As Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg presented at iMPACT MARYLAND on Tuesday, climate activists chased him off the stage, chanting, “Stop Petro Pete” and “End Fossil Fuels Pete.”
Protesters linked arms on stage wearing “End Fossil Fuels” shirts while one announced their dislike of the Department of Transportation’s proposed Sea Port Oil Terminal and Texas GulfLink project.
While security officers unsuccessfully attempted to clear the stage, protesters sang and chanted for five minutes, per the Baltimore Banner.
One activist on stage said to the audience, “Your (Department of Transportation) just approved the Seaport 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. This is about environmental racism, and it’s about the climate impacts this project will have,” per an X post by the group.
The Sea Port Oil Terminal project is “a proposed crude oil infrastructure project” that would connect facilities through a pipeline in coastal Houston, Texas. The project would facilitate oil transportation for “international export out of the Gulf of Mexico,” according to the project’s website.
The Texas GulfLink project is a “crude oil export terminal” that will also facilitate transportation for international export, according to TexasGulfLink.com. The website says the project will have environmental benefits, claiming it “will reduce overall emissions by approximately 86% when compared to the cumulative effects of reverse lightering.”
The event moderator asked Buttigieg if he wanted to comment on the Sea Port Oil Terminal project and the Texas GulfLink project. and Buttigieg responded that he didn’t want to “speak off the cuff,” according to Fox.
After returning to the stage, Buttigieg told the audience, “But my hope also is that some of those folks who are just here saw what happened when I was in front of the Transportation Infrastructure Committee two weeks ago trying to persuade or help the members of Congress (understand) that the seasons changing is not the same thing as climate change. And if this literally came up, and so we’ve got literal climate deniers … who can’t be bothered to admit that climate change is real.”
Footage of the event can be seen on X.