Environmental organisations sue Department of Transportation over approval of oil export facility offshore Texas

Several US environmental and community groups have sued the US Department of Transportation over its approval of the Sea Port Oil Terminal (SPOT), a proposed Gulf Coast deepwater oil export facility off the coast of Brazoria County, Texas.

SPOT would be the largest offshore export terminal in the US, with the capacity to export 2m barrels of crude oil per day.

The Sierra Club – one of the petitioners, along with Turtle Island Restoration Network, Citizens for Clean Air & Clean Water of Brazoria County, Texas Campaign for the Environment, and the Center for Biological Diversity – said in a statement that “operation of the facility would promote … disastrous levels of greenhouse gas pollution for the 30-year life of the project,” equivalent to operating nearly 90 new coal-fired power plants.

The groups claim that the US Maritime Administration (MARAD), the Department of Transportation agency that conducts licensing review of proposed deepwater export facilities, “failed to adequately assess the devastating oil spill risk and species harms from SPOT’s construction and operation.”

In addition, air and water pollution they say will result from the project, “will significantly harm the health and livelihoods of frontline communities.”

In the four years since SPOT submitted its initial licensing application to MARAD, “environmental groups and community members across the Gulf have submitted tens of thousands of public comments and testified at public hearings to express their grave concerns over SPOT and the flaws in the agency’s analysis of project impacts,” says the Sierra Club statement. “During this time, the need to address the climate emergency has become more urgent, air quality for local Brazoria County residents has been elevated to severe non-compliance, and the Rice’s whale has become more imperiled.”

SPOT is owned by Enterprise Products Operating, a Houston-based company.