This event has been rescheduled from July 10 to July 31. If you were previously registered for the event on July 10 (which was rescheduled due to the aftermath of hurricane Beryl), then you do not need to register again for the event on July 31.

About the event:7:00 PM | Amegy Bank Tower

A new economic war for critical minerals has begun, and Ernest Scheyder reports from the front lines. To build electric vehicles, solar panels, cell phones, and millions of other devices means the world must dig more mines to extract lithium, copper, and other vital building blocks. But mines are deeply unpopular, even as they have a role to play in fighting climate change and powering crucial technologies. These tensions have sparked a worldwide reckoning over the sourcing of necessary materials, and no one understands the complexities of these issues better than Ernest Scheyder, whose exclusive access to sites around the globe has allowed him to gain unparalleled insights into a future without fossil fuels.

Scheyder illustrates the explosive brawl among industry titans, conservationists, community groups, policymakers, and many others over whether some places are too special to mine or whether the habitats of rare plants, sensitive ecosystems, Indigenous holy sites, and other places should be dug up for their riches.

Scheyder illuminates the human toll of this war and explains why recycling and other newer technologies have struggled to gain widespread use. He also expertly chronicles Washington’s attempts to wean itself off supplies from China, the global leader in mineral production and processing. Scheyder paints a powerfully honest and nuanced picture of what is at stake in this new fight for energy independence, revealing how America and the rest of the world’s hunt for the “new oil” directly affects us all.

About the speaker: 

Ernest Scheyder is a senior correspondent for Reuters covering the green energy transition and critical minerals, as well as the author of The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives. Early reviewers are calling it an “illuminating” and “essential” narrative that reveals the complex choices facing our world as the energy transition accelerates.

He has previously covered the US shale oil revolution, politics, and the environment, and held roles at the Associated Press and the Bangor Daily News.

A native of Maine, Scheyder is a graduate of the University of Maine and Columbia Journalism School.