By Steve Brawner, © 2024 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Could Arkansas be on the verge of a lithium boom? Many – including ExxonMobil experts – think so. 

In fact, the state eventually could produce as much as 15% of the world’s finished lithium supply, said Commerce Secretary Hugh McDonald at the inaugural Arkansas Lithium Innovation Summit Feb. 15-16.

Lithium is the key element in the batteries that power everything from phones to electric cars. In many ways, it’s the 21st century’s oil. Much of the current lithium supply comes from overseas, and much of that comes from China. 

The summit brought to Little Rock nearly 700 energy sector executives, policymakers and stakeholders. Some are investing big dollars here, including ExxonMobil, Standard Lithium, and Albemarle. The latter is already a major bromine producer in Arkansas with a workforce of 675 in the Magnolia area.

Patrick Howarth, ExxonMobil’s lithium global business manager, said that in the last 12 months, his company has built a leading acreage position in south Arkansas. (It acquired the rights to 120,000 gross acres in early 2023.) It’s also started the state’s largest lithium drilling campaign, conducted engineering design work on multiple projects, and showcased its Arkansas projects to global customers. He said the state “could be the center of the industry here in North America.” Continue reading Arkansas lithium could be huge, thinks Exxon →

By Steve Brawner, © 2024 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

If you venture past your driveway April 8 in Arkansas, you may be sharing the road with a lot of out-of-staters. On the other hand, there won’t be any highway construction, and there’s a good chance there won’t be any school buses where you are.

Those were some of the takeaways from a press conference March 4 hosted by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and cabinet officials about the upcoming solar eclipse. 

I’m sure you’ve heard about this. If not, boy, you will. 

On the afternoon of April 8, the moon will completely obscure the sun for about four minutes. The eclipse will occur along a path of totality stretching across nearly two-thirds of Arkansas from its southwestern to its northeastern corners. Ninety-four percent of the state will experience at least a partial eclipse. Continue reading Arkansas prepares for eclipse visitors, traffic →

By Steve Brawner, © 2023 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

In the movie “The Terminator,” released in 1984, director James Cameron and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger introduced the idea that mankind might invent a computer network so intelligent – “Skynet,” it was called – that it would decide humanity is a threat that must be destroyed.

It’s looking less and less like science fiction and more and more like a warning.

According to a New York Times report, Geoffrey Hinton, the so-called “godfather of artificial intelligence” who recently retired from Google, is warning of the increasingly imminent dangers of the technology he helped develop. 

“I thought it was 30 to 50 years or even longer away,” he told the Times. “Obviously, I no longer think that.”

Continue reading How close to sci-fi fears is AI ‘reality’? →

By Steve Brawner, © 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

If I gave you a lot of money, would that improve your personal economy this year? Sure.

But what if I merely loaned it to you – with interest? If you spent the money without making wise investments, you’d see an immediate improvement. You can live great on borrowed money for a while.

But over time, your standard of living would suffer. The burdens of living beyond your means would become a weight upon your shoulders. You would become dependent on further loans. And then one day, it all might come crashing down around you.

What applies to households applies to nations. You’ve probably heard that the unemployment rate is hanging around 3.5% nationally and in Arkansas. Jobs are plentiful, inflation is under control, and times are good.

But how much of this prosperity is real, and how much is merely borrowed? And what will happen when the bills come due? Continue reading A good economy, or a debt-driven one? →