Governors' Wind Energy Coalition California’s electric car revolution, designed to save the planet, also unleashes a toll on it Source: By Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times • Posted: Wednesday, July 21, 2021 The precious cargo on the ship docked in San Diego Bay was strikingly small for a vessel built to drag oil rigs out to sea. Machines tethered to this hulking ship had plucked rocks the size of a child’s fist from the ocean floor thousands of miles into the Pacific. The mission was delicate and controversial — with broad implications for the planet. Investors are betting tens of millions of dollars that these black nodules packed with metals used in electric car batteries are the ticket for the United States to recapture supremacy over the green economy — and to keep up with a global transportation revolution started by California.