Norway’s government passed a bill this week that will allow companies the right to conduct mining assessments in the deep ocean off the country’s Arctic Ocean coast. Despite international calls for a moratorium on deep-sea mining, Norway has continued its pursuit despite being one of the only Western countries openly supporting the practice. It has voted for opening up the Arctic to commercial exploration as well as further intensifying environmental checks for the practice as it tries to balance out the risk associated with disrupting the seabed. The proposed plan is to at first open the Arctic only to companies vetted by the Norwegian government, similarly to how some projects have been confirmed within the petroleum industry. Commercial deep-sea mining…