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

普通受众概述本研究项目是对三个案例研究的比较分析，旨在更好地理解专家和公民社会如何定义、建模和衡量负责任的挖掘。该项目的目标是评估快速追踪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将回顾负责任的采矿文献，汇集地理学、人类学和STS工作领域关于负责任创新的学术知识。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，PI将对加利福尼亚州、怀俄明州和明尼苏达州的三个稀土矿场进行案例研究。这三个案例代表了不同的景观类型、项目规模和开发商。本阶段将记录在项目开发中如何谈判和审议负责任的采矿工作。她将专注于开发商、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，以了解最有可能出现绿色交易的社会经济、政治和制度配置。除了研究文章外，这个最后阶段还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。这项研究旨在将当前的政治僵局推向更有力、更公民参与的讨论，讨论面对关键的材料供应挑战，我们如何珍视和保护自然、人和地方。技术总结这个项目将协同社会理论的两个新兴领域：地理学和人类学的地质学转向，以及STS对负责任的创新的兴趣。该项目旨在回答一系列关于绿色交易在稀土辩论中的作用的微观和宏观问题。在地方一级，该项目旨在揭示新的脆弱性和机会是如何与新能源经济共同产生的。这些问题包括询问当地居民：你对稀土开采的景观和生计影响有什么担忧？对于一个负责任的矿山来说，这意味着什么？这项研究还解决了STS对能源政策的更广泛关注，以及审议过程和结果的平衡。为了进一步发展负责任的创新学术，这项研究将问：什么是让社区参与表达他们对新兴技术的希望和恐惧的合适上游时刻？谈判绿色交易的责任是谁？何时谈判？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?