At a congressional hearing, one executive welcomed President Trump’s “starting gun” to begin mining. Democrats and Republicans clashed over environmental and business concerns.

Less than a week after President Trump signed an executive order to accelerate seabed mining, the U.S. government received its first permit application from the Metals Company, one of the most ardent proponents of the as yet unproven practice.

On Tuesday, the company’s chief executive, Gerard Barron, was also on hand in Washington for a contentious hearing in front of the House Natural Resources Committee. He likened Mr. Trump’s move to a “starting gun” in the race to extract minerals like cobalt and nickel from potato-size nodules lying in the frigid, pitch-black, two-and-a-half-mile-deep sands of the Pacific Ocean floor.

Republican and Democratic committee members clashed over how much weight should be given to environmental concerns about the practice. The Trump administration has said it will consider issuing permits for mining

Keep reading this article on The New York Times Energy & Environment.