I don’t suppose there’s a mining expert who could weigh in?

For what it’s worth you don’t need a mining expert to know that establishing a large scale mining operation will fuck up the local region somewhat.

At the very least, all the demolition and vehicles, fuel, explosives, chemicals.

Shits going to leak into the rivers one way or the other. In addition, they would likely use up a ton of local water supply.

It’s a no-brainer. Maine is not in the middle of some desert.

For what's it worth, I live in a area that has done extensive mining for over 1000 years with no big natural disaster caused by it. Today it is only operational by small scale in comparison, (and it never experienced the big chemical industious mining), but you absolutely can mine the earth without creating havoc.

It is just a lot more expensive then.

Which is why most mining is done in remote, or poor areas, with laughable regulations, where no one dares complain for the jobs.

For what it’s worth, people mined rocks to build the pyramids multiple thousands of years ago. They don’t mine using an army of slaves wielding chisels anymore.

What's the local environmental impact of drilling oil?

Because it's worse than lithium and contributes to a global catastrophe that threatens billions of lives.

Sure, but the available options aren't limited to "mine lithium in Maine" and "do absolutely nothing".

Genuinely curious, what are the alternatives to the three?

1. Mine lithium 2. Drill oil 3. Do nothing

You have to store energy somehow, even if the entire world shifted to walking everywhere. Goods still need to traverse the world and thus far there hasn't been anything else with a high enough energy density to get close.

The argument being made is that if mining lithium becomes more popular, its likely to lead to advancements that do limit its ecological impact and provide a more sustainable method for storing energy...

Alternatives:

Mine somewhere else.

Non-lithium approaches to storing energy.

If America is benefiting from the Lithium we should also be mining it at home. Let's not shift our negative cost externalities to a different nation but instead own them.

Do you have examples of portable, non-mined or extracted alternatives to storing energy?

Carbohydrates. We can stick a needle in our blood to generate energy for portables.

This is like one step away from the Morlock and Eloi.