U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order intended to accelerate offshore mining and open new opportunities for extracting critical materials from the ocean floor despite the objections of environmentalists.
The measure directs the Commerce Department to speed up reviewing and issuing permits for exploration and commercial recovery under a 1980 law, according to senior White House officials who briefed reporters on the action Thursday.
While the permits could cover territory far beyond the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, the president is also setting in motion potential seabed mining within U.S. coastal waters. Under Trump’s order, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is charged with establishing a process for approving permits and granting licenses for seabed mining in U.S. waters, under the same law that has long governed oil drilling there.
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