The leaders of the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and Guam are seeking a moratorium on deep-sea mining in the Marianas. CNMI governor David Apatang and Guam governor Lou Leon Guerrero also want to see refroms at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).
In a letter to Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chair Mike Lee, the governors of the Western Pacific US territories are calling for congressional action, citing what they describe as significant deficiencies in the process governing the Request for Information (RFI) proposing the potential leasing of Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) minerals in an area offshore the CNMI and directly adjacent to Guam.
