Environmentalists protest as Biden administration approves huge oil export terminal off Texas coast

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: ABC News/AP

April 11, 2024, 2:08 PM


WASHINGTON -- In a move that environmentalists called a betrayal, the Biden administration has approved construction of a deepwater oil export terminal off the Texas coast that would be the largest of its kind in the United States. The Sea Port Oil Terminal being developed off Freeport, Texas, will be able to load two supertankers at once, with an export capacity of 2 million barrels of crude oil per day. The $1.8 billion project by Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners received a deepwater port license from the Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration this week, the final step in a five-year federal review.

Environmentalists denounced the license approval, saying it contradicted President Joe Biden's climate agenda and would lead to “disastrous” planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to nearly 90 coal-fired power plants. The action could jeopardize Biden's support from environmental allies and young voters already disenchanted by the Democratic administration's approval last year of the massive Willow oil project in Alaska.

“Nothing about this project is in alignment with President Biden’s climate and environmental justice goals,'' said Kelsey Crane, senior policy advocate at Earthworks, an environmental group that has long opposed the export terminal. “The communities that will be impacted by (the oil terminal) have once again been ignored and will be forced to live with the threat of more oil spills, explosions and pollution,'' Crane said. "The best way to protect the public and the climate from the harms of oil is to keep it in the ground.”

In a statement after the license was approved, the Maritime Administration said the project meets a number of congressionally mandated requirements, including extensive environmental reviews and a federal determination that the port's operation is in the national interest.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/environmentalists-protest-biden-administration-approves-huge-oil-export-109143324

[walkingman]

1. Fossil fuel political influence is bipartisan, that is why we will never reach climate goals.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. It may yet get there

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143224298

[Roy Rolling]

3. "Energy Independence"

So tell me again why massive tax subsidies for oil companies are a national priority? Is it so oil companies can sell U.S. domestic production to the highest bidder overseas? Do obscene fossil fuel profits make America more secure?

[BumRushDaShow]

4. "So tell me again why massive tax subsidies for oil companies are a national priority?"

Because if people end up paying more than $5/gal for gas (not counting the high-cost CA who normally pay that no matter what), they will try to vote you out of office.

I do agree that they do NOT need to be subsidized and if they are, then a percentage of their profits need to be taxed to recoup that subsidy. IOW, the "Windfall Profits Tax" (that keeps getting brought up but never followed-through on).

Is it so oil companies can sell U.S. domestic production to the highest bidder overseas? Do obscene fossil fuel profits make America more secure?

We have actually scared the shit out of OPEC and OPEC+ because we are outproducing their individual members where their production cuts haven't had the effect that they wanted to push oil to over $100/bbl. If anything, the instability in the ME is what seems to be doing that instead.

[LymphocyteLover]

5. I don't get this at all. Seems very counterproductive for climate goals