Why the U.S. is missing out on the race to mine trillions of dollars worth of metals from the ocean

[question everything]

Interesting story on "60 minutes."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rare-earth-elements-u-s-on-sidelines-in-race-for-metals-sitting-on-ocean-floor-60-minutes-60-minutes-2019-11-17/

And the answer to the question, above? A Republican Senate, of course,

"The U.N.'s Law of the Sea covers deep sea mining, and in 1994, President Bill Clinton signed the treaty. But it was dead on arrival in the Senate, despite repeated attempts to ratify it, including this past July.

So we called the 22 senators opposed to the treaty, all Republicans, to ask why. None would appear on camera. Those who wrote us said that ceding any control to the United Nations was a deal-breaker."

===

In hindsight, of course, Obama should have tried to pass it when he had senate majority.

[SterlingPound]

1. and the companies that pay those republicans so much

don't want international regulation.

[highplainsdem]

2. Ratifying a treaty requires 2/3 of the Senate.

[DFW]

3. There have been environmental issues raised about ocean bottom mining for decades

There is a whole ecosystem down there that is very delicate, and could be easily destroyed by large scale ocean bottom mining. When large lumps of manganese were discovered on the ocean floor decades ago, this discussion flared up back then in a big way.