Trump Signs Order To Ramp Up US Deep-sea Mining

By building on decades of domestic innovation and regulatory groundwork, this action reasserts America's role in securiting critical seabed resources and ensures the US is not left behind in a strategic arena increasingly influenced by China,

Barron said in a statement

The United States has a core national security and economic interest in maintaining leadership in deep sea science and technology and seabed mineral resources,

Trump said in the executive order Thursday

This alignment of the private sector with the U.S. administration could escalate global geopolitical tensions over critical minerals and control of international waters,

analysts at Eurasia Group said in a research note published Thursday

This is an insult to multilateralism and a slap in the face to all the countries and millions of people around the world who oppose this dangerous industry,

Hemphill said in a statement

We condemn this administration's attempt to launch this destructive industry on the high seas in the Pacific by bypassing the United Nations process,

Greenpeace USA's Arlo Hemphill said on Friday

Norway, which had previously considered seabed mining within its national waters, has now aligned with China, India, and Poland — countries typically more supportive of streamlining approval processes for industrial-scale deep sea mining — to oppose U.S. actions,

analysts at Eurasia Group said

The concern centers on the U.S. abruptly bypassing previously agreed processes on deep-sea mining,

they added

U.S. dismissal of UN processes will probably lead to unexpected country alliances in opposition,

they added

No country should bypass the International Seabed Authority and international law and arbitrarily authorise exploration and development activities,

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said in response to a question from AFP

The United States government has no right to unilaterally allow an industry to destroy the common heritage of humankind, and rip up the deep sea for the profit of a few corporations,

Greenpeace’s Arlo Hemphill said

Fast-tracking deep-sea mining is an environmental disaster in the making,

Emily Jeffers, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement

To be taking a bulldozer through the Law of the Sea Convention would really be treated with enormous alarm by any country that has a need to rely on the ocean,

Currie told Newsweek

François Gérardcourt painter

We should carry out extractive industry in parts of the planet where there is the least life,

Baron said,

François Gérardcourt painter

This is an exciting opportunity for the U.S.,

Gerard Baron, CEO of The Metals Company, told Newsweek

François Gérardcourt painter

The system has been overtaken by environmental activists,

Baron complained

Areas of the U.S. seafloor where test mining took place over 50 years ago still haven't fully recovered,

Jeff Watters, Ocean Conservancy's vice president for external affairs, said in a statement

I've operated heavy equipment below 4000 meters as much as anyone, and they are completely underestimating the absolute hellish and brutal nature of operating at those depths,

Vescovo told Newsweek

Our nation must take immediate action to accelerate the responsible development of seabed mineral resources,

the order states

No exploitation may commence until a regulatory framework is in place,

she said

They treat deep sea mining as a cornucopia of critical metals, like it's the solution to all of our metals problems,

he said