Maxine Dexter Highlights Lack of Transparency in Deep Sea Mining Permitting

Concerns Over Deep Sea Mining Permitting

• ⚠️ Rep. Maxine Dexter expresses significant concern regarding the lack of transparency in the permitting process for deep sea mining.
• 🎯 The permitting process is moving forward despite a lack of clarity on the presence of minable resources and potential impacts on deep sea ecosystems.

Insufficient Data for Environmental Assessment

• 🔬 The agency (BOME) is proceeding with an environmental assessment even when ocean management agencies lack crucial information about what to assess.
• 📚 A suggested research strategy by the National Academies, aimed at identifying necessary baseline information for proposed mining sites, is still under development.
• ❓ Dr. Taylor confirms that agencies likely do not have the necessary information to meaningfully evaluate environmental impacts, emphasizing that the discovery process is still in its early stages.

Preemptive Commercial Permitting

• 🚀 It is considered preemptive to discuss commercial permitting regions when so much exploration remains to be done.
• 💡 The significant unknowns create tremendous uncertainty for mining companies themselves, suggesting that US academic institutions should conduct initial research.

Environmental Impact Scrutiny

• 📰 Dexter references a New York Times article reporting a 30% decrease in small animal diversity in the path of a deep sea mining vehicle, funded by a metals company.
• 📉 Concerns are raised that BOME is moving forward with an environmental assessment instead of a more rigorous environmental impact statement before leasing off American Samoa, limiting public scrutiny.

Challenges in Monitoring Deep Sea Mining

• 🛰️ Unlike land-based mining, deep sea mining occurs far offshore in extremely deep water, requiring sophisticated equipment for monitoring.
• 🔒 Only mining companies themselves will have the capacity to conduct monitoring once commercial operations begin.
• 🤝 Effective verification would require significant partnerships, observers on boats, and potentially live feeds, all of which are expensive and depend on the mining companies' consent.

Transparency and Accountability Commitments

• ✅ Representatives from mining interests commit to working closely with regulators to ensure necessary information is publicly available for environmental assessments and operations.
• 🧩 Dexter expresses concern that collapsing the exploratory and extractive permitting process effectively makes the exploratory part a mere checkbox, potentially limiting crucial pre-extraction data and research.