Charging Forward

"California's Salton Sea region is home to some of the worst environmental health conditions in the country. Recently, however, it has also become ground zero in the new "lithium gold rush"--the race to power the rapidly expanding electric vehicle and renewable energy storage market. Experts Chris Benner and Manuel Pastor stress that getting the lithium out from under the earth is just a first step: the real question is whether the region and the nation will get out from under the environmental degradation, labor exploitation, and racial injustice that have been as much a part of the landscape as the Salton Sea itself"--