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VIRGINIA: Comment period closes on proposed Virginia offshore mineral lease

August 26, 2026 — The public comment period has closed on a proposal that could lead to commercial mineral leasing in federal waters off Virginia’s Eastern Shore.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management accepted comments through Aug. 22 on a request for information and interest covering about 1.77 million acres, or 2,764 square miles, of the Outer Continental Shelf. The area lies three to 63.5 miles off the Delmarva Peninsula, seaward of Accomack and Northampton counties, in water depths ranging from approximately 30′ to 410′.

The proceeding is an early planning step and does not authorize exploration, dredging or mineral production. BOEM will use the submissions to determine whether to identify areas for possible leasing and begin an environmental review. Any lease would be awarded through a competitive process rather than directly to the company that initiated the request.

Odyssey Marine Exploration, Tampa, Fla., submitted the unsolicited lease-sale request in November 2025. The company is interested in exploring for heavy mineral sands containing titanium-bearing minerals, zirconium-bearing minerals and rare earth element-bearing minerals, including monazite. Odyssey has a collaboration agreement with Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp., Houston, which would serve as the dredging contractor if the project advances.

Unlike proposed mining projects targeting polymetallic nodules in deep ocean basins, the Virginia proposal involves comparatively shallow continental shelf deposits that Odyssey says could be recovered using conventional dredging and mineral-processing equipment.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Environmental review of seabed mining to come after leases are sold

August 25, 2026 — The federal agency pushing to open the seabed near the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to mineral mining confirmed Saturday that it will not conduct a full environmental study of the actual mining process until after companies already hold leases, a disclosure that has done little to ease objections from Guam senators.

The Marine Minerals Administration, formerly the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, responded to questions from The Guam Daily Post about its decision to publish a proposed leasing notice for the Marianas sale, known as PACM-2, three months ahead of the schedule the agency had previously given Congress.

Asked why it moved up the notice, the agency said the release “reflects the agency’s response to executive orders that prioritize the development and secure supply of critical minerals.” The agency apologized for the delay in responding to the Post but did not elaborate further on the shift in timing.

On environmental review, the agency confirmed that the leasing stage only grants companies the right to hold a lease and conduct preliminary work such as bathymetric, geological and geophysical surveys, which it maintains carry no significant environmental impact. A full environmental impact statement, the agency said, will wait until “a lessee submits detailed plans with more precise details regarding the location, equipment size, scale, and specific methodologies for developing the seabed resources.”

Read the full article at The Guam Daily Post

Governor, Moylan push back on seabed mining plan

August 21, 2026 — The federal government has taken its clearest step yet toward opening the seabed near the Northern Mariana Islands to commercial mineral mining, and Guam’s governor and delegate to Congress are warning Washington not to move faster than the science allows.

The Marine Minerals Administration, formed in July when the Interior Department folded the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management into a new agency, published a proposed leasing notice Monday covering five lease blocks along the edge of the Mariana Trench. The blocks span roughly 67 million acres, an area close to the size of Nevada, and the agency has set Dec. 16 as the proposed date for the sale.

In a statement released Wednesday, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero’s office acknowledged Washington’s interest in reducing reliance on foreign mineral sources but said caution should come first. “National security cannot mean asking the people of the Pacific to accept environmental risks before those risks are fully understood,” the statement said.

The governor’s office cautioned that permitting exploration now could make it harder to pull back later, once companies have invested money in surveying the seabed. “A lease is not authorization to begin commercial mining, and it is important that we be precise about that. But it is also not an insignificant step,” the statement said, calling on the Interior Department and the new marine minerals agency to consult with residents of the Mariana Islands before going further.

Read the full article at The Guam Daily Post

Court order could threaten permits for surviving US wind projects

August 19, 2026 — A court decision remanding prior approvals for a wind energy project off New Jersey could pose a new threat to offshore turbine arrays under construction, as the Trump administration presses its relentless campaign against them.

The Aug. 10 decision by U.S. District Court Judge Jia Cobb in the District of Columbia granted a request by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to reconsider its permitting for  Atlantic Shores, planned as a 2.8 gigawatt project near Long Beach Island, N.J.

Local activist group Save Long Beach Island had sought a remand and reconsideration of the project’s construction and operations plan, approved in October 2024 in the waning days of the Biden administration.

Save LBI contended that BOEM failed to adequately consider the project’s likely effects under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act, among other federal laws.

Read the full article at WorkBoat

Trump admin to reconsider permits for Atlantic Shores wind project

August 13, 2026 — In the latest blow to the offshore wind industry, a federal court has cleared the way for the Trump administration to reconsider permits for the Atlantic Shores project off the coast of New Jersey.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled Monday that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management could review the construction permits it issued to the project. The permits were issued under the Biden administration.

“Remand is appropriate here in the interest of judicial economy and in light of the lack of prejudice to Atlantic Shores,” the order read.

Read the full article at E&E News

ALASKA: Deep sea mining in the Gulf of Alaska

August 13, 2026 — With China reportedly producing around 90 percent of the world’s supply of rare earth elements, and far ahead in processing technology, the U.S. and other countries are searching for new ways to meet demand, and deep sea mining on seamounts in the Gulf of Alaska is on the list of proposals. The Japanese press reported in July that experimental deep sea mining had successfully extracted rare earth elements such as neodymium, dysprosium, and terbium—all vital for fighter jet and missile guidance systems—from 6,000 feet below the surface.

In April of 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14285 “Unleashing America’s Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources,” and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is evaluating whether to advance a competitive lease sale for minerals on the Alaska Outer Continental Shelf. “We don’t know what impact deep sea mining could have on fisheries, but there is cause for concern,” says retired University of Alaska marine professor Rick Steiner, who now runs a consulting company called Oasis Earth.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Trump cites national security to stop offshore wind development. Here’s what to know

July 17, 2026 — President Donald Trump’s administration has worked to stop offshore wind development on the grounds that it’s a national security risk since late last year.

It halted work on major projects, and it’s buying back leases, citing national security concerns. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum says a classified report from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth proves offshore wind is a national security threat.

This comes against the backdrop of the Republican president’s hatred of wind turbines and desire to boost fossil fuels for “energy dominance” in the global market. National lab estimates show that turbines installed along the U.S. coasts could provide more than enough power to cover the nation’s annual electricity consumption.

Wind turbines interfere with radar, but that isn’t a new problem. The Pentagon reviews wind farm construction plans and can deem areas off limits. There are upgrades to radar to mitigate turbine impacts.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Trump Administration Advances First Offshore Critical Minerals Lease Sale Under New Marine Minerals Agency

July 17, 2026 — The Trump administration has taken another step toward launching a U.S. offshore critical minerals industry, with the newly created Marine Minerals Administration (MMA) releasing a proposed leasing notice that could lead to the first federal deep-sea mineral lease sale in U.S. waters.

The proposal covers federal waters off American Samoa and marks one of the first major regulatory actions by the MMA since the Trump administration announced plans in April to merge the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) into a single offshore regulator.

The proposed lease sale is part of the administration’s broader effort to secure domestic supplies of critical minerals—including nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese—that are widely used in batteries, defense systems and advanced manufacturing while reducing dependence on Chinese-controlled supply chains.

“Critical minerals have become a strategic asset in global competition, and China’s dominance in the supply of many of these materials creates unacceptable risks for America’s energy, defense and manufacturing sectors,” Acting MMA Director Matt Giacona said.

Read the full article at gCaptain

Congressional Democrats warn against merging offshore energy agencies

July 10, 2026 — The catastrophic 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster led to the splitting of the federal Marine Minerals Administration into two separate agencies – one focused on offshore leasing and production, and another on safety.

Now Democratic leaders in Congress are sounding the alarm over the Trump administration’s move to reunite the agencies’ functions under one roof.

The April 2010 well blowout and fire killed 11 platform workers, discharged an estimated 4.9 billion barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and was only declared sealed five months later in September 2010.

Economic and environmental damages from the disaster led a year later to the creation of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to handle offshore energy management, alongside the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).

In a July 8 letter to the Government Accountability Office, Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., of the House Natural Resources Committee called for investigating the Department of the Interior’s proposal to recreate a unified Marine Minerals Administration.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Dems request probe of offshore agency reorganization

July 9, 2026 — Top Democrats on Wednesday called on Congress’ watchdog to investigate the Trump administration’s decision to merge two existing bureaus within the Interior Department to oversee offshore oil and gas, wind and mining.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and House Natural Resources ranking member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate whether a consolidation could undermine beefed up oversight created after the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil disaster in 2010.

The letter — also signed by California Democrats Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Luz Rivas — zeroes in on the administration’s decision in April to consolidate the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to create a new Marine Minerals Administration.

Read the full article at E&E News