It is a good reason to pursue it anyways. Its environmental impacts compared to actual mining of the earth is little. And we can't just say that energy usage by

It is a good reason to pursue it anyways. Its environmental impacts compared to actual mining of the earth is little. And we can't just say that energy usage by humanity in Kilowatt hour is inherently evil. Why not power the mining equipment using nuclear power? Humanity in my opinion won't use energy at some status quo into the future. I predict we will use more and more as we venture into the solar system, and we may see energy as following some sort of Moore's law into the future in terms of cost and local environmental impact. Wouldn't that change the situation?