John Goodenough passed away June 25^th at age 100. His last name stands in stark contrast to his remarkable achievements as a mathematician, physicist, and chemist. Among them, Goodenough pioneered the technology that became the foundation for lithium-ion batteries. Scott Sheffield, CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources, said in an interview Tuesday PNR was experimenting with mining lithium and other minerals from Permian frack water—the latest oil and gas producer to hop aboard the Lithium Bus.

Reese Energy Consulting continues to follow the latest news from oil and gas leaders exploring new energy frontiers and determining which chief among them makes the most business sense for large investments and, ultimately, profitability. Energy majors are investing bazillions in a fanned peacock’s tail of new energy with ExxonMobil accelerating its jump into harvesting and monetizing large lithium volumes. Exxon announced this week its meeting with Tesla, Ford, and VW to shore up buyers for lithium supplies it hasn’t even extracted yet because the commercial-scale technology isn’t yet available. Occidental is far ahead of Exxon and its lithium aspirations but with a different application for the mineral—geothermal operations.

Meanwhile in today’s Houston Chronicle, Kinder Morgan’s newly appointed CEO Kim Dang cited the pipeline giant’s expansion into RNG and CCS but plans to take a slower approach to other new energy frontiers. She also referenced the corporate American graveyard “littered with companies who invested in front of whatever change was happening and then they went broke.” Better tell that to the new investors of Calif-based startup TransAstra, which looks to space mine for minerals on the moon.