Hosted by the Kirwan Institute for the Center on Race and Ethnicity, this virtual talk is cosponsored by CURA.
Drs. Chris Benner and Manuel Pastor will talk about their new book, Charging Forward: Lithium Valley, Electric Vehicles, and a Just Future. The volume starts and ends in the Salton Sea region of Southern California, a place that has been considered an environmental disaster zone, a site of labor exploitation, and a problematic example of grinding poverty and racial exclusion. But while it has long been on the periphery, it is now a new center of political and economic attention – because it is sitting on enough lithium to electrify the entire US auto fleet and have 100 million batteries left over!
The proposed method of extraction promises to be the cleanest and greenest on the planet, a prospect that is exciting environmentalists as well as state official and corporations. Meanwhile, frontline communities that have all too frequently been left behind and kept behind are worried about just how clean the process will be, labor is seeking assurances about good permanent employment, and public officials are trying to maximize benefits without scaring away investors.
And while the book is deeply rooted in place, the authors make a key point: what happens in Lithium Valley will not stay in Lithium Valley. For that reason, the book telescopes from a broad consideration of the clean energy transition to an in-depth exploration of the 2023 strikes in the auto industry to a deep dive into the Salton Sea region and then a zoom out to national-level lessons for what we call “green justice.”
