• HuddaBudda
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        402 years ago

        It means we don’t have to go to the Congo or through Russia, China, or others anymore. Which is a pretty big political relief because it means that we have a little bit more resource independence.

        Maybe even a way we could compete on the global market if we play our cards right.

        If they’re smart, they’ll use it to beef up our power grid for the global warming shock.

        Unfortunately, I imagine @poopa_mo is right, and this is just going to beef up someone’s bank account. Or rot in a warehouse.

        • TheWoozy
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          22 years ago

          The best way for it to beef up someone’s bank account is for us to play our cards right and use it to compete on the global market.

        • @[email protected]
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          32 years ago

          There’s no good reason to use lithium for utility-scale power storage. We need it for transportation because it has the best power compared to its weight. Utility storage doesn’t care as much about weight, and there are plenty of better options.

        • @[email protected]
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          92 years ago

          Most Lithium comes from South America and Australia and has for some time. I do not believe that Lithium has ever had the geopolitical issues that other rare earth metals such as cobalt have had.

          • @[email protected]
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            52 years ago

            Yeah, the difference between lithium and oil is that oil is a consumable. If the price of oil goes up, that has an instant effect on energy/transportation costs. If the price of lithium goes up, it’ll only affect the price of new batteries, and anything that’s already in use is unaffected. It’ll slow down investments in new projects, people might delay the purchase of a new car, etc, but it’s a way smaller economic impact.

      • @[email protected]
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        152 years ago

        Bullshit. Look at “inflation” right now. Companies like food companies increased prices massively because everyone else was. No other reason.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 years ago

          They have to pay higher rent, energy prices etc when everybody else raises their prices…