Unleashing America's Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources
This executive order directs federal agencies to accelerate U.S. exploration, mapping, permitting, and development of seabed (offshore) mineral resources — such as polymetallic nodules, cobalt-rich crusts, sulfides, and heavy mineral sands — to secure supplies of critical minerals (e.g., nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese, titanium, rare earths) for industry and national defense. It requires agencies to create expedited permitting processes, produce reports and plans (including seabed mapping), pursue domestic processing capacity and supply‑chain measures (including use of stockpiles and financing tools), and increase international engagement with allies to counter strategic competitors. Because this is an executive order (not a statute), it directs how executive-branch departments should use existing legal authorities and resources; implementation must follow existing law and available appropriations. The order aims to boost U.S. industrial capacity and reduce reliance on foreign suppliers, but it also raises potential environmental, legal, and diplomatic issues tied to deep-sea mining and international waters.
Key Points
- 1Policy goals: Directs the United States to rapidly develop domestic capabilities for seabed mineral exploration, collection, and processing; support deep-sea science and mapping; and build secure supply chains for minerals important to defense, energy, and manufacturing.
- 2Expedited permitting: Commerce (NOAA) and Interior (BOEM) are ordered to establish expedited review and approval processes for seabed exploration and commercial recovery permits both in areas beyond national jurisdiction (using the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act) and within the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act — all “consistent with applicable law.”
- 3Mapping and data collection: The order directs development of a plan to map priority seabed areas (prioritizing the U.S. OCS) and accelerate data collection and characterization of undersea resources.
- 4Domestic processing, stockpiling, and financing: Defense and Energy must report on using the National Defense Stockpile and offtake agreements for materials from seabed nodules, and explore grants, loans, the Defense Production Act, procurement, and regulatory revisions to support onshore or U.S.-flagged processing capacity.
- 5International engagement and competition: Commerce (with State, Interior, Energy) must engage allies and partners to support seabed development within their jurisdictions, create a prioritized list of partner countries, and study an international benefit‑sharing mechanism for extraction in areas beyond national jurisdiction; the order explicitly frames actions to counter China’s influence over seabed resources.