolerance for dissent under Xi Jinping's leadership," said Yalkun Uluyol, China researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The authorities should free Du Bin immediately and unconditionally and drop all charges."
Du's arrest appears to be related to his books, which the authorities allege "attack national leaders." However, Du's family have said that they have yet to receive notice of a formal criminal arrest or charge, in apparent violation of the notification requirements in China's Criminal Procedure Law.
This is the third time that the authorities have detained Du, but the first time he has been formally charged (Dai Bu ).
The authorities detained Du for a month in 2013 for releasing a documentary, "Above the Ghosts' Head: The Women of Masanjia Labour Camp," and a book, " The Tiananmen Massacre. " He was detained for a month in 2020 for allegedly "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" because of his books critical of the Chinese government. Du's books, all published abroad, include the " Changchun Hunger Siege," a historical account published in 2017 about the deaths from starvation of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Changchun during the Chinese civil war.
Du previously worked as a journalist and photographer for various domestic and international outlets, including the New York Times, Beijing Youth Daily (Bei Jing Qing Nian Bao ), and Workers' Daily (Gong Ren Ri Bao ).
Under Xi Jinping's leadership for the past decade, the authorities have arrested and prosecuted a number of Chinese journalists in violation of their rights to freedom of expression and association. Reporters Without Border has reported that 121 journalists are currently detained in China.
In November, Beijing's High Court upheld a seven-year sentence for Dong Yuyu, 62, a journalist arrested in February 2022 on espionage charges while he was having lunch with a Japanese diplomat. Dong had been writing for a Chinese government newspaper, Guangming Daily, for 35 years before his arrest.
In September, a court sentenced a citizen-journalist, Zhang Zhan, 42, to four years in prison for "picking quarrels and provoking troubles." Zhang had previously served four years in prison under the same article for her reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic in Wuhan.
After Zhang's second conviction, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, said the crime of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble... given its broad wording and the wide scope of its potential application to those exercising their rights, including freedom of expression and association," is "at variance with China's international human rights obligations."
In June 2024, a court in Guangzhou sentenced a feminist activist and journalist, Huang Xueqin, 37, to five years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power" for her writing, including about the 2019 Hong Kong protests and her role in the #MeTooMovement.
In Hong Kong, Jimmy Lai, 77, a prominent pro-democracy media tycoon and owner of the shuttered Apple Daily is facing up to life in prison on two fabricated "foreign collusion" charges under Hong Kong's draconian National Security Law.
"Concerned governments should publicly raise Du Bin's case with the Chinese government and press for his immediate and unconditional release," Uluyol said. "By bringing baseless charges against its critics, Beijing is merely broadcasting to the world the fragility of its rule."
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Original text here: https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/12/12/china-veteran-journalist-charged-with-picking-quarrels
CODEPINK Confronts DHS Secretary Kristi Noem at Congressional Hearing
LOS ANGELES, California, Dec. 12 -- CodePink, a grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end U.S.-funded wars and occupations, to challenge militarism globally, posted the following news release:
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CODEPINK Confronts DHS Secretary Kristi Noem at Congressional Hearing
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WASHINGTON, D.C. - Activists with CODEPINK and local D.C. residents disrupted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's testimony at the House Committee on Homeland Security's annual "Worldwide Threats to the Homeland" hearing on Tuesday. The disruption was intended to call out Immigration and Customs Enforcement
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LOS ANGELES, California, Dec. 12 -- CodePink, a grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end U.S.-funded wars and occupations, to challenge militarism globally, posted the following news release:
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CODEPINK Confronts DHS Secretary Kristi Noem at Congressional Hearing
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WASHINGTON, D.C. - Activists with CODEPINK and local D.C. residents disrupted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's testimony at the House Committee on Homeland Security's annual "Worldwide Threats to the Homeland" hearing on Tuesday. The disruption was intended to call out Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICE) as the domestic threat to community and public safety that they are.
Wearing "Abolish ICE" t-shirts, the group packed the hearing. During Noem's testimony, two CODEPINK activists disrupted Noem. One jumped up yelling, "ICE off our streets! Stop terrorizing our communities," while another dressed as a priest yelled, "The power of Christ compels you to stop ICE raids. Love thy neighbor."
"How dare she sit there and talk about 'threats to our homeland' when she's the one using OUR tax dollars to terrorize our communities. If she really wants to protect our homeland, which by the way is stolen land, she should stop asking for more and more of our tax dollars for a department that is making our neighbors afraid to leave their homes. ICE should be abolished, and that money should be used to fund what our communities actually need- healthcare, schools, housing, the fight against climate change, to name a few," explained Bita Iuliano, one of the activists present in the hearing.
"Noem, along with Hegseth, Rubio, and the rest of the war criminal crew, are the ones terrorizing our communities, from our streets here to Palestine, Venezuela, and all over the world. They are the ones making it unsafe, and they're using our dollars to do it. All we have are our voices, and we're going to make sure we're heard," she continued.
Participants in the action emphasized how Noem and the Department of Homeland Security undermine true safety and security with their Gestapo-style kidnappings of men, women, teenagers, children, migrant workers, and U.S.-born citizens alike.
Recent polling shows that the majority of people in the United States disapprove of ICE and its operations, as communities are coming together to find creative ways to protect their neighbors from the masked, unmarked terrorists. People are demanding the reallocation of federal funds from immigration enforcement to social services and community-based programs that will result in real safety and security.
For more information or un-branded videos, please contact Melissa at melissa@codepink.org
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Original text here: https://www.codepink.org/dhsdisrupt
[Category: Sociological]
Bureau of Land Management Approves Expansive and Destructive Mining Exploration Project
WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 [Category: Environment] -- Earthworks issued the following news release:
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Bureau of Land Management Approves Expansive and Destructive Mining Exploration Project
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The approval of Jindalee Lithium's McDermitt Exploration Project threatens invaluable sagebrush habitat and tribal cultural resources
CONTACTS:
Anne White, ONDA Policy Manager - anne@onda.org
People of Red Mountain - Peopleofredmountain@gmail.com
Kassandra Lisenbee, Earthworks SW Organizer - klisenbee@earthworksaction.org
Kelly Fuller, GBRW Mining Justice Organizer - kelly@gbrw.org
On December
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 [Category: Environment] -- Earthworks issued the following news release:
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Bureau of Land Management Approves Expansive and Destructive Mining Exploration Project
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The approval of Jindalee Lithium's McDermitt Exploration Project threatens invaluable sagebrush habitat and tribal cultural resources
CONTACTS:
Anne White, ONDA Policy Manager - anne@onda.org
People of Red Mountain - Peopleofredmountain@gmail.com
Kassandra Lisenbee, Earthworks SW Organizer - klisenbee@earthworksaction.org
Kelly Fuller, GBRW Mining Justice Organizer - kelly@gbrw.org
On December8, 2025, the Bureau of Land Management authorized extensive and damaging exploration for a potential lithium mine in the McDermitt Caldera, which spans the Oregon/Nevada border. The project, located on the Oregon side, threatens as many as 7,200 acres of public lands that preserve irreplaceable cultural resources, provide habitat for numerous imperiled species, and have supported a family ranch for six generations.
The Final Environmental Assessment fails to adequately analyze the significant impacts the project will have on protected species and tribal culture. Although the federal government has now approved the project, no work can continue until permits are approved by the state of Oregon.
The approved McDermitt Exploration Project, proposed by HiTech Minerals Inc., a subsidiary of Australian-owned Jindalee Lithium Limited, would eliminate habitat on public land through development of an expansive network of new roads and 168 drill sites. The project would also pump huge amounts of groundwater needed for drilling operations.
The McDermitt Caldera is the homeland for many Indigenous Peoples, including the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe located just 20 miles from the project area, who continue to seek both spiritual and physical sustenance from the landscape as their ancestors have since time immemorial.
"The Caldera and its surrounding landscapes are crucial to teaching tradition and practicing culture. Once one lithium mine opens then another and another will, which means our people's connection to ancestral territory is forever severed. What will that mean for our people's future? It is clear that the BLM serves corporate interests and simply ignores the concerns of locals and those most connected to the land," said People of Red Mountain in a statement.
The BLM's determination that there will be no significant effects to cultural resources is shortsighted and fails to account for the cumulative loss of cultural landscapes in the Caldera, including resources already damaged by the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine, which is currently under construction. It also downplays the project's potential to permanently injure the lifeways and traditional practices of the local Indigenous community. The BLM's own analysis indicates that there are seven newly recorded sites eligible for listing under the National Register Historic Places within the project footprint.
"Mineral extraction and exploitation of the natural world is speeding down the road of destruction that will cause irreversible harm to cultural landscapes that native people hold close to our hearts. When will people understand that destruction to the earth's life sources is destruction to humanity?" said Fermina Stevens, Executive Director of the Western Shoshone Defense Project.
The Caldera features uninterrupted rolling sagebrush hills and desert creeks that provide intact and connected habitat and vital water resources for dozens of flora and fauna species, including the greater sage-grouse, federally threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout, pygmy rabbit, and big game. BLM's analysis of impacts to this ecological haven from mining exploration is superficial and narrowly focused, often concluding that effects will be insubstantial and short-term even as they describe habitat degradation, long-term population decline, and impacts to surface water quality.
"Sagebrush ecosystems take decades to recover in ideal conditions. Increasing drought and variable weather, invasive species and wildfire among other threats complicate restoration efforts and can make it all but impossible for an area to ever recover to what it once was," said Anne White, Policy Manager at Oregon Natural Desert Association. "Nothing proposed under this plan will be minimal or short-term, and it's irresponsible of BLM and the project proponent to claim so."
"The groundwater in this area has not been well studied, and we're not really going to know what happens to the groundwater when all that drilling takes place because the BLM's monitoring requirements don't include enough monitoring wells to know what's actually happening," said Kelly Fuller, Mining Justice Organizer at Great Basin Resource Watch.
Unlike at other mining exploration projects in ecologically and culturally sensitive areas, BLM analyzed only one alternative to the company's proposal in detail. This drastically limits both the agency's own analysis and the public's ability to provide input on different alternatives that may limit and mitigate harm to the environment and the local community.
"Due to the size of this project, we should have seen a more rigorous analysis," said Kassandra Lisenbee, Earthworks Southwest Mining Organizer. "The current administration's push to fast-track permitting while gutting the agencies meant to analyze the harms of these projects will likely result in community opposition to international corporate polluters getting an all-access pass to our public lands."
"This 7,200-acre plan of operations is enough to put a ranching family with six generations and their legacy to a stop. No future for the rancher, the cow, sage-grouse, or cutthroat trout. All the money spent in the past on permits, conservative grazing, water/land studies, and preventative measures to ensure the survival of the ecosystem in the Caldera were all a waste. It's a slap in the face to all the ranchers, biologists, botanists, hydrologists, and conservationists who spent countless hours and money believing in a future that will be destroyed by Jindalee's exploration," said Hyland and April Wilkinson, GJ Livestock LLC.
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Original text here: https://earthworks.org/releases/bureau-of-land-management-approves-expansive-and-destructive-mining-exploration-project/
