33 U.S.C. § 1504 — Procedure

(a) Regulations. Despite section 468(b) of title 6, the Secretary^* may issue regulations under section 553 of title 5, without regard to subsection (a) of that section, to carry out this chapter. The regulations may cover applications, issuing, transferring, renewing, suspending, and ending licenses. They must provide full consultation and cooperation with interested Federal agencies and departments and potentially affected coastal States, and consideration of interested members of the public. The Secretary may amend or rescind the regulations consistently with this chapter. (b) Additional regulations. Consulting the Interior Secretary and NOAA Administrator, the Secretary must as soon as practicable after January 3, 1975, issue regulations for site evaluation and preconstruction testing at possible deepwater-port locations that may (1) harm the environment, (2) interfere with authorized Outer Continental Shelf uses, or (3) threaten human health or welfare. Those activities may then occur only under these regulations, which must be consistent with this chapter. (c) Applications. (1)(A) Every applicant must submit a detailed plan containing the information required by paragraph (2). (B) Within 21 days after receiving an application^*, the Secretary must decide whether it contains all required information. If it does, within five days the Secretary must publish in the Federal Register a notice and plan summary. If it does not, the Secretary must notify the applicant of deficiencies and take no further action until they are corrected. (C) Publishing the notice makes subsection (f) apply. (2) Each application must include necessary financial, technical, and other information, including: (A) names, addresses, citizenship, phone numbers, and ownership interests of each person^* owning more than 3 percent of the applicant; (B) when feasible, the same identifying information for each person with whom the applicant made or proposes a significant construction^* or operating contract, plus each contract; (C) each affiliate’s identifying information and how it is associated with the applicant or persons disclosed under (A) or (B); (D) proposed port location and capacity, including all components; (E) type and design of all port components and associated storage; (F) for phased construction, each phase and anticipated completion dates for its specific components; (G) known locations and capacities of existing and proposed storage and pipelines for oil^* moved through the port; (H) known locations and capacities of refineries receiving that oil and the expected amount each will refine; (I) the applicant’s financial and technical ability to build or operate the port; (J) other qualifications for a license; (K) the registry nation and the nationality or citizenship of officers and crew on vessels reasonably expected to serve a natural-gas port; (L) construction, operation, and maintenance procedures, including oil-spill prevention, containment, and cleanup; and (M) other information the Secretary requires to decide environmental impact. (3) On written request, the Secretary may exempt a person from these or implementing regulations’ information-filing rules if the information is unnecessary for section 1503 decisions and the exemption will not limit public review and evaluation. (d) Application area. (1) When publishing an application notice, the Secretary must publish a Federal Register description of an application area around the proposed site where building that port would, when the application was filed, eliminate the need for another port. (2) "Application area" means any reasonable geographic area where a port may be built and operated. It may not exceed a circle centered at the main loading and unloading point, with a radius equal to the distance from that point to the nearest adjacent coastal State’s high-water mark. (3) The Secretary must invite other applications in the area. Intent notices are due within 60 days after the original notice, and completed applications within 90 days. The Secretary must publish properly received applications. A late intent notice or application cannot be considered until pending applications for the area are denied. (4) This subsection does not apply to natural-gas ports. (e) Federal recommendations. (1) Within 30 days after January 3, 1975, the Interior Secretary, EPA Administrator, Army Corps Chief of Engineers, NOAA Administrator, and other agencies with relevant expertise or jurisdiction must send the Secretary written comments about their responsibilities. (2) An application is also an application for every required Federal authorization. When its notice is published, the Secretary must send it to agencies with jurisdiction for comment, review, conditions, and other legally required action. Each agency must recommend approval or denial within 45 days after the last public hearing for the area. A disapproval recommendation must detail the legal or regulatory defects and how to amend the application. (f) NEPA. (1) "Lead agency" has the meaning in section 111 of the National Environmental Policy Act. (2)(A) For every application, the Maritime Administration is the Federal lead agency under that Act. (B) Compliance through the Maritime Administration fulfills the lead agency’s responsibilities under that Act for this chapter. (g) Notice and hearings. A license may issue only after public notice and hearings. At least one hearing must occur in each adjacent coastal State^*, and anyone interested may present relevant material. After those hearings, if the Secretary finds specific material factual issues suitable for a formal evidentiary hearing, at least one adjudicatory hearing must occur in the District of Columbia under title 5 section 554. Its record is the basis for approval or denial. Hearings must be consolidated with other agencies’ hearings when practicable. All public hearings on all applications in an area must be consolidated and finished within 240 days after the initial notice. (h) Fees. (1)(A) An applicant must pay the Secretary, when filing, a nonrefundable fee set by regulation. (B) The applicant must also repay the United States and the appropriate adjacent coastal State^* for extra processing costs. (2)(A) A "directly related land-based facility" means an onshore tank farm and pipelines connecting it to the port. (B) Unless law forbids it, an adjacent coastal State^* may set reasonable port-use fees, and that State and any State containing directly related land facilities may set reasonable facility-use fees. (C) Fees may compensate for unrecovered economic costs of building and operating the port and facilities, including ad valorem taxes, and environmental and administrative costs. (D) Fees may not exceed the State’s applicable economic, environmental, and administrative costs. (E) The Secretary must approve each fee. (3) A licensee^* must pay annually in advance the fair-market rent, set by the Interior Secretary, for the United States outer Continental Shelf seabed and subsoil used by the port, including the needed pipeline right-of-way. (i) Approval. (1) The Secretary must approve or deny an application within 90 days after the last hearing. (2) If multiple applications exist, unless one clearly best serves the national interest, the Secretary must license in this order: (A) an adjacent State or States, subdivision, agency, instrumentality, or wholly owned corporation; (B) a person not engaged in producing, refining, or marketing oil and not an affiliate^* of such a person or affiliate; (C) any other person. (3) To decide whether one clearly best serves the national interest, the Secretary must consider environmental effects under section 1505 criteria, national security including effects on the United States or an allied country as defined in title 10 section 2350f(d)(1), completion-date differences, and construction or operating-cost differences that may significantly affect consumers’ oil costs. (4)(A) The Secretary must approve or deny a natural-gas-port application within 90 days after the last hearing. (B) If the Secretary misses that deadline, the reporting requirements in paragraphs (1), (2), and (3) do not apply. (5)(A) An "amended license application" is a natural-gas-port application first submitted before the President’s March 13, 2020 COVID-19 proclamation, later revised based on Secretary guidance and resubmitted. (B) The Secretary must expedite eligible amended applications. (C) Eligibility requires a natural-gas facility; an earlier determination that the original project was unlikely to significantly harm species or habitat consistent with law including NEPA; a determination that the original environmental review still applies and no new review is needed; and an affirmative original Record of Decision. (D) The Secretary must decide within 270 consecutive days after finding the amended application complete and compliant. (j) LNG tankers. (1) The Secretary must create and operate a program promoting transport of liquefied natural gas^* to and from the United States on United States-flag vessels. (2) When the Coast Guard contributes to FERC’s shore licensing of an onshore or State-waters LNG or LPG terminal, it must give FERC the subsection (c)(2)(K) information for reasonably expected serving vessels. (k) Transparency. (1) "Applicable deadline" means the deadline under section 1503(c)(6), section 1503(d)(3), subsection (c)(1)(B), subsection (d)(3), subsection (e)(1) or (2), subsection (g), or subsection (i)(1) or (4)(A). (2) If the Secretary suspends or delays one, the Secretary must give the applicant and publish in the Federal Register a written statement explaining why, describing and requesting needed information and application status at lead and cooperating agencies, and identifying the deadline. (3)(A) The applicant may request a meeting with appropriate Transportation Department personnel and relevant cooperating-agency representatives, who must provide technical, status, process, timeline, and other needed information. (B) The meeting must occur within 30 days after the request. (4) After a request and at least every 30 days until the delay ends, the Secretary must report the delay, elapsed time, and its nature and circumstances to the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. (5) If a deadline is delayed, within 120 days after it and at least every 120 days until the delay ends, the Secretary or designee must brief those committees on elapsed time and the delay’s nature and circumstances.