Government-proposed building of lithium-ion battery manufacturing facilities and battery energy storage system (BESS) plants across the nation is fast gaining the attention of concerned citizens who claim the creation of theses batteries is an “environmentally dirty process.”
Opponents seeking to slow the rush to build these factories and energy storage facilities think that not enough consideration has been given to just how environmentally costly it will be to produce electric-vehicle batteries for an all-electric future. Especially since the current process to build lithium batteries can increase nearby air and water pollution, and cause fires leading to a risk of explosion.
Not to mention that, according to Autoweek, “Researchers are finding that battery production for electric cars ultimately produces more carbon dioxide — up to 74 percent more — than an efficient conventional car if those batteries are produced in a factory powered by fossil fuels.” The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that 78 percent of the current energy produced in the United States is from fossil fuels.
Concerned residents from the town of Queen Creek, Arizona, are fighting the town council and county supervisors over their approval of building a massive battery manufacturing and recycling plant on 650 acres of land. An online petition to stop the plant has garnered over 3,900 signatures.
The Queen Creek petition stated:
The creation of electric car batteries is an environmentally dirty process. Activities generally produce emissions from particulate matter and air pollutants from fossil fuel combustion such as greenhouse gases and nitrogen oxide. Lithium batteries and their production entails high CO2 emissions.
Overall, it has been found that battery electric vehicle (BEV) technologies require more energy and electricity than internal combustion vehicles. When comparing BEVs, emissions of greenhouse gases, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter from BEV production is almost double compared to the emissions from internal combustion production. This is largely due to the high energy demands required for battery production.
The petition also listed their concerns that the factory would cause more pollution, noxious odors, possible soil/groundwater/wastewater contamination, loss of property value, potential health threats, and risk of fire and explosions.
A Queen Creek resident told the Phoenix Business Journal, “[My family and I] have lived here, raised my children here for over 25 years.” Another resident said, “We have cows, horses, chickens, we have a rural lifestyle out here. This plant is going up within a mile of our homes…. These types of plants should be in an area of industrial buildings, not in an area of rural lifestyle. I find it absurd and unbelievable that this Council would not consider the health and lifestyle of our community.”
Elsewhere, some Brighton, Colorado, residents are openly voicing their concern over the announced building of an Amprius Technologies battery factory in their community, which would become Colorado’s largest battery manufacturing plant. The Epoch Times shared, “Residents say carcinogenic chemicals and flammable liquids used to make lithium-ion batteries make the factory hazardous to their health and to the environment.”
Amprius reportedly respondedn saying, “Fears about potential health hazards emanating from the plant are unfounded” and that it will “comply with all federal, state, and local environmental, health, and safety regulatory requirements.”
To add to the environmentally dirty process of manufacturing EV batteries, the process relies on using a mix of cobalt, manganese, nickel, graphite, and other primary components. Many of these materials are harvested overseas. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to Investing News, is “the world’s largest producer of cobalt, accounting for roughly 70 percent of global production.” Investing News added that, “as cobalt demand rises, increasing attention is being directed at the DRC. However, cobalt mining in the country has been linked to human rights abuses, including child labor.”
Regardless of growing debate and concerns over EV battery production in the United States, the BESS factories and battery electric vehicle technology still has the full support of the Biden administration. Just last weekend, the White House announced that Biden was ramping up his green energy goals, signing an executive order “to further embed environmental justice into the work of federal agencies, bring clean energy and healthy environments to all, and recognize, undo, and mitigate harm to those who have suffered from toxic pollution and other environmental burdens like climate change.”
The White House fact sheet made no mention of the truth behind how EV battery production, in its current process, is not a “green” tech or even climate friendly. Nor did it mention how government policies willfully ignore human-rights violations to achieve their supposed “environmental justice” goals.
President Biden’s desire to force America to have net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 doesn’t appear to include the truth that the current process of producing the millions of EV batteries that will be needed is doing more harm than good to the environment. At least Americans are now pushing back on the green madness that has infected our government, and we can only hope that they continue to do so.
