RUI: The Green Bargain: The Environmental Politics of Rare Earth Mining

本研究项目是对三个案例研究的比较分析，旨在更好地了解专家和民间社会如何定义、建模和衡量负责任的采矿。该项目的目的是评估加速稀土开采所需的绿色交易，以推动美国的清洁能源革命。该项目将分三个阶段进行。首先，PI将审查负责任的采矿文献，汇集地理学、人类学和STS在负责任创新方面的研究成果。她还将采访稀土行业分析师，了解他们是如何塑造和传达企业社会责任的。其次，该项目将对加利福尼亚州、怀俄明州和明尼苏达州的三个稀土矿区进行案例研究。这三个案例代表了不同的景观类型、项目规模和开发商。这一阶段将记录负责任的采矿是如何在项目开发中进行谈判和审议的。她将重点关注开发商、监管机构和环保人士为获得社会运营许可证而提出的各种要求和让步。在最后阶段，PI将对案例进行比较，以了解最有可能达成绿色协议的社会经济、政治和制度配置。除了研究文章外，最后一阶段将产生一份关于稀土开采的公民指南。鉴于稀土对清洁能源经济的重要性，该项目有可能对新的采矿政策产生广泛影响。这项研究的目的是将当前的政治僵局推向一个更强有力的、公民参与的讨论，即在面临关键材料供应挑战时，我们如何重视和保护自然、人类和地方。本项目将协同两个新兴的社会理论领域：地理学和人类学的地质转向，以及STS对负责任创新的兴趣。该项目旨在回答一系列微观和宏观问题，这些问题是关于绿色交易在稀土辩论中的作用。在地方层面，该项目旨在揭示新的脆弱性和机会如何与新能源经济共同产生。其中包括询问当地居民：你对稀土开采对景观和生计的影响有什么担忧？负责任的矿山运营意味着什么？该研究还解决了更广泛的STS对能源政策的关注，以及审议过程和结果的平衡。为了进一步推动负责任的创新学术研究，该研究将提出以下问题：什么是适当的上游时刻，让社区明确表达他们对新兴技术的希望和恐惧？谈判绿色交易的责任是谁的，什么时候？需要什么样的地方和联邦监管机制来塑造和监督负责任的采矿？

General Audience SummaryThis research project is a comparative analysis of three case studies that aims to better understand how experts and civil society are defining, modeling, and measuring responsible mining. The objective of the project is to assess the green bargain required to fast track rare earth mining in order to fuel the American clean energy revolution. The project will be conducted over three phases. First, the PI will review the responsible mining literature, drawing together scholarship from the fields of geography, anthropology, and STS work on responsible innovation. She will also interview rare earth industry analysts to understand how they are shaping and communicating corporate social responsibility. Second, the PI will develop case studies of three rare earth mining sites in California, Wyoming, and Minnesota. The three cases represent varied landscape types, project scales, and developers. This phase will document how responsible mining is negotiated and deliberated in project development. She will focus on the kinds of demands and concessions developers, regulators, and environmentalists are making to gain a social license to operate. In the final phase, the PI will compare the cases to understand the socioeconomic, political, and institutional configurations that present the greatest potential for a green bargain to emerge. In addition to research articles, this final stage will result in a Citizen's Guide on rare earth mining. Given the importance of rare earths to the clean energy economy, this project has the potential to broadly impact new mining policy. The research aims to move the current political impasse toward a more robust, civically engaged, discussion about how we value and protect nature, people and place in the face of critical materials supply challenges.Technical SummaryThis project will synergize two emerging areas of social theory: the geologic turn in geography and anthropology, and the STS interest in responsible innovation. The project aims to answer a range of micro and macro questions about the role of the green bargain in rare earths debates. At the local level, the project aims to reveal how new vulnerabilities and opportunities are being co-produced with the new energy economy. These include asking local residents: What are your concerns about rare earth mining's landscape and livelihood impacts? What does it mean for a mine to operate responsibly? The research also addresses broader STS concerns about energy policy, and the balancing of deliberative processes and outcomes. Toward furthering the responsible innovation scholarship, the research will ask: What are the appropriate upstream moments to engage communities in articulating their hopes and fears with emerging technologies? Whose responsibility is it to negotiate the green bargain and when? What kinds of local and federal regulatory mechanisms are necessary to shape and watchdog responsible mining?