Charging Forward: Lithium Valley, Electric Vehicles, and a Just Future

A clarion call for justice in the quest for clean energy

California’s Salton Sea region is home to some of the worst environmental health conditions in the country. It is also ground zero for a new “lithium gold rush”—a race to extract a mineral critical to the rapidly expanding electric vehicle and renewable energy storage markets. With enough lithium lurking beneath the surface to provide a third of global demand, who will benefit from the development of this precious resource? 

A work of stunning analysis and reporting, Charging Forward shows that the questions raised by Lithium Valley lie at the heart of the “green transition.” Weaving together movement politics, federal policy, and global supply chains, noted experts Chris Benner and Manuel Pastor stress that extracting lithium is just a first step: the real question is whether the region and the nation will address and overcome the environmental degradation, labor exploitation, and racial injustice that have been as much a part of the landscape as the Salton Sea itself.

What happens in Lithium Valley, the authors argue, will not stay there. This tiny patch of California is a microcosm of the broad climate challenges we face; understanding Lithium Valley today is the key to grasping the future of our economy and our planet.

Chris Benner is the director of the Institute for Social Transformation and the Everett Program for Technology and Social Change at UC Santa Cruz. The co-author, with Manuel Pastor, of Charging Forward: Lithium Valley, Electric Vehicles, and a Just Future (The New Press), he lives in Santa Cruz, California.

Manuel Pastor is the director of the Equity Research Institute at the University of Southern California and the author of State of Resistance: What California’s Dizzying Descent and Remarkable Resurgence Mean for America’s Future and (with Chris Benner) of Charging Forward: Lithium Valley, Electric Vehicles, and a Just Future (both from The New Press). He lives in Los Angeles.