Critical minerals for the green energy transition. Do you really need to fuck up the seabed for this?

Ah, oil companies. Finding new ways to harm the environment while filling their pockets.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

OSLO, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Norway’s minority government and two opposition parties have agreed to allow seabed mineral exploration in the Arctic region, they said on Tuesday, in a key step towards full-scale ocean mining.

The deal comes as Norway hopes to become the first country to make deep-sea mining happen on a commercial scale and secure critical minerals and jobs despite concerns over the environmental impact and international calls for a moratorium.

The amended version of the government’s proposal, which parliament will formally debate on Jan. 4 followed by a vote, sets stricter environmental survey requirements during the exploration phase than originally planned.

The compromise also gives parliament the final say at a later date on whether to approve full-scale mining based on data gathered from the deep-sea environment during the initial exploration.

Baard Ludvig Thorheim, a member of parliament for the Conservatives, told Reuters the environmental bar for seabed mining had been set fairly high in the amended proposal.

Seabed mining start-up Loke Marine Minerals, which is backed by investors such as oil service company Technip FMC and Norwegian maritime group Wilhelmsen, welcomed the decision.

The original article contains 397 words, the summary contains 187 words. Saved 53%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!