Hundreds of organizations on Wednesday filed a legal petition (pdf) calling on the Obama administration to declare a “national climate emergency” and end all U.S. crude oil exports, which they say would keep millions of tons of greenhouse gas pollution from entering the atmosphere.

The petition comes as the U.S. nears a signing date for the COP21 climate agreement agreed to late last year in Paris.

Less than a week after pledging to lower greenhouse gas emissions, President Barack Obama in December also signed the omnibus spending and taxation bill that lifted a 40-year-old export ban on crude oil.

Environmental advocacy groups Center for Biological Diversity and Food and Water Watch, who organized the petition, stated:

And the U.S. Senate on Wednesday advanced a bill known as the Energy Policy Modernization Act that included, among other things, “expedited review” of natural gas exports.

“This is a most pernicious form of climate denial,” said Friends of the Earth climate and energy program director Benjamin Schreiber. “Expediting approval of liquefied natural gas terminals will increase fracking and poison communities.  Even as the American people are mobilizing to demand fossil fuels stay in the ground, the U.S. Senate is listening to Big Oil and helping to send them overseas.”