Olivia Asher is a reporter at the New Herald Tribune covering breaking news for the Digital Trends Desk. Before joining the newsroom in 2022, she covered criminal justice issues at the Orlando Plain Dealer.
April 26 , 2025
Washington, DC - In a move that has reignited global debate over space governance and resource exploitation, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order Friday asserting the right of U.S. companies to explore and extract oil resources on the Moon.
The executive order declares that “American enterprise must not be limited by outdated treaties or globalist bureaucracy” and calls on NASA and private space firms to begin “strategic assessments of lunar oil potential.” While the Moon is not currently known to possess oil, the order cited “unexplored possibilities” and called for “proactive preparedness for future extraction missions.”
“This is about American leadership,” Trump told reporters. “Why should we wait until China or Russia get there first? The Moon belongs to freedom and prosperity—not to red tape and socialism.”
Experts were quick to dismiss the practicality of the move, pointing out that there is no scientific evidence supporting the existence of oil reserves on the Moon. The Moon lacks the biological and geological conditions necessary for petroleum formation, according to planetary geologists.
“There is no oil on the Moon. Oil is a byproduct of organic decay under specific terrestrial conditions,” said Dr. Elena Vasquez, a planetary scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “This is political theater, not science.”
Beyond the scientific implausibility, international legal scholars raised alarms over potential violations of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits national appropriation of celestial bodies.
“This executive order directly contradicts established international law,” said Dr. Theo Brandt, an expert on space law at the University of Cambridge. “While the U.S. has previously signaled intent to allow commercial exploitation of space resources, this is the most direct claim yet of sovereign rights over the Moon.”
Copyright © 2026. All rights reserved.