The oil industry's trash could be EV treasure - POLITICO

The oil industry’s trash could be EV treasure - POLITICO

The oil industry’s trash could be EV treasure

Oil and gas companies are looking to turn their wastewater into gold — or something almost as prized: lithium.

Lithium is a key ingredient of many electric vehicle batteries. It’s traditionally mined from deep underground. But the highly sought-after mineral is also found in the salty wastewater produced through oil and natural gas drilling, write Hannah Northey and Shelby Webb.

Major oil companies say they are on the verge of commercializing technologies that can extract lithium from the brine in producing wells. That could supercharge the domestic supply of lithium for electric car batteries, boosting the Biden administration’s electric vehicle goals.

And it could mean that the oil companies, which have produced so much of the fossil fuel driving the climate crisis, could get yet another new revenue stream based on the transition to cleaner energy. (See also: carbon storage, geothermal and wind.)

A salty solution?

Demand for lithium — and other minerals such as nickel, cobalt and graphite — is skyrocketing as automakers around the world ramp up production of electric cars and trucks to meet carbon emission reduction goals. In the U.S., greenhouse gases from the transportation sector are the largest contributor to global warming.

Companies usually mine hardrock and clay for lithium or access the silvery-white metal through evaporation using massive ponds. China processes up to 70 percent of the world’s lithium supply, a continued sore spot for the Biden administration, which has sought to boost domestic production.

The U.S. is poised to increase lithium production through traditional mining projects like Nevada’s Thacker Pass mine, which is currently under construction.

But domestic and global supply will need to ramp up much more to meet the demand, and the oil industry is looking to close that gap by directly removing lithium from brine in salt flats and bodies of water.

A single week’s worth of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing could conceivably produce enough lithium for 300 electric vehicle batteries. For context, the industry produces billions of barrels of briny wastewater every year.

Exxon Mobil is already looking to build one of the world’s largest lithium processing plants in a producing region in Arkansas known as the Smackover, which is rich with saltwater brine after decades of oil and gas extraction.

It’s Tuesday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO’s Power Switch. I’m your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy.

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Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: James Bikales breaks down the dilemma the Treasury Department faces as it works to define the Inflation Reduction Act’s “foreign entities of concern” provision.

Power Centers

Biden unveils mining revamp

The Biden administration released a road map today for how the nation can secure a domestic supply of the minerals needed to make clean energy technology like solar panels and electric vehicle batteries, writes Hannah Northey.

The document contains 60 recommendations for revamping the 151-year-old law that governs hardrock mining. It rejected calls to include stricter time limits for permitting mines on public lands — a change that both the industry and some in government say is needed.

Climate science under attack in classrooms

Political battles over the science of climate change are increasingly being fought in the classroom, writes Scott Waldman.

Conservative activists and politicians in states across the country are trying to limit or alter climate science curricula in schools, marking a growing front in the culture war over race, gender identity and the environment.

Supercharged storm hits Greece

Athens is asking Brussels for aid after a massive storm brought record rainfall and inundated a quarter of Greece’s agricultural land, write Nektaria Stamouli and Zia Weise.

“We’ve had the worst floods in our history. This is probably one of the most powerful storms to ever hit Europe,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.

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Oil boss out: BP CEO Bernard Looney has resigned over personal relationships with colleagues.

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Amazon jumped into the race to commercialize machines that can suck carbon dioxide from the sky, giving the fledgling direct air capture industry one of its largest customers and the prospect of a behemoth investor.

Inflation Reduction Act programs might be enough to deliver President Joe Biden’s goal of 80 percent carbon-free electricity by 2030, according to EPA’s new peer-reviewed analysis of the climate law.

For the second time in as many weeks, South Dakota regulators denied a developer’s application for a carbon dioxide pipeline in the state because of conflicts with local zoning regulations.

That’s it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.

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