Guam Pushes for Local Consultation and Revenue-Sharing Safeguards as Interior Advances Seabed Mining Talks

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Guam’s lieutenant governor this week directly challenged Department of the Interior officials over proposals to speed up permitting for deep-sea mining, saying the island will not be sidelined as decisions with “generational consequences” are made. Josh Tenorio met Thursday with Interior and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) representatives at the Office of the Governor in Adelup, pressing for stronger local consultation, clearer environmental analysis and a statutory mechanism for Guam to share any federal mining revenues.

The meeting, which lasted nearly two hours, was organised by BOEM and attended by Tenorio flanked by Cabinet members and nearly two dozen regulatory experts. Outside the building a small group of protesters held placards opposing seabed mining and shouted “Shame on You” as federal officials left. John Ryan, spokesman for the Office of the Governor, said the office provided the venue, articulated Guam’s concerns and expects similar BOEM-hosted briefings will be held in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Tenorio told DOI officials he opposed proposals to compress review timelines and to remove notification requirements for territorial leaders, calling such moves unacceptable. “We’re not interested in being guinea pigs out here,” he said, arguing that matters of technology and environmental consequence must be subject to full transparency and broad public engagement. He said GovGuam will insist on town halls and other community consultation before any exploration or mining activities are authorised.

BOEM made a presentation on the status of seabed mining efforts in the region, but Tenorio said the session did not present new environmental data that would allay long-standing concerns about sediment plumes, ecosystem disruption, impacts to fisheries and long-term habitat degradation. “We did not receive new scientific analysis that resolves the environmental risks we’ve already articulated,” he said, adding that assurances that actual mining may still be “years away” offer no binding protection against an accelerated shift to extraction.

A further legal and economic issue raised by Tenorio was the absence of a federal revenue-sharing framework that would allow Guam to benefit financially from undersea mining in federal waters. “We asked directly what statutory authority exists to provide revenue sharing for Guam. At this time, there is no identified federal revenue-sharing framework that guarantees economic benefit to our island,” he said.

Tenorio also pressed federal officials on whether planning had been coordinated with the Department of Defense and the Port Authority of Guam, given the island’s strategic military role and its position as a shipping hub in the Western Pacific. He said no clear coordination plan was presented addressing national defence operations or protections for commercial shipping. While Tenorio said GovGuam supports innovation and responsible economic opportunity, he reiterated that this must not come at the expense of environmental security or territorial sovereignty.

The meeting represents the latest development in growing regional scrutiny of US policy on seabed mining. By airing its objections directly to Interior Department officials and mobilising regulatory experts and public protest, Guam has signalled it will push for concrete safeguards — scientific, legal and consultative — before permitting rules are altered to accelerate seabed mining activity.