§2281a Additional Offenses Against Maritime Fixed Platforms

Summary

Makes it a crime to intentionally use or release explosives, radioactive, biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons, or to spill oil, liquefied natural gas, or other dangerous substances from a fixed platform when the act is meant to scare people or force a government or international group to do or stop something. It also makes it a crime to hurt or kill someone during those acts, to try or plan them, or to threaten them with clear intent to carry them out. Punishment can include fines and up to 20 years in prison; if someone dies because of the act, prison for any number of years or life. A threatening act can bring fines and up to 5 years in prison. The law applies 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., if the act is meant to force the United States, if a U.S. national on the shelf is seized, threatened, injured, or killed, or if the act happens abroad and the offender is later found in the U.S. It does not cover actions by armed forces during an armed conflict or military forces acting in their official duties. Continental shelf = the seabed and subsoil beyond a country’s coastal waters as defined by international law. Fixed platform = a permanent man-made structure attached to the seabed for resource or economic use.