I agree that there are lots of potential threats to lithium use...

I agree that there are lots of potential threats to lithium use out there.
However, there is a lot of momentum in the lithium battery field, and as we have seen in the past the first mover principle is still important.

Electric cars and hybrids are the next cool thing tied in with the green consciousness now fashionable.
There isn't enough lithium available to make every car and truck electric, and even then there would come an equilibrium where the reduction in demand would lower the oil price, but mass production of electric cars would lower their price as well(the Tesla roadster is $100K US so there is alot of room for prices to fall)
Even if oil prices came down there is a deeply held perception that oil is a dwindling resource and that it could more easily go higher than lower.