“Every once in a while, I’ll catch a news item that not only justifies, but freshens and hardens my cynicism. This time, the Beltway news site Politico drooled out a 3,600-word epic produced in conjunction with nonprofit Type Investigations, covering exploration for lithium (a critical strategic element) underway in northern Nevada, with Australian miner Ioneer poking around a potential $2 billion deposit.

On top of that hopeful bonanza sits the only 21 acres of Thiem’s buckwheat on the entire planet. Never mind that there are about 250 species, mostly endemic (as in locally-adapted) buckwheats in the West, but that set up Politico’s narrative about “a foreign mining corporation against a handful of environmentalists defending a rare, ankle-high wildflower.”

Tellingly, our journalist writes he was escorted to the exploration site by a representative of the Center for Biological Diversity – a “handful of environmentalists” claiming 1.6 million members (but no membership dues income), with 172 employees paid $12 million out of a $21 million 2017 budget. Quite a handful.

Adding juice to the story was a ‘sweeping whistleblower complaint’ submitted by a ‘five-year BLM employee’ at Battle Mountain, Dan Patterson, in conjunction with and represented in court by the so-called Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).”

Read the PEER Story…