NOAA hearings feature clash over Trump ocean mining plans

The agency is considering rulemaking to ease permitting for deep-sea mining.

September 05, 2025

Debate over the Trump administration's plan to make it easier for companies to extract minerals from the ocean floor took a sharper edge this week as environmentalists and mining advocates traded blows over a NOAA proposal to streamline environmental reviews for seabed mining projects.

In a series of public meetings, environmental groups warned that opening potentially tens of millions of acres of largely unexplored ocean floor to recover “polymetallic nodules” presents immense risk to pristine environments that may be fundamental to ocean ecosystems.

"How can we exploit what we barely understand," Kat Aristi, representing the nonprofit Oceana, told officials at a virtual hearing Thursday, calling seabed mining “a nascent and largely untested form of resource extraction [that] poses a significant threat to our shared marine environment and undermines the oceans’ vital role in sustaining planetary health.”

Oceana was one of more than a half-dozen environmental organizations testifying against easing permitting requirements for seabed mining, along with Greenpeace, the Center for Biological Diversity, Deep Sea Defenders and the Surfrider Foundation.

Industry advocates, for their part, said seabed mining is a primary path to ensuring adequate supply of critical minerals like copper, nickel, cobalt, magnesium and rare earth elements embedded in potato-sized nodules lining the ocean floor.

The dispute centers on a proposed NOAA rule that would smooth permitting of seabed mining by combining two currently distinct permitting processes — one for exploration and another for recovery.

In an April executive order, President Donald Trump instructed NOAA to ease regulatory burdens, citing the little-used, 45-year-old Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act governing commercial recovery of polymetallic nodules in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

Trump’s order threw a wrench into what has been a decadeslong process by the United Nations International Seabed Authority to establish a regulatory framework for mining in international waters.

Leticia Reis de Carvalho, secretary-general of the ISA, has questioned whether the U.S. initiative is legal, while other countries with seabed mining stakes have made clear they oppose the United States thwarting the international rulemaking process. The U.S. has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

NOAA is already reviewing applications from The Mining Co. (TMC) to search and recover seabed minerals from a deep Pacific Ocean region known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. The 1.7 million square mile region is believed to have some of the richest ocean-bottom concentrations of polymetallic nodules in the world.

Corey McLachlan, head of regulatory affairs at TMC, said NOAA’s proposed rule provides a regulatory framework for applicants “who have already conducted the required exploration, technological development and environmental baseline studies to move into commercial recovery.”

The minerals — which have traditionally been surfaced-mined — are considered essential to the global tech and clean energy economy. Among other uses, they are core ingredients for batteries that power electric vehicles, smartphones and wind power turbines.

Ray Figueroa, an independent commenter who has called deep-sea mining a “no brainer,” said environmental groups are engaged in a knee-jerk exercise to oppose mining and have provided no scientific data to support claims of pending ecological damage to the ocean bottoms.

On the contrary, he said data analysis by the mining industry offers a much clearer picture of risk than the warnings emanating from environmental groups and some scientists. “They’re blind to it, and all they’re doing is just making noise,” he said.

Capitol Hill fight

The prospect of NOAA easing deep-sea mining regulation is also drawing partisan fire on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers this week sparred over a bill that would codify Trump's executive order.

Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman of California, ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, blasted a Republican bill, H.R. 4018, that calls for NOAA — in coordination with other agencies — to expedite the process for reviewing and issuing licenses under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act.

Huffman noted that American Samoa has pushed back on the administration's efforts to jump-start deep-sea mining off its shores and said the industry hasn’t proved it can operate safely. The federal government moving forward on its own ignores the ongoing work of 170 countries to craft a regulatory framework, he added.

“But that’s not stopping Republicans from risking domestic and global conflict to assist a couple of billionaires who asked Donald Trump to help save their risky investments,” said Huffman.

Democratic Rep. Luz Rivas of California added that her home state, as well as Washington and Oregon, have already banned or restricted deep-sea mining off their state’s shores.

But a top Trump official joined Republican Rep. Mike Ezell of Mississippi, who sponsored the bill along with more than a dozen of his colleagues, in defending and backing the legislation.

“It is time to begin mining offshore in this country again,” said Adam Suess, acting assistant Interior secretary for lands and minerals management.


By:  Daniel Cusick, Hannah Northey
Source: Politico Greenwire