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Washington (December 18, 2024) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, along with Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Representative Jared Huffman (CA-02), today introduced the Nautical Oversight Safety and Protection of Inflammable Liquids by Law in the Sea (NO SPILLS) Act, which would strengthen the review process by which the Maritime Administration (MARAD) approves a license for the construction or maintenance of a deepwater port for fossil fuel exports and imports. The lawmakers introduced this bill as MARAD extended its consideration of Texas GulfLink, the second massive offshore oil export facility up for approval in the last few years after the Sea Port Oil Terminal (SPOT). GulfLink will have the capacity to export 1 million barrels of crude oil per day—and 3 million per day from a single coastal community when combined with SPOT—representing an unprecedented and unnecessary increase in export capacity that will cause irreversible climate harm and worsen air quality in a region already overburdened by severe air pollution.
“Over the past few years, massive oil and gas corporations have been quietly cutting deals to export massive amounts of oil and gas right off the Gulf Coast—deals that are then rubber-stamped by the U.S. Maritime Administration,” said Senator Markey. “When we drill deeper and export more, we put our planet, communities, oceans, and domestic consumer prices in peril. This commonsense bill will make sure the Maritime Administration is properly using its existing national interest determination process to review environmental and community impacts of offshore oil and gas export facilities before approval, and it would ensure fossil fuel companies have enough money set aside in case of disaster.”
“Communities across the country are already facing the effects of climate change, and it’s crucial we take a serious look at how dirty energy exports impact carbon emissions, environmental justice, and domestic energy prices,” said Representative Huffman. “This legislation is a sensible step to strengthen the review process for deepwater ports and ensure that the federal government considers the environmental impact of approving more oil export facilities. It is a sensible step to protect the public interest, reduce emissions and transition to the clean energy future.”
“Increasing oil exports will increase costs for Americans and worsen climate chaos. This bill helps us better understand the risks that oil export facilities pose to our health and environment and whether these projects are in fact in the public interest. I’ll continue to shine a light on dirty energy projects that threaten our families and climate,” said Senator Merkley.
Under the Deepwater Port Act of 1974, MARAD is required to evaluate whether proposed deepwater ports are in the “national interest” and are consistent with national policy goals and objectives, including for environmental quality and energy efficiency.
Despite this directive, MARAD has never denied an oil export license. There is currently one operating oil import and export facility, one recently approved oil export facility, and three more oil export facilities currently awaiting licensing decisions—including GulfLink. Between the recently approved and pending offshore oil export facilities, an analysis by the Global Energy Monitor found that the crude oil from these facilities could generate 24 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas over 30 years, equivalent to the annual output of nearly 6,170 coal plants, in addition to creating local air pollution and oil spill risks. This number does not include the recently approved offshore LNG export facility or the two more offshore LNG export facilities awaiting licensing decisions.
To address the risks to communities and climate posed by deepwater ports, the bill:
- Increases the financial assurances and caps on liability required for offshore facilities;
- Expands outreach and notice for proposed projects;
- Explicitly includes public opinion and impacts to communities as factors that must be considered in the national interest determination test;
- Explicitly adds additional environmental review criteria as factors that must be considered in the national interest determination test;
- Requires a programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for projects in the Gulf of Mexico so that projects can be assessed together with cumulative impacts; and
- Prohibits LNG research in MARAD’s Maritime Environmental and Technical Assistance program.
The bill has been endorsed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthworks, Sierra Club, and Public Citizen.
“This bill is a critical step toward ensuring that the public’s voice and environmental justice are prioritized in making decisions about proposed oil and gas export projects. As frontline and Indigenous communities continue to endure climate-induced disasters, and the costs of oil and gas are rising, the Deepwater Port Act needs to effectively evaluate and mitigate all harmful impacts of expanding fossil fuel exports,” said Kelsey Crane, senior policy advocate at Earthworks.
“This bill is desperately needed to protect Gulf communities and marine life from the harms of massive deepwater oil export terminals,” said Lauren Parker, Attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “These dangerous, dirty projects risk oil spills, pollute communities and could condemn animals like the Rice’s whale to extinction. With Trump determined to unleash environmental destruction, bills like this are critical to protecting our planet and future generations.”
In November 2024, Senator Markey led an open letter alongside more than 130 international lawmakers during this year’s United Nations global climate conference, COP29, urging world leaders and UN-level negotiators to support an immediate moratorium on the expansion of LNG infrastructure worldwide. This follows a letter from September 2024 alongside more than 100 international lawmakers to the Biden administration urging it to reject new LNG exports, as well as a letter from July 2024 urging the Department of Energy to consider the disproportionate negative impacts of LNG exports on New England.
In August 2024, Senator Markey led a letter with twenty other colleagues in the Senate and House 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.
In May 2023, Senator Markey and Representative Yvette Clarke (NY-09) announced the reintroduction of the Block All New (BAN) Fossil Fuel Exports Act (S. 1707), legislation that would amend the Energy Policy and Conservation Act and ban the export of American crude oil and natural gas abroad to protect frontline communities from dangerous export infrastructure, 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.
Senator Markey was the leading Congressional investigator into BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill and forced BP to post online the “Spillcam” of the underwater spill. In 2010, as then-Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment, Senator Markey led a bipartisan Congressional delegation to the Gulf of Mexico to assess the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its impact on the waters, beaches, and marshes of four coastal states, and to meet with affected communities and response teams. In May 2010, then-Rep. Markey queried the EPA on the dangers of applying oil-dispersing chemicals deep underwater as an effort to mitigate the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, including the potential toxicity of the trademarked formulation, called Corexit. Also during the spill, then-Rep Markey queried the Food and Drug Administration for information on how Gulf of Mexico seafood that could be purchased and eaten by humans would be monitored for potential long-term exposure to chemicals, in light of use of chemical oil dispersants by BP. Fifty-two days after the start of the disaster, Senator Markey chaired the first Congressional hearing on Deepwater Horizon to investigate the cause and damage of the spill.
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