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U.S. President Donald Trump has officially jump-started U.S. efforts to mine the seafloor, pitching the United States into the center of a contentious debate that has sparked fears of a race to the bottom in the world’s last untouched frontier.

Trump last week signed an executive order that would fast-track efforts to exploit key minerals in both national and international waters, citing the defense of a “core national security and economic interest.” The explicitly named threat is China, which dominates many of the world’s critical mineral supply chains and has used that leverage to strike back against the Trump administration’s trade war.

U.S. President Donald Trump has officially jump-started U.S. efforts to mine the seafloor, pitching the United States into the center of a contentious debate that has sparked fears of a race to the bottom in the world’s last untouched frontier.

Trump last week signed an executive order that would fast-track efforts to exploit key minerals in both national and international waters, citing the defense of a “core national security and economic interest.” The explicitly named threat is China, which dominates many of the world’s critical mineral supply chains and has used that leverage to strike back against the Trump administration’s trade war.

“We are heading toward a metal crisis right now with the trade issues with China,” said Alex Gilbert, the vice president of regulation at Zeno Power and a fellow at the Colorado School of Mines’ Payne Institute for Public Policy. Trump administration officials “see that deep-sea minerals are an area where they can potentially compete.”

With this executive order, Trump is embracing a nascent industry that has engendered fierce clashes among mining companies, countries, scientists, and environmentalists. The Trump administration’s move amounts to a sharp break in U.S. policy that is certain to intensify legal, environmental, and financial uncertainties, all of which were already clouding the........

© Foreign Policy