I'm not so sure that the Jan 2021 approvals are priced in. I forget which article mentioned this, but a few weeks back there was an article from a prominent publisher that talked about the implications of a Biden presidency on the lithium industry, and there was specific mention of Thacker Pass. The author pointed out that the people that have been working on the approval process for TP would likely be replaced by people in the Biden administration by the time the final approvals were given, and in his view at least, there was some risk in that. 

Like you, I also have a hard time believing the project will be blocked outright, the worst case scenario I could see is that in order to get approval, some concessions would have to be made around mitigation efforts for environmental, or social reasons. 

Another factor that I don't think we can overlook is the recent effects of Bangchak and the ATM to the SP in recent weeks, granted this doesn't affect the intrinsic value of the stock, but I believe it has artificially put pressure on the stock that would have otherwise likely stayed around the $12-$13 USD level.

Also, if we take the price targets from analysts we are currently below the concensus:

The 5 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Lithium Americas Corp have a median target of 12.50, with a high estimate of 17.00 and a low estimate of 7.60. The median estimate represents a +30.75% increase from the last price of 9.56.

Then of course there is the Formitable price target of I believe $15-$20 USD. Granted it needs to be taken with a grain of salt since they have a vested interest in the SP rising. But their logic and breakdown seemed pretty sound to me.

I would love to know other's thoughts on this as well. Very interesting topic. Thank you for brining this up Pavel.