The Dangerous Economist: Life is full of tradeoffs: If we want to protect Hawaii's marine life and tuna fisheries we will have fewer rare minerals for defense applications

See Hawaii Bans Deep-Sea Mining as U.S. Political Support Splits on Party Lines: Backing for ocean-floor extraction has largely come from Republicans amid a push to extract minerals for defense applications; Democrats are coming out against the practice by Yusuf Khan of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"Hawaii is banning deep-sea mining, as rifts along party lines begin to show in the U.S. over the practice following calls to extract rare minerals from the ocean floor for defense applications.
On Monday, Hawaii’s Democratic governor, Josh Green, signed a bill into law banning seabed mining in the Pacific Ocean state’s territorial waters, to protect the region’s marine life and tuna fisheries"
"Sen. Chris Lee . . . said . . . “ it’s also about ensuring the sustainability of fishing, respecting cultural rights, and preventing harm to tourism"
"proponents argue that the practice diverts harm away from terrestrial resources, for example rainforests in Indonesia that are being deforested for nickel needed in steel, batteries and, increasingly, national security defense purposes."
"many Republican leaders have voiced support for deep-sea mining, saying that it would give the U.S. a new source of critical minerals that is outside of China’s control."
"So far, the ISA (International Seabed Authority) has given 31 exploration contracts to prospective miners, including five Chinese contracts, but no exploitation contracts."

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