154 
Honorable Frederick B. Dent 
3 June 1974 
Page 2 
We say "apparently," because in his 1 March 1973 
letter to Chairman Jackson of the Senate Committee on 
Interior and Insular Affairs, as well as in his testi- 
mony before the House Subcommittee on Oceanography on 
the same date, Mr. Charles N. Brower, then Acting Legal 
Adviser to the Department of State and Acting Chairman, 
Interagency Task Force on the Law of the Sea, said that 
"prudence dictates that we also begin at once to formu- 
late a legislative approach on a contingency basis...". 
Fifteen months later, we are still awaiting information 
on that legislative approach. 
According to Professor Moore, one responsibility 
of the Administration in this area is the preparation of 
an environmental impact statement on the effects of deep 
ocean mining, such a statement to include the results of 
at-sea work to be carried out by “our” experts, and to 
be completed in time to serve as a part of the govern- 
mental decision-making process before the end of 1975. 
If that responsibility is to be carried out, we are now 
at the point, if indeed not past it, when we must make 
a vigorous, concentrated effort to acquire the necessary 
information and data upon which valid judgments may be 
based. 
In view of the situation, we would appreciate your 
advising us at as early a date as is possible of the 
past efforts and present plans of the Executive Branch, 
and particularly of your own department, on the develop- 
ment of an ocean mining environmental statement, with 
emphasis on how the Executive Branch is taking advantage 
of ongoing and future at-sea operations by American ocean 
miners. 
