Pete Buttigieg Heckled by Climate Protesters

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was interrupted by climate protesters chanting "Stop Petro Pete" and "End Fossil Fuels Pete" during an event on Wednesday, The Washington Examiner reported.

Buttigieg was speaking at iMPACT MARYLAND at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore.

"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,” a protester told Buttigieg.

The group behind the protest, Climate Defiance, released footage showing Buttigieg attempting to speak with the protesters before he eventually had to leave the stage and be escorted away by security.

The protesters tried to follow him offstage, chanting, "Stop S.P.O.T. and GulfLink, stop Petro Pete," but were prevented from going backstage, The Washington Examiner reported.

“Think about why he said he can’t ‘speak off the cuff’ on climate. Please! We’re ready to! We’re happy to have a conversation with Secretary Pete,” one protester said.

Climate Defiance, in a post on X, called Buttigieg "craven and corrupted" and accused him of "destroying entire communities to enrich his fossil fuel cronies." The group also claimed one of the protesters present had been a volunteer for Buttigieg's 2020 presidential campaign.

"One of the people in today’s action was a volunteer on the Buttigieg presidential campaign. She is now repulsed by her former role model. People across the county are waking up, realizing that Petro Pete is as slick & slimy as the fossil fuel projects he rubber-stamps," the post said.

The group wants the Department of Transportation to reject permits for the Sea Port crude oil export terminal and the GulfLink oil export terminal, both located off the coast of Texas. 

The Texas GulfLink Deepwater Port is a proposed oil export terminal in the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 30 miles off the coast of Brazoria County.

The U.S. Maritime Administration and U.S. Coast Guard are currently deciding whether to authorize the GulfLink oil project, which would have the capacity to export 1 million or more barrels of crude oil per day.

According to environmentalamerica.org: "If approved, the oil project would add even more pollution to the area. An oil spill from this terminal could devastate the Gulf of Mexico and the local fishing and tourism industries. A spill would destroy nesting grounds for the critically endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle and beach and dune habitat for generations."

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