The Texas Tribune, whoo-hoo!
From the linked article:
The Biden administration has approved plans to build the nation’s largest oil export terminal off the Gulf Coast of Texas, which would add 2 million barrels per day to the U.S. oil export capacity.
The approval by the Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration was filed in the federal register on Monday without any public announcement, a day after the United Nations’ annual climate conference wrapped up in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt.
In its 94-page decision, the Maritime Administration wrote, “The construction and operation of the Port is in the national interest because the Project will benefit employment, economic growth, and U.S. energy infrastructure resilience and security. The Port will provide a reliable source of crude oil to U.S. allies in the event of market disruption.”
The administration’s move marked a major step forward for the export sector, which has grown rapidly since the U.S. began to allow crude sales abroad in 2015, the same year that the U.S. helped broker the Paris climate accord that called for dramatic reductions in global fossil fuel emissions.
The offshore oil export terminal, the first to be approved of four proposed along Texas’ Gulf Coast, will enable continued growth in U.S. shale oil production and in global consumption, dealing a substantial setback to the White House’s goals for drastic cuts in carbon emissions by year 2030.
Greta: "How dare you!"
The Houston Chronicle suggested in an earlier report, however, that regulatory approval does not guarantee construction. The news outlet reported that if built, the Sea Port Oil Terminal would be the first of four projects proposed in 2019 to materialize. The goal of these projects was to make oil-loading more efficient and reduce transportation costs.
More:
Approval of the Sea Port Oil Terminal, off the coast of Freeport, about 50 miles south of Galveston, gave its corporate developers — Enterprise and Endbridge (sic)— a clear lead in the race to build the first new offshore export terminal in the Gulf. It was the agency’s first endorsement and followed a three-year review process.
According to James Coleman, who teaches energy law at Southern Methodist University in Texas, the export terminal’s approval represents the “hands-off” approach the Biden administration has adopted toward oil infrastructure projects since winning the White House on promises to block pipeline expansions.
“They keep asking the oil industry to expand its production and build more refineries. And yet they are saying we need to phase out fossil fuels,” Coleman said. “What they’ve said seems contradictory.”
****************************
What's Going On? Color Me Confused
From the same source, The Texas Tribune, just a couple of months earlier, September 2, 2022:
From the linked article:
The Environmental Protection Agency denied a permit this week for an offshore oil export terminal project near Corpus Christi because it would have allowed massive amounts of pollution — reversing course after the agency under the Trump administration had moved the project forward.
It’s a setback for the Bluewater Texas Terminal, which is competing to establish the first large oil export facility off the coast of Texas.
The terminal, which would export up to approximately 384 million barrels of crude oil per year on large tanker ships, would be the biggest oil export facility off the Texas coast and would rival the country’s largest offshore oil export terminal, off the Louisiana coast.
The Bluewater project is a partnership between energy companies Phillips 66 and Trafigura.
_2.png)
