Biden admin advances review of Nevada lithium mine [Video]

• The Biden administration has initiated an expedited environmental review for the Rhyolite Ridge mine in Nevada.
• Environmentalists vow to challenge the mine’s approval, arguing that it violates the Endangered Species Act and threatens the survival of an endangered wildflower.
• Nevada currently hosts the only existing lithium mine in the U.S., with another under construction.

The Biden administration has taken a significant step in its expedited environmental review of what could become the third lithium mine in the U.S., amid anticipated legal challenges from conservationists over the threat they say it poses to an endangered Nevada wildflower.

The Bureau of Land Management released more than 2,000 pages of documents in a draft environmental impact statement last week for the Rhyolite Ridge mine. Lithium is a metal key to the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles — a centerpiece of President Joe Biden’s “green energy” agenda.

Officials for the bureau and its parent Interior Department …