§2281a Additional Offenses Against Maritime Fixed Platforms

Summary

It is a crime for a person to intentionally use or release explosives, radioactive material, biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons, or to spill oil, liquefied natural gas, or other dangerous substances, from or on a fixed platform when the act is meant to scare a population or force a government or international group to act or stop acting, and when it causes or is likely to cause death, serious injury, or damage. Hurting or killing someone while doing or trying to do these acts, planning or trying to do them, or making a clear, determined threat to do them can lead to a fine, up to 5 years in prison, or both. Federal authorities can take cases when the act happens on a fixed platform on the U.S. continental shelf; on another country’s shelf if the offender is a U.S. national or a stateless person who lives in the U.S.; when the act tries to force the United States; when a U.S. national is seized, threatened, injured, or killed during such an act on a continental shelf; or when the act happens outside and beyond the U.S. continental shelf and the offender is later found in the U.S. The rule does not cover military actions during armed conflict or military acts done as official duties. Definitions: “continental shelf” — the sea floor and subsoil beyond a country’s territorial sea up to limits in international law (see Article 76, 1982 Law of the Sea); “fixed platform” — a permanent artificial island, installation, or structure attached to the sea bed for exploring or using resources or other economic purposes.