Trump just fast-tracked deep sea mining, despite global opposition.

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

President Donald Trump wants federal agencies to fast-track applications for deep-sea mining in an effort to make the United States a global leader in the nascent industry. 

Trump issued an executive order Thursday declaring that US policy includes “creating a robust domestic supply chain for critical minerals derived from seabed resources to support economic growth, reindustrialization, and military preparedness.” He described seabed mining as both an economic and national security imperative necessary to counter China. 

“Our Nation must take immediate action to accelerate the responsible development of seabed mineral resources, quantify the Nation’s endowment of seabed minerals, reinvigorate American leadership in associated extraction and processing technologies, and ensure secure supply chains for our defense, infrastructure, and energy sectors,” the executive order says. 

Increasingly, mining companies have been eager to scrape the ocean floor for cobalt, manganese, nickel and other metals that could help make batteries for cellphones and electric cars. But scientists have warned that the process could irreparably alter the seabed, kill extremely rare sea creatures that haven’t been named or studied, and—depending on how the metals are carried up to the surface—risk introducing metals into fisheries that many Pacific peoples rely upon. 

The order aims to jump-start the industry that has been spearheaded by small Pacific nations like Nauru seeking economic growth, but has been facing growing pushback from Indigenous advocates who fear the lasting consequences of mining the deep sea. 

“This extraction has no thought in mind about caring for resources,” said Solomon Kahoʻohalahala, who is Native Hawaiian and has been a vocal critic of the potential seabed industry at the United Nations. On Thursday afternoon, he read the executive order while attending the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York City, and said he was struck by the language emphasizing US dominance that echoed similar language in another executive order issued last week opening up Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument to commercial fishing.

“It seems that there’s no vision for what we do in the long term,” he said. “It doesn’t speak to how we’re looking to take care of resources for the generations that are unborn. That’s a very different perspective that I hold as an Indigenous person.”

Specifically, Trump wants the Commerce Department and the Interior Department to come up with an expedited process for approving seabed mining applications over the next 60 days. The order coincides with mining companies expressing interest in applying for permits through those agencies over the past few weeks.

Last month, the Canada-based Metals Company announced it planned to submit an application to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, part of the Department of Commerce, to mine the seafloor in international waters through the 1980 Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act. Then last week, the Impossible Metals company announced it had submitted an application to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which falls under the Department of the Interior, to lease part of the seabed near American Samoa through a 1953 law called the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

Both companies switched their strategies to seek US avenues to start mining commercially after getting fed up with delays at the United Nations’ International Seabed Authority, which is in the midst of a yearslong process to come up with regulations to govern the new industry. Mining companies have spent years providing input on proposed rules along with environmental and Indigenous advocates like Kahoʻohalahala.

Trump’s executive order also calls on federal agencies to write up a report on opportunities for deep-sea mining both within US waters and in international waters, and create a plan to map priority areas for seabed mineral extraction. Among other directives, the executive order calls for a report “on the feasibility of an international benefit-sharing mechanism for seabed mineral resource extraction and development” in international waters. 

The Metals Company’s announcement last month that it would bypass the United Nations process to seek mining approval from the US sparked backlash from UN members and environmental groups. The environmental nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity said in a press release Thursday that the executive order “directly contradicts efforts by the global community to adopt binding regulations that prioritize environmental protection.”

“The deep ocean belongs to everyone, and protecting it is humanity’s global duty,” said Emily Jeffers, a senior attorney at the center. “The seafloor environment is not a platform for ‘America First’ extraction.”