Recently, the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) and representatives from Gulf Coast ports met with the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Department of Commerce (DOC), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on the Biden Administration's proposed critical habitat designation for the Rice's whale. Along with currently available technologies to track aquatic mammals in real time as opposed to wide sweeping guesses of a species' possible location, attendees also emphasized a wide range of safety and economic effects the move would likely have on the port and maritime industry.

"Sadly, NOAA's proposed critical habitat designation for the Rice's whale fails to properly consider the full range of negative downstream impacts on mariners, ports, industry, and our broader economy," stated Cary S. Davis, AAPA President and CEO. "Ports are open to responsible and reasonable efforts to protect the species but we ask the Biden Administration to thoughtfully hear the concerns of industry and seek a more balanced approach to conservation policy in the Gulf of Mexico."

The meeting with OIRA comes in the final stages of the rule making process before the NOAA Fisheries critical habitat designation is likely to finalized.

These ports echoed the concerns of seven Gulf Coast Senators in a May 2024 letter to DOC and the Department of the Interior. They expressed skepticism at the strength of the scientific evidence of the critical habitat designation and a fear that the rule could impede key military and national security activities.

AAPA submitted official comments to NOAA opposing the rule in October 2023 and has continued to aggressively push back since the rule was announced. Shortly after the rule was announced, other industry groups released a study that found vessel restrictions, the potential next step in the rulemaking process after a critical habitat designation, could cut energy production in the Gulf of Mexico by almost 25%, eliminate 44,000 jobs, and reduce federal government revenues by approximately $30 billion through 2040.

This meeting with the U.S. Government is the second in several months AAPA has requested and led urging the Biden Administration to reverse course on federal rulemakings on marine life that directly affect America's ports without closely examining all of the policy's likely impacts.