Stop fossil fuel facilities before they’re even built

What's At Stake

The fossil fuel industry has aggressive plans to lock in new oil and gas infrastructure in the form of crude oil and gas export terminals. Off the Texas and Louisiana coasts in the Gulf of Mexico, Earthjustice is challenging the proposed construction of four offshore deepwater ports, which would cause significant greenhouse gas emissions and pose significant health and environmental risks for Gulf Coast communities. We must stop fossil fuel facilities before they’re even built. Tell the Biden administration: Protect our communities and our climate and reject the proposals to build several new offshore deepwater ports throughout the Gulf of Mexico.

From the Sea Port Oil Terminal near Freeport, Texas, to the proposed Blue Marlin Offshore Port off the coast of Cameron Parish, Louisiana, each of the proposals has the capacity to load and export as much as 2 million barrels of crude oil per day. The projects would lead to increased domestic fossil fuel production and would lock in new transport and processing infrastructure for the sole purpose of growing oil and gas industry profits all at the expense of our climate, Gulf coast ecosystems, and frontline communities that have long-served as sacrifice zones for the fossil fuel industry.

Communities along the Gulf Coast are on the frontlines of the climate disaster. The predominantly Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and low-income communities along the Texas and Louisiana coast already live and work each day near polluting oil and gas pipelines, plants, and terminals. Residents are faced with higher risks of respiratory disease and cancers from industrial air pollutants. These communities are also oftentimes the hardest hit by devastating hurricanes because of the erosion of coastal wetlands due to the effects of oil and gas infrastructure in the region as well as sea level rise caused by a warming planet.

The Biden administration cannot approve these fossil fuel projects while pledging to take bold action to address the climate crisis. Increasing crude oil exports will only lock in decades of pollution that harms our health and our planet. If the Biden administration is serious about environmental and climate justice, then it must use its authority to protect the Gulf Coast from dangerous fossil fuel projects that threaten our environment, as well as global efforts to fight climate change.

An oil drilling ship sits anchored in the Gulf of Mexico. The Inflation Reduction Act reinstates a sale of 80 million offshore acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling.
A drill ship anchored in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Louisiana coast in 2021. (Brad Zweerink / Earthjustice)

Delivery to EPA Secretary Michael Regan, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and WH National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi

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