Latest news with #HouseNaturalResourcesCommittee
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Contributor: Donald Trump's plan for pirate mining
On April 24, President Trump issued another questionable executive order, this one calling for deep-sea mining in both federal and international waters. The former is within his control; the latter would be a violation of international law. Although the U.S. is not a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea — the 1982 treaty ratified by 169 other nations that regulates maritime activities, including deep-sea mining, on and in the high seas — the U.S. has always abided by it. Until now. 'You know we're sometimes an outlier on things like the Law of the Sea treaty,' says Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), ranking member on the House Natural Resources Committee. 'And what [Trump's] doing with deep-sea mining is just making us even more of a lone ranger, if not a pariah.' Read more: The Oceans Court ruled that the seas are a hot mess. Why haven't you heard about it? Global mining consortiums have been eyeing mineral-rich nodules on the ocean floor since the 1970s. Sometimes as large as potatoes, the nodules form around a hard nucleus, such as a grain of sand or a shark's tooth, accumulating minerals out of seawater and sediment over millions of years in the deep benthic zone, the least-studied of the ocean's fragile ecosystems. Given the limits of 20th century technology, mining two to three miles below the ocean's surface proved commercially impractical, to the relief of environmentalists and oceanographers. But a bad idea that promises quick returns never gets old. Today, tech-driven mining corporations, such as the Metals Company of Canada, known as TMC, are leading the way back into the deep. The UN's International Seabed Authority, established under the Law of the Sea treaty, has granted TMC and other companies exploratory permits for deep-sea mining. Using massive mother ships, the companies deploy tank-tread "robotic excavators" (essentially, underwater bulldozers) or giant vacuum crawlers connected to pipes, pumps and miles of power cable. The Metals Company alone has recovered 4,500 tons of nodules. Now, TMC and the Trump administration are claiming that a novel interpretation of an obscure American law allows the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to issue commercial mining permits in waters the rest of the world considers outside American jurisdiction. Read more: The most important part of the ocean you've never heard of In 1960, U.S. Navy Capt. Don Walsh was one of the first two humans to reach the deepest part of the ocean — the so-called Challenger Deep — along with Jacques Piccard, who piloted their bathysphere. Two years before Walsh died in 2023, he explained why opening large swaths of international waters to deep-sea mining would be a mistake. 'It's kind of like clear-cutting the forest,' Walsh told me. 'It doesn't differentiate between the ore and the things that live on the seafloor. And these are organisms that take thousands of years to populate an area. So, I can't support awarding mining permissions or licenses to areas that have not been carefully studied.' That's also the assessment of more than 900 marine scientists and policy experts from 70 nations who have signed a statement urging the United Nations to hold off on licensing mining operations 'that could result in the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.' Read more: L.A. fires wreaked havoc on the land. Scientists are racing to learn what they've done to the sea What we don't know about the deep ocean is astonishing. Just last year, a paper in the journal Nature showed that the nodule-covered seafloor in a 1.7-million-square-mile area between Hawaii and Mexico — where mining companies are already exploring — was producing 'dark oxygen.' Until that revelation, scientists had considered sunlight, for photosynthesis, essential for ocean oxygen. The 'huge' discovery, as described by the lead researcher, needs more study. Understanding the dark oxygen process could translate into the ability to sustain life on other planets or remake our understanding of how life began on Earth. Mining the seabed raises other concerns besides the need to preserve dark oxygen. The oceans are a carbon sink. If the sediments are constantly stirred up, as they would be in mining, we 'may be reintroducing that carbon back into the water column — and then ultimately back into the atmosphere,' NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad cautioned me back when he ran the agency in 2023. His remarks stand in sharp contrast to the headline on a recent fawning news release from the current NOAA — ''The next gold rush': President Trump unlocks access to critical deep seabed minerals" — and its subhead: "Historic executive order will boost economic growth, support national security.' Read more: How humanity's ear-splitting racket deafens whales and other marine animals The mining companies like to argue that scraping the bottom of the deep ocean is itself a climate solution and can be accomplished with appropriate ecosystem safeguards. The nodules are rich in manganese, copper, nickel and cobalt, key constituents of battery-powered clean energy, such as EVs. 'You've got to have a planetary perspective,' the Metal Company's chief scientist Greg Stone insists, but critics question the environmental vision of the mining industry. Thirty-three nations, including France and New Zealand, have called for a moratorium on deep-sea mining until the world's largest habitat is better understood. Corporate customers including Google, Samsung, Philips, Volvo and BMW have pledged to keep deep-sea minerals out of their electric cars and other products. The United States during the Biden administration supported a take-it-slow approach. Deep-sea mining 'is not ready for prime time,' Monica Medina, assistant secretary of State for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs, told me two years ago. For the present, Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio is retaining that post but not that policy position. Read more: Great Pacific Garbage Patch could be eliminated in 10 years, cleanup organization says Like Trump's America, China and India have shown keen interest in quickly bringing commercial mining operations to the planet's last physical frontier. The tiny Pacific Island nation of Nauru, which has a contract with the Metals Company, has been pushing the Seabed Authority to finalize its deep-sea regulations and issue commercial permits. Under Trump's executive order, the United States is barreling ahead regardless, circumventing the Law of the Sea and the best advice of scientists who are pleading for a better understanding of what dredging the sea floor could destroy or unleash. On the high seas in the 21st century, the U.S. may prove to be the world's newest pirate threat. David Helvarg is the executive director of Blue Frontier, an ocean policy group. He co-hosts "Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast." If it's in the news right now, the L.A. Times' Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
09-06-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Donald Trump's plan for pirate mining
On April 24, President Trump issued another questionable executive order, this one calling for deep-sea mining in both federal and international waters. The former is within his control; the latter would be a violation of international law. Although the U.S. is not a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea — the 1982 treaty ratified by 169 other nations that regulates maritime activities, including deep-sea mining, on and in the high seas — the U.S. has always abided by it. Until now. 'You know we're sometimes an outlier on things like the Law of the Sea treaty,' says Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), ranking member on the House Natural Resources Committee. 'And what [Trump's] doing with deep-sea mining is just making us even more of a lone ranger, if not a pariah.' Global mining consortiums have been eyeing mineral-rich nodules on the ocean floor since the 1970s. Sometimes as large as potatoes, the nodules form around a hard nucleus, such as a grain of sand or a shark's tooth, accumulating minerals out of seawater and sediment over millions of years in the deep benthic zone, the least-studied of the ocean's fragile ecosystems. Given the limits of 20th century technology, mining two to three miles below the ocean's surface proved commercially impractical, to the relief of environmentalists and oceanographers. But a bad idea that promises quick returns never gets old. Today, tech-driven mining corporations, such as the Metals Company of Canada, known as TMC, are leading the way back into the deep. The UN's International Seabed Authority, established under the Law of the Sea treaty, has granted TMC and other companies exploratory permits for deep-sea mining. Using massive mother ships, the companies deploy tank-tread 'robotic excavators' (essentially, underwater bulldozers) or giant vacuum crawlers connected to pipes, pumps and miles of power cable. The Metals Company alone has recovered 4,500 tons of nodules. Now, TMC and the Trump administration are claiming that a novel interpretation of an obscure American law allows the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to issue commercial mining permits in waters the rest of the world considers outside American jurisdiction. In 1960, U.S. Navy Capt. Don Walsh was one of the first two humans to reach the deepest part of the ocean — the so-called Challenger Deep — along with Jacques Piccard, who piloted their bathysphere. Two years before Walsh died in 2023, he explained why opening large swaths of international waters to deep-sea mining would be a mistake. 'It's kind of like clear-cutting the forest,' Walsh told me. 'It doesn't differentiate between the ore and the things that live on the seafloor. And these are organisms that take thousands of years to populate an area. So, I can't support awarding mining permissions or licenses to areas that have not been carefully studied.' That's also the assessment of more than 900 marine scientists and policy experts from 70 nations who have signed a statement urging the United Nations to hold off on licensing mining operations 'that could result in the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.' What we don't know about the deep ocean is astonishing. Just last year, a paper in the journal Nature showed that the nodule-covered seafloor in a 1.7-million-square-mile area between Hawaii and Mexico — where mining companies are already exploring — was producing 'dark oxygen.' Until that revelation, scientists had considered sunlight, for photosynthesis, essential for ocean oxygen. The 'huge' discovery, as described by the lead researcher, needs more study. Understanding the dark oxygen process could translate into the ability to sustain life on other planets or remake our understanding of how life began on Earth. Mining the seabed raises other concerns besides the need to preserve dark oxygen. The oceans are a carbon sink. If the sediments are constantly stirred up, as they would be in mining, we 'may be reintroducing that carbon back into the water column — and then ultimately back into the atmosphere,' NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad cautioned me back when he ran the agency in 2023. His remarks stand in sharp contrast to the headline on a recent fawning news release from the current NOAA — ''The next gold rush': President Trump unlocks access to critical deep seabed minerals' — and its subhead: 'Historic executive order will boost economic growth, support national security.' The mining companies like to argue that scraping the bottom of the deep ocean is itself a climate solution and can be accomplished with appropriate ecosystem safeguards. The nodules are rich in manganese, copper, nickel and cobalt, key constituents of battery-powered clean energy, such as EVs. 'You've got to have a planetary perspective,' the Metal Company's chief scientist Greg Stone insists, but critics question the environmental vision of the mining industry. Thirty-three nations, including France and New Zealand, have called for a moratorium on deep-sea mining until the world's largest habitat is better understood. Corporate customers including Google, Samsung, Philips, Volvo and BMW have pledged to keep deep-sea minerals out of their electric cars and other products. The United States during the Biden administration supported a take-it-slow approach. Deep-sea mining 'is not ready for prime time,' Monica Medina, assistant secretary of State for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs, told me two years ago. For the present, Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio is retaining that post but not that policy position. Like Trump's America, China and India have shown keen interest in quickly bringing commercial mining operations to the planet's last physical frontier. The tiny Pacific Island nation of Nauru, which has a contract with the Metals Company, has been pushing the Seabed Authority to finalize its deep-sea regulations and issue commercial permits. Under Trump's executive order, the United States is barreling ahead regardless, circumventing the Law of the Sea and the best advice of scientists who are pleading for a better understanding of what dredging the sea floor could destroy or unleash. On the high seas in the 21st century, the U.S. may prove to be the world's newest pirate threat. David Helvarg is the executive director of Blue Frontier, an ocean policy group. He co-hosts 'Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast.'
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Business Standard
28-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Taiwan's President pledges to buy more American goods as 32% tariff looms
Taiwan's president on Tuesday pledged to buy more American goods, including natural gas and oil, as the self-governing island seeks closer ties with the US while threatened with a 32 per cent tariff from the Trump administration. By purchasing more US products that also include weapons and agricultural goods, Taiwan would not only create "more balanced bilateral trade" with the US but also boost its energy autonomy and resilience, said Lai Ching-te, the island's leader, while hosting a US congressional delegation. Lai also said the island would be willing to participate in US efforts to reindustrialise and lead the world in artificial intelligence. Rep. Bruce Westerman, chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, told Lai that the US produces a lot of food and fibre and is "always looking for more friends to share that with." Trade and economic ties between Taiwan and the US have grown closer in recent years. The island faces rising pressure from China, which sees the island as part of Chinese territory and vows to annex it by force if necessary. Washington is bound by its own laws to provide Taipei with the means to defend itself, and politicians both Republicans and Democrats have come to believe it is in the US interest to deter Beijing from attacking Taiwan. Many policymakers and analysts have argued that arming Taiwan includes not only weapons sales but closer economic and trade ties so the island is less vulnerable to economic coercion from the mainland. The US is now the top destination for Taiwan's foreign investments, including $165 billion by Taiwan's semiconductor giant TSMC to build factories in Arizona to make advanced chips. The island also is the 7th largest market for US agricultural exports, Lai said. However, the US buys far more from Taiwan and had a trade deficit of $116.3 billion in 2024, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative. The 32 per cent tariff, as proposed by President Donald Trump as part of his sweeping tariff plan, is on hold except for a 10 per cent baseline duty. Earlier this month, Lai downplayed the trade tensions between the US and Taiwan as "frictions between friends." The congressional delegation stopped in Taipei as part of the group's larger visit to the Indo-Pacific region through Thursday, according to American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto US diplomatic mission on the island. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Boston Globe
28-05-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Taiwan pledges to buy more American goods as a 32 percent tariff looms
Rep. Bruce Westerman, chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, told Lai that the U.S. produces a lot of food and fiber and is 'always looking for more friends to share that with.' Advertisement Trade and economic ties between Taiwan and the U.S. have grown closer in recent years. The island faces rising pressure from China, which sees the island as part of Chinese territory and vows to annex it, by force if necessary. Washington is bound by its own laws to provide Taipei with the means to defend itself, and politicians — both Republicans and Democrats — have come to believe it is in the U.S. interest to deter Beijing from attacking Taiwan. Many policymakers and analysts have argued that arming Taiwan includes not only weapons sales but closer economic and trade ties so the island is less vulnerable to economic coercion from the mainland. The U.S. is now the top destination for Taiwan's foreign investments, including $165 billion by Taiwan's semiconductor giant TSMC to build factories in Arizona to make advanced chips. The island also is the 7th largest market for U.S. agricultural exports, Lai said. Advertisement However, the U.S. buys far more from Taiwan and had a trade deficit of $116.3 billion in 2024, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The 32% tariff, as proposed by President Donald Trump as part of his sweeping tariff plan, is on hold except a 10% baseline duty. Earlier this month, Lai downplayed the trade tensions between the U.S. and Taiwan as 'frictions between friends.' The congressional delegation stopped in Taipei as part of the group's larger visit to the Indo-Pacific region through Thursday, according to American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto U.S. diplomatic mission on the island.
San Francisco Chronicle
28-05-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Taiwan pledges to buy more American goods as a 32% tariff looms
TAIPEI (AP) — Taiwan's president on Tuesday pledged to buy more American goods, including natural gas and oil, as the self-governing island seeks closer ties with the U.S. while threatened with a 32% tariff from the Trump administration. By purchasing more U.S. products that also include weapons and agricultural goods, Taiwan would not only create 'more balanced bilateral trade' with the U.S. but also boost its energy autonomy and resilience, said Lai Ching-te, the island's leader, while hosting a U.S. congressional delegation. Lai also said the island would be willing to participate in U.S. efforts to reindustrialize and to lead the world in artificial intelligence. Rep. Bruce Westerman, chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, told Lai that the U.S. produces a lot of food and fiber and is 'always looking for more friends to share that with.' Trade and economic ties between Taiwan and the U.S. have grown closer in recent years. The island faces rising pressure from China, which sees the island as part of Chinese territory and vows to annex it, by force if necessary. Washington is bound by its own laws to provide Taipei with the means to defend itself, and politicians — both Republicans and Democrats — have come to believe it is in the U.S. interest to deter Beijing from attacking Taiwan. Many policymakers and analysts have argued that arming Taiwan includes not only weapons sales but closer economic and trade ties so the island is less vulnerable to economic coercion from the mainland. The U.S. is now the top destination for Taiwan's foreign investments, including $165 billion by Taiwan's semiconductor giant TSMC to build factories in Arizona to make advanced chips. The island also is the 7th largest market for U.S. agricultural exports, Lai said. However, the U.S. buys far more from Taiwan and had a trade deficit of $116.3 billion in 2024, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The 32% tariff, as proposed by President Donald Trump as part of his sweeping tariff plan, is on hold except a 10% baseline duty. Earlier this month, Lai downplayed the trade tensions between the U.S. and Taiwan as 'frictions between friends.' The congressional delegation stopped in Taipei as part of the group's larger visit to the Indo-Pacific region through Thursday, according to American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto U.S. diplomatic mission on the island.
