When participants looked closely at BOEM’s own handout describing its regulatory pathway, a sobering realization landed: that American Samoa is already halfway through the federal leasing process. That recognition sharpened the questions in the room. Will the public be consulted before a lease sale moves forward? And once a lease is issued, how do you ever get it back? Could the process be paused if communities were clearly opposed?
BOEM emphasized procedure, not consent. They made it seem as though reversing a lease later would be straightforward if objections emerged. In reality, the default is continuation unless the government takes affirmative action to stop it. Once a lease is granted, undoing it becomes extraordinarily difficult — a fact underscored by the U.S. government’s previous unsuccessful attempts to claw back leases issued for wind farms, where courts have largely sided with developers.
Meanwhile, the next day, back on the mainland, the House Committee on Natural Resources (HCNR) held a hearing on deep-sea mining. The contrast was stark.
Pacific Island delegates spoke not about procedure, but about permanence.
“To the Indigenous people of American Samoa, the ocean is not just the backbone of our local economy, it is sacred,” said Delegate Aumua Amata Radewagen. “As it stands, the people of American Samoa are opposed to deep-sea mining in and around the territory.”
“In places like the Marianas, American Samoa, Guam — we don’t get the luxury of being wrong,” added Kimberlyn King-Hinds, the delegate from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, reminding Congress of what is at stake. “Any decision impacting our ocean is permanent.”
Guam Delegate James Moylan put it plainly: “The people of Guam [are] not asking for slow progress. They are asking not to be sacrificed.”
These were not abstract concerns. They were statements of survival.
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