Senator Markey, Rep. Grijalva Urge Biden Administration to Better Consider Health, Environmental, and Climate Impacts in Deepwater Oil Export Project Approvals

Letter Text (PDF)

Washington (August 9, 2024) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee, and Congressman Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-07), Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Committee, today led a letter with twenty other colleagues in the Senate and House of Representatives to Rear Admiral (Ret.) Ann C. Phillips, Administrator of the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration (MARAD), encouraging MARAD to update its approval criteria for deepwater oil export ports.

Under the Deepwater Port Act of 1974, MARAD is required to evaluate whether proposed deepwater oil export projects are in the "national interest" and are consistent with national policy goals and objectives, including for environmental quality and energy efficiency. Offshore oil export facilities - capable of moving 2 billion barrels of oil per day - are dangerous to the global and local environment, but despite this clear directive to consider the national interest, MARAD has never denied an oil export license. There is currently one operating oil import and export facility, one recently approved facility, and three more awaiting licensing decisions from MARAD. If MARAD allows the recently approved and pending offshore oil export facilities to come online, the crude oil from these facilities would generate 24 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas over 30 years, in addition to creating local air pollution and oil spill risks.

The lawmakers' letter calls on MARAD to fully and accurately consider public health, environmental justice, and climate change impacts as part of the determination process. In the interim, the lawmakers urge MARAD to pause licensing decisions for new and pending deepwater oil export projects - including Blue Marlin, Bluewater, and Gulflink - and reopen the record of decision for the recently approved Sea Port Oil Terminal (SPOT).

The lawmakers wrote, "It is critical that, as part of its statutorily mandated 'national interest' assessment, MARAD consider the environmental justice, climate, and public health impacts of these proposed deepwater ports.One of President Biden's first executive orders calls on federal agencies to suspend, rescind, or halt actions that conflict with goals to protect public health and the environment, advance environmental justice, bolster resilience, and confront the climate crisis. Broadening MARAD's interpretation of national interest-which already requires an assessment of the impact on energy sufficiency and environmental quality-to more fully include environmental justice, climate, and public health considerations would be consistent with President Biden's directive. Such a step would also recognize that the anticipated emissions from these oil export facility projects would counteract the benefits of the historic climate investments in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)."

The letter was cosigned by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Ro Khanna (CA-17), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), Linda Sánchez (CA-38), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), Delia Ramirez (IL-03), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Jared Huffman (CA-02), Cori Bush (MO-01), Summer Lee (PA-12), Greg Casar, (TX-35), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Nanette Barragán (CA-44), Nydia Velázquez (NY-07), and Earl Blumenauer (OR-03).

Senator Markey is the author of the Block All New (BAN) Fossil Fuel Exports Act, which would reinstate the fossil fuel export ban that was lifted in 2015, prioritize U.S. consumers against fossil fuel profiteering, and help ensure the United States meets its climate and clean energy commitments on the world stage. In December 2023, he co-led a letter from international parliamentarians on the globally recognized need to halt the construction and expansion of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities.

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