On July 9, Hawaii banned all seabed mining for minerals within its waters to protect the local fishing industry, biodiversity and Native Hawaiian rights. The ban follows similar legislation in California, Washington and Oregon. Twenty-seven countries have so far called for a global moratorium on deepsea mining.
The increased production of electric vehicles (EVs) is the main impetus for mining the seafloor, which is a source of copper, nickel, manganese and cobalt — all necessary components of high-power, long-range batteries.
But the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provides tax incentives for EV producers if 50 percent of battery components are procured domestically — even if those components come from damaging the ocean.
US territory American Samoa is already taking advantage of the legislation to expand mining in its waters. The American Samoa Economic Development Council (ASEDC) entered into a sea-mining partnership with Colorado-based Critical Mining Ventures in January 2024. When the partnership was announced, Critical Mining Ventures co-managing director Don Southerton cited EV batteries as one of the main drives behind deep-sea mining.
Not everyone likes it.
“We are led to believe by corporations and investors that deep-sea mineral extraction is essential to meeting our electric vehicles targets,” said California Assemblywoman Luz Rivas, lead author of the California bill that banned mining in 2022. “However, battery efficiency and recycling continue to increase as technology evolves.”
Rivas highlighted the $100 million invested via the Biden administration’s “Investing in America” agenda to lower costs in the U.S. battery recycling industry. The program uses the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and CHIPS and Science Act, among others, to support a domestic clean technology transition.
In 2023, the US had a $5.9 billion lithium-ion battery recycling marketplace, with its growth projected to reach $23.6 billion by 2030, according to a 2024 Research and Markets report.
US EV manufacturers generally support a moratorium on deep-sea mining.
“Right now, scientists know less about the deep ocean than is known about space,” Anisa Kamadoli Costa, the chief sustainability officer at Rivian, told GreenBiz, “which is why we are supporting a moratorium on deep seabed mining.”
In June, Tesla called on its shareholders to vote to commit to a moratorium on minerals sourced from seabed mining. BMW and Volvo also called for a deep-sea mining moratorium back in 2022.
Banning deep-sea mining is “a financial decision as much as an environmental one,” said Rivas. Speaking to the economic potential of a healthy ocean, “California’s ocean economy generated over 1.035 million total jobs, provided over $143 billion in output, $84 billion in gross state product, and over $53 billion in total labor income.”
