Trump to overrule local leaders, lease millions of acres of America’s Pacific Island territories’ seafloors to mining companies

The Trump administration intends to lease millions of acres of seafloor surrounding America’s Pacific Island territories to mining companies, despite local leaders and environmentalists’ opposition. While international law says that the Indigenous people of America’s territories have a right to prior and informed consent regarding projects that impact their country, the Trump administration says it has the authority to proceed under U.S. law, Anita Hofschneider and Sachi Kitajima Mulkey write for Grist. 

Lou Leon Guerrero, the governor of Guam, said she was reassured by Bill Hague, an official in the Department of the Interior, “that mining would never proceed without the community’s support. Nearly a year later, that’s exactly what’s happening,” Grist reports. In August, the Marine Minerals Administration said it would auction more than 67 million acres of seafloor on either side of the Marianas archipelago, which includes Guam, to mining companies.

“Earthjustice, an environmental law nonprofit, filed lawsuits against the Trump administration on behalf of conservation groups in American Samoa and the Mariana Islands, arguing that the government does not yet know if seabed mining would harm animals that are protected by the Endangered Species Act, like whales and sea turtles,” Hofschneider and Kitajima Mulkey report.