Lithium Mining

One of the Trump Administration's last acts was approval of a lithium mine in Nevada.  You doubtless know that lithium is essential for all those electric vehicles at the heart of every environmental wet dream.  Of course, most of it comes from China, so environmentalists are trying hard to stop American lithium mining.  5/17/19 Seattle Times discusses the conflicted feelings of the Greenies.  Do we really want the environmental costs of lithium mining to be entirely in the Third World?  Do we want our Teslas cheap enough that everyone buys one, not just the well-heeled sorts that buy them now?