Groups urge the Biden administration to deny LNG export terminals

By Michael McGrady, Maritime Direct Americas & Pacific Correspondent

WASHINGTON — A letter sent to President Joe Biden administration officials by environmental justice advocacy groups ask for a denial of current pending deepwater port fossil fuel export facilities across Texas connected to the Bakken formation and the Permian Basin.

Legal representatives for the Sierra Club, Earthjustice, the Center for Biological Diversity, Earth Action, several native tribes, state-level advocacy organizations, and others have all co-signed the letter, which was addressed to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Acting Administrator Lucinda Lessley for the Maritime Administration, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and US Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz.

As the primary regulatory chiefs of oceans and seaways in the United States, all four officials are addressed in this letter concerning the status of several deepwater port terminals along the Gulf of Mexico coast.

“If built, these terminals would drive the global export of massive quantities of domestically-extracted crude oil on shipping vessels known as Very Large Crude Carriers (“VLCCs”), each as large as the Empire State Building,” notes the letter.