A group of climate protesters disrupted a speech by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Buttigieg was speaking at an event in Baltimore when members of the group Climate Defiance rushed the stage and confronted him about two proposed oil projects.
"Your [Department of Transportation] just approved the Sea Port Oil Terminal, a project that will have 80 coal plants' worth of greenhouse gas emissions and will worsen air quality in areas that already live in cancer clusters," an activist told Buttigieg after crashing the stage. "This is about environmental racism and it's about climate impacts this project will have. Will you commit to stopping these projects?"
When the moderator asked if Buttigieg wanted to address the comments, he initially said, "Yeah, for sure," but then moments later added, "I don't want to say anything off the cuff."
Buttigieg ended up leaving the stage early as protesters chanted "Stop Petro Pete!" The protesters tried to follow him offstage, chanting "Stop S.P.O.T. and GulfLink," but they were stopped by security guards.
Following the event, Climate Defiance went on social media to accuse Buttigieg of "destroying entire communities to enrich his fossil fuel cronies." They also posted video of the protest, which has been viewed more than 583,000 times.
"Petro Pete is a coward. As we write he is ramming down our throats the Sea Port and GulfLink oil terminals – each worse than Keystone," the group posted on X. "We must resist him with all we've got. And we will."
Buttigieg has not commented publicly on the incident.
On Wednesday, Climate Defiance offered a further explanation for their "savage" actions.
"We lack money and formal decision-making powers but we can exert real influence by *decimating* reputations. We do not relish doing so but we will use that power when we must. Relatedly there are now over half a million people who have seen our new nickname for the Secretary, Petro Pete. The action worked *exactly* as intended," the group posted on X.
"Direct action is the fastest and most efficient way to spur change. 30 of us took over Pete's speech and it made a bigger impression than 1000s signing petitions or protesting on a sidewalk would have," the group continued. "It is not just Pete we sought to change. The person we aim to move is also you. We seek to make climate a top-3 issue in American politics and believe the fastest way to do so is through disruptive action."
The Sea Port Oil Terminal project, approved by the Biden administration last year, is comprised of a fixed-platform terminal roughly 30 miles off the coast of Freeport, Texas, in approximately 115 feet of water, connected to an onshore storage facility by two 36-inch, bi-directional pipelines, according to Offshore Magazine.
While SPOT would be the largest offshore export terminal in the United States, with the capacity to export two million barrels of crude oil per day, it would also create "disastrous levels of greenhouse gas pollution," according to The Center for Biological Diversity, which sued over the project's approval.
"SPOT, owned by Enterprise Products Operating LLC, involves the construction of 140 miles of land-based and underwater pipelines, posing a substantial risk of oil spills that threaten water resources and the Gulf's imperiled species," the center said in a statement. "The project's resulting air and water pollution will significantly harm the health and livelihoods of frontline human communities, as well as Gulf ecosystems."
Meantime, the Texas GulfLink project is a proposed crude oil export terminal approximately 30 miles off the Texas Gulf Coast in Brazoria County.