A Big Month in the Cove Point Fight

The past month has been one of the most eventful yet in the fight against Dominion Resources’ proposed Cove Point fracked gas export facility. To help you stay informed as the urgency picks up, here’s a timeline of the important events and some of the media coverage this fight has seen recently.

May 6th: CCAN and Dominion shareholders file SEC complaint over failure to disclose potential investor risks in Cove Point.
On the eve of Dominion’s shareholder meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, (the site of a catastrophic natural gas explosion that killed over 200 people in 1944,) a Dominion shareholder and environmental advocates submitted an official complaint to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) detailing how Dominion Midstream, a new gas export subsidiary of the larger Dominion Resources, has potentially omitted or inadequately disclosed significant financial and environmental risks of its proposed liquefied natural gas export terminal.
Learn more about the SEC filing:

  • The Daily Record reported on the filing, pointing out that “Dominion was expected to begin construction of the facility during the first quarter of this year, but that has already been delayed.”
  • CCAN director Mike Tidwell published a piece in the Cleveland Plain Dealer detailing the risks inherent in such a project.

 
May 15th: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Released its Environmental Assessment (EA) of the Cove Point project.
After failing to consider a number of critical factors, the EA found that Cove Point would have “no significant environmental impact.” Immediately, Dominion celebrated the release of such an inadequate study that ignored local safety impacts of the project as well as fracking impacts and life cycle climate pollution.
Learn more about FERC’s inadequate EA:Baltimore Sun Cove Point ad May 18

 
May 18th: This ad runs in the Baltimore Sun, calling on Maryland’s legislators to demand accountability on the proposed Cove Point project.
May 21st: Members of Congress and Cove Point opponents request public comment period extension from FERC
A coalition of faith, health, and environmental groups came together to ask FERC for an additional 60 days to submit public comments on the Environmental Assessment, bringing the end of the comment period to August 13th. Senators Cardin and Mikulski also joined the call for an extension.
Learn more about the request for an extended comment period:

 
May 22nd: Activists around the state visit Senators Mikulski and Cardin’s offices, calling on them to stand with Maryland and demand a full Environmental Impact Statement. 
At each of Senators Cardin and Mikulski’s offices, activists assembled to speak with staffers and deliver a letter to the Senators detailing why Cove Point needs a more detailed environmental study and a full safety review.
Learn more about the action at the Senators’ offices:

 
May 29th: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Issues Report Showing that natural gas is worse for the climate than coal when exported to Asia.
According to DOE’s own report, the “results show that US LNG is nearly as bad as coal when exported to Europe and worse than coal when exported to Asia when the climate impacts of methane leakage are measured over a 20-year timeframe.”
Learn more about the DOE report:

 
May 30th: The Maryland Public Service Commission delivered its decision about key permits for Cove Point.
The PSC granted Dominion a “Certificate of Public Necessity” for Cove Point that is contingent on the final decision from federal regulators and other conditions. In its report, the PSC noted that Dominion’s project would be a net negative for Maryland’s economy and asked the to pay to mitigate those impacts. The PSC asked Dominion to “include more safety and environmental protections for the controversial project, and to donate $48 million to promote clean energy in the state and to help low-income Marylanders pay their power bills.” (Baltimore Sun)
Learn more about the PSC’s decision:

  • The Calvert Recorder quotes Mike Tidwell as saying “The PSC expressed concern for the safety of people living closest to the proposed plant but failed to actually protect these people.”
  • The Baltimore Sun reports that the PSC “declared that the export terminal would not provide net benefits to state residents.”

 
May 31st: FERC held its one and only public meeting about Cove Point at Patuxent High School in Lusby, MD.
Vapor Cloud WallAt the hearing, which lasted over six hours, 100 people from across Maryland testified. Of those 100, 66 spoke out against the project, and 34 spoke in its favor. Many opponents of the project spoke about the safety risks it poses to local residents. Outside the hearing, opponents built a mock “sound wall” detailing the “air pollutants and carcinogens that Dominion’s proposed plant would routinely or accidentally send from its compound into the lungs of playing children and their parents.” (a tale of two walls) Among those who testified was 13-year-old Katie Murphy who brought tears to the FERC representatives’ eyes, calling on them to stop Cove Point and protect the nearby residents and plants and animals who would be hurt by the proposal. In one of the most notable testimonies of the day, a Dominion supporter began his testimony by calling for a full Environmental Impact Statement, a more detailed study than FERC’s flimsy EA.
Learn more about the FERC public meeting:

Sign up to take action!
Thousands of Americans opposed to fracked natural gas exports will gather in Washington DC on July 13th to march on FERC and deliver a strong message: Stop Gas Exports and Stop Cove Point. Sign up here to join the biggest action yet in this fight.
 

Federal Carbon Rules Mark Crucial Step Forward on Climate, But Must Be Strengthened

For Immediate Release
June 2, 2014
Contact:
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org
Mike Tidwell, 240-460-5838, mtidwell@chesapeakeclimate.org

Federal Carbon Rules Mark Crucial Step Forward on Climate in the Chesapeake Region, But Must Be Strengthened

To work for people and the climate, state-level goals must be met with truly carbon-free wind and solar power, not harmful fracked gas
WASHINGTON, DC — Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, had the following statement in response to the Environmental Protection Agency’s unveiling of long-awaited federal regulations to reduce carbon emissions from power plants:

“In the face of the record heat, storms and flooding already harming families across our region, CCAN welcomes these rules as a long overdue, necessary step forward. For the first time, the federal government is proposing mandatory reductions in carbon emissions from power plants. CCAN and our regional clean energy partners have been advocating for state and national caps on power plant pollution for the past decade, and we have been cautioning utilities throughout the region that this day would come. With this step, investments in new coal-fired power plants will be essentially over in the U.S.

“All the same, these regulations must be strengthened. Given the abundant availability and affordability of clean energy and energy efficiency solutions, and the rapidly escalating climate crisis, we can and must go further and faster in reducing pollution.

“Particularly troubling, the draft proposal leaves the door open for a significant possible expansion of reliance on fracked gas as a substitute for coal. In reality, this is no solution at all. Recent and accumulating studies show fracked gas production, use, and possible export are likely worse than coal for the climate over the next several decades. We have to make sure that leaders in Maryland and Virginia respond to the carbon rules with investments in greater energy efficiency and truly carbon-free wind and solar development.”

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Marylanders Demand Safety Answers at Contested Federal Hearing on Proposed Cove Point LNG Export Project

For Immediate Release
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Contact:
Mike Tidwell, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, 240-460-5838, mtidwell@chesapeakeclimate.org
Tracey Eno, Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community, 443-624-8022, traceyeno@comcast.net

Marylanders Demand Safety Answers at Contested Federal Hearing on Proposed Cove Point LNG Export Project

Citizens charge that federal regulators are selling out their safety by refusing to conduct a credible human risk assessment of explosion and fire dangers

LUSBY, Md.—Hundreds of citizens from Calvert County and across Maryland packed the Patuxent High School auditorium in Lusby on Saturday to protest what they call a shoddy and starkly insufficient federal review of the controversial proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility at Cove Point. The public meeting constituted Marylanders’ only confirmed opportunity to respond in person to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) draft “Environmental Assessment” of Dominion Resources’ $3.8 billion plan. Activists estimated that the testifiers, who stretched across more than six hours, spoke in opposition to the project, or for a more thorough Environmental Impact Statement, by a nearly 2-1 margin.
During testimony delivered inside, and through the construction of a large replica “vapor cloud wall” outside, Maryland residents living closest to the proposed gas liquefaction facility decried the absence of a credible federal study of the project’s human safety threats. On the wall, local residents listed the numerous types of toxic air emissions and carcinogens that could escape from the facility. They also attached notes expressing what Dominion’s proposed 60-foot-tall, three-quarter-mile long barrier wall symbolizes to them—from “greed” to “pollution” to “deception” to “harm.”
vaporwall2vaporwall4
“By refusing to even conduct a basic safety study, FERC officials are essentially saying that the gas industry’s money and power matters more than our health and safety,” said Tracey Eno, a member of Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community who lives 1.5 miles from the Dominion facility. “Dominion and the Calvert County Commissioners have shown all along that they don’t want the public to know the truth, and FERC is now complicit in their agenda. We need the whole picture, the actual, measurable risk to our lives and homes from a potential flammable vapor cloud or fire catastrophe, as part of a full Environmental Impact Statement. Anything less would be unconscionable, and unacceptable.”
Among many glaring gaps in FERC’s draft analysis, released on May 15, is the absence of a basic “Quantitative Risk Assessment” of the potential for fire or explosion catastrophes to endanger the 2,473 people living within a one-mile radius of the facility. If approved, Cove Point would be the only LNG export facility ever built within several hundred feet of residential communities. Yet FERC relies largely on Dominion’s own data and points to untested mitigation measures—like a proposed vapor cloud containment wall—to dismiss local residents’ concerns.
People traveled from all corners of Maryland on Saturday, donning red and wearing “No Cove Point Exports” stickers. A constant theme of testimony was the need for a full Environmental Impact Statement that addresses not only the project’s immediate safety risks, but also its role in speeding fracking and climate change—impacts that FERC also dismissed without substantive review.
The Cove Point facility would take gas from fracking wells across Appalachia, liquefy it, and ship it to customers in Japan and India.
View a briefing paper on the many deficiencies of the draft federal Environmental Assessment.
Statements from groups opposed to the LNG export project include:
“To conclude that Cove Point will have ‘no significant impact’ after the slapdash environmental study FERC just Jerry-rigged is outrageous,” said Jorge Aguilar, southern region director for Food & Water Watch. “It strains credulity to believe Cove Point will have ‘no significant impact’ on the safety of residents, or the pollution of our Bay waters, or fracking in Maryland’s gas basins, or even on climate change, which is what FERC now wants Marylanders to think. Clearly, FERC needs to prioritize protecting Maryland residents with a full environmental impact analysis instead of endangering all of us with sloppy, inadequate studies.”
“FERC won’t do a safety study for this controversial gas export plant, but it wants the people of Calvert County to believe it’s safe anyway. It’s not,” said Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “FERC won’t quantify the cumulative global warming pollution of the plant, but it asks us to believe there’s ‘no significant impact’ on the environment. We need a safety analysis and climate pollution analysis—or this export facility will never be legitimate.”
“The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission failed us in its review-lite of Dominion’s proposed fracked-gas export facility,” said Elisabeth Hoffman, a member of Howard County (HoCo) Climate Change. “FERC summarily dismissed all the harms of this project from fracking, piping and compressing gas all over our land and waterways. If FERC conducted its highest level of review and bothered to calculate the damage to our health, economy, environment and climate from fracking millions of metric tons of gas a year to ship to Asia, this project would not be approved.”
“This is a bad deal for the health of Maryland’s citizens,” said Dr. Gina Angiola, Board Member, Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility. “It is bad for the quality of our air and our water, and it will hurt consumers by causing energy prices to rise. We are especially concerned about locating a natural gas export facility within three miles of a nuclear power plant. The effects of an explosion at Cove Point could potentially be catastrophic.”

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Cove Point: O'Malley Must Act After PSC Fails to Require Safety Study for Gas Export Proposal

For Immediate Release
Friday, May 30, 2014
Contact:
Mike Tidwell, 240-460-5838, mtidwell@chesapeakeclimate.org
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

Cove Point Opponents Call on O’Malley to Act After PSC Fails to Require Safety Study for Gas Export Proposal

Commission confirms plant would cause net economic harm, requiring Dominion to pay $48 million in compensation for economic and climate pollution impacts
Groups denounce decision to grant conditional permit, especially given lack of federal or state human risk assessment
BALTIMORE — Maryland opponents of the controversial proposed Cove Point liquefied natural gas export proposal announced Friday that they would appeal to Governor Martin O’Malley and the Department of Natural Resources to conduct a human safety study in response to the Maryland Public Service Commission’s ruling to grant a conditional permit for the project. In its permit ruling, the PSC openly acknowledges that the gas liquefaction plant would be a net economic negative for the state and requires Dominion to pay $48 million for expected economic and environmental harm. Yet, the PSC failed to require a basic study of human safety risks for the thousands of people living in close vicinity.
The PSC confirmed that the “LNG facility will not provide net economic benefit to Maryland citizens” (p. 4) and acknowledged numerous risks to consumers and to the quality of life of residents living near the facility in southern Calvert County. In particular, the PSC is requiring the applicant — Virginia-based Dominion Resources — to pay $400,000 annually over 20 years to the Maryland Energy Assistance Program to partially compensate for impacts to low-income ratepayers. To “mitigate” the project’s harm to the climate, the commission is mandating that Dominion pay a total of $40 million over five years to the state’s Strategic Energy Investment Fund to be used for the development of renewable and clean energy resources in Maryland.
Opponents say these conditions are insufficient and they were especially disappointed that the PSC did not require an independent “Quantitative Risk Assessment” as a basic condition of the permit granted Friday. To date, neither federal nor state regulators have agreed to conduct a basic assessment showing the actual, measurable risk this plant could bring to nearby residents in the form of explosions and fire. In 2006, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources did conduct such a study for previous LNG import installations at Cove Point, and that study showed that 360 homes within a 4,265-foot “consequence zone” could already be affected by a catastrophic accident.
Calvert residents and their allies have simply asked that a similar assessment be done for Dominion’s current proposal, which would dramatically increase potential hazards by adding a large-scale gas liquefaction train utilizing highly explosive liquefied propane gas and requiring new stores of volatile chemicals. The PSC today failed to mandate such a study, even though the LNG export facility would be the first ever located within close proximity to so many homes.
The PSC’s permit ruling only pertains to 130-megawatt gas-fired power plant that Dominion needs to build as part of the liquefaction facility. The PSC explicitly conditioned its permit upon the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s final decision, meaning Dominion cannot start construction now.
Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said:
“Today the PSC expressed concern for the safety of people living closest to the proposed plant, but failed to actually protect these people. Bottom line: this export facility should not be built. The PSC confirmed it’s a harm to consumers and the environment. We now look to Governor O’Malley as the final back stop to bring a basic safety assessment to light. While the final decision here is a federal one, we’re convinced that a basic, quantitative risk study of major explosion or other safety threats will influence any final federal permitting of this plant. The threat to Marylanders’ lives and livelihoods is simply too great to have our elected leaders simply stand on the sidelines.”
Josh Tulkin, director of the Sierra Club, Maryland Chapter, said:
“While we understand the constraints of their jurisdiction, we’re are very disappointed in the PSC decision. We appreciate the PSC highlighting the need for Dominion to improve their safety considerations, and for the contribution to low-income ratepayers. But these will be little consolation to the communities impacted by the health and environmental damage expected from this project.”

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Activists Pressure Senators Mikulski and Cardin at Offices Statewide Over Flimsy Cove Point LNG Export Review

NEWS RELEASE: Friday, May 23, 2014
CONTACT:
Kelly Trout, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org, 240-396-2022

First-of-Its-Kind Protest: Activists Pressure Senators Mikulski and Cardin at Offices Statewide to Demand Accountability on Flimsy Cove Point LNG Export Review

From Cumberland to Salisbury, Marylanders visit each of the Senators’ offices and issue a letter demanding full answers on climate change, fracking, and safety risks from $3.8 billion project

BALTIMORE—In a statewide series of demonstrations, Maryland residents gathered outside the district and Washington, DC offices of Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin on Thursday to decry the federal handling of a controversial proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility on the Chesapeake Bay in southern Maryland. In the wake of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)’s release last week of a widely criticized draft “Environmental Assessment” for the $3.8 billion Cove Point project, the activists are appealing to the senators to protect the health, environment and safety of Maryland communities and demand that FERC conduct a full and fair review.
Carrying banners reading “EIS for Cove Point,” dozens of activists joined the Thursday demonstrations spanning the senators’ offices in Cumberland, Hagerstown, Rockville, Baltimore, Bowie, Greenbelt, Annapolis, Salisbury and DC. (Click here to view photos.)
In a letter delivered at each office, the activists underscored, “From climate pollution to fracking to human safety, FERC’s analysis falls far short of the depth Marylanders deserve.” The letter explains, “We came here today because the dangers to our communities and climate are too great to settle for anything but the most thorough review and the highest degree of public input. We demand an [Environmental Impact Statement], and we are here today to ask that you stand with us.”
Environmental, health, community and student groups across Maryland have denounced the draft federal environmental assessment – including via a full-page ad in Sunday’s Baltimore Sun — for sweeping many serious dangers of the project under the rug, from climate change pollution to expanded fracking to human safety risks in Calvert County. From the beginning, community and environmental groups have called for, at a minimum, a thorough Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to be conducted on the project, which requires a higher standard of scrutiny and public participation.
In order to demonstrate how critical the fight against Cove Point export facility is to the entire region, more than 50 groups in Maryland and throughout the Marcellus Shale region have formed the Cove Point Emergency Committee (CPEC). Groups in Pennsylvania and New York are concerned that the Cove Point facility would lead to more drilling and fracking in the Marcellus shale. The entire region would see the build out of pipelines and compressor stations required for the transport of gas, all of which come with safety and environmental risks for communities. Yesterday, in solidarity with the statewide demonstrations, CPEC promoted a call-in day, encouraging Maryland citizens to voice their concerns by contacting Senators Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski and asking them to call for an EIS for Cove Point.
Senators Cardin and Mikulski have added their voices to the Cove Point debate before, calling on FERC to hold statewide public meetings regarding the proposed facility. However, FERC ignored their request, and is planning to hold only one public meeting in Lusby, MD, on May 31st. Only a full and customary EIS, advocates contend, is acceptable for a project as massive and as potentially damaging as Cove Point.
The Cove Point export terminal, proposed by Virginia-based Dominion Resources, would take nearly a billion cubic feet of gas per day from fracking wells across Appalachia, liquefy it on the Chesapeake Bay, and export it to be burned in Asia.
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Over the past year, the Cove Point project has attracted steady challenges on multiple fronts, ballooning into a regional controversy. In February, more than 700 people rallied outside the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) headquarters in Baltimore, urging the agency to reject controversial air and water pollution permits for the Cove Point project. In March, 16 national environmental groups penned a letter to President Obama demanding that he hold FERC accountable to conducting an EIS for Cove Point as a first step in reversing course on his administration’s fast-tracking of LNG exports. In April, a coalition of national, regional and community-based groups opposed to the project delivered over 40,000 public comments to the PSC. In May, advocates and a Dominion shareholder filed an official complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission over transparency concerns related to the project.
RESOURCES:

  • View photos of the statewide visit to Senators Mikulski and Cardin’s offices at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chesapeakeclimate/sets/72157644384436000/
  • View the letter delivered to each of the senators’ offices at: http://chesapeakeclimate.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/May-22-Cove-Point-letter-Cardin-Mikulski.pdf
  • View the full-page ad from Sunday’s Baltimore Sun: http://chesapeakeclimate.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Baltimore-Sun-Cove-Point-ad-May-18.pdf

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Groups call on MD leaders to demand comprehensive review for Cove Point

Following the release of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)’s draft Environmental Assessment (EA) of Dominion Resources’ proposed $3.8 billion Cove Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility, environmental, student, community, and health groups across Maryland voiced their concerns through a full-page advertisement in the Baltimore Sun on Sunday, May 18th. The ad called on Governor O’Malley, Senator Mikulski, Senator Cardin, and Representative Hoyer to protect Maryland citizens by demanding a full and customary Environmental Impact Statement for Cove Point.
See below for the full ad:
 
Baltimore Sun Cove Point ad May 18

Activists gather at Sens. offices to demand accountability on Cove Point

Today, Marylanders are turning up the volume on Cove Point!
Dozens of activists are visiting each of Senator Mikulski and Senator Cardin’s district offices across the state to call on them to demand a thorough and comprehensive federal “Environmental Impact Statement” (EIS) for Dominion’s $3.8 billion fracked gas export plan.
From Cumberland to Salisbury, activists are making sure our senators know what’s at stake for every Marylander — and why we deserve to get all the facts on the table.
Check back here later today for photos from each action.
Want to take action but couldn’t join the demonstrations? You can add your voice in solidarity by calling your MD Senators TODAY and asking them to demand that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission conduct a full and customary Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Cove Point.

Sen. Cardin: (877) 292-7298
Sen. Mikulski: (877) 559-7809

Today’s actions are in response to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)’s release last week of a draft “Environmental Assessment” for Cove Point. Community, environmental, health and student leaders across Maryland have criticized the draft federal review for failing to address many serious potential consequences of the project, from worsening climate change to expanded fracking and pipelines to potential explosions threatening nearby homes in Calvert County.
 

Whose Security Is at Stake?

This is a cross post from Words for a Better World by Lisa Bardack.
On Saturday I went to my stepson’s graduation from St. Mary’s College in southern Maryland. It was a beautiful day, and attending family were filled with love and pride as we took in this milestone. We snapped lots of pictures when the ceremony was over, with big smiles on our faces, attuned to both the impressive accomplishments achieved and the opportunities on the road ahead.
Speaking of the road ahead, it turns out Dominion’s Cove Point was on the way home, very close to the college. My husband Gregg and I decided to drive by the dormant liquid natural gas (LNG) import facility that Dominion Resources of Virginia hopes to turn into an export facility as soon as possible. I wanted to see for myself how close the facility is to family residences. I had heard they were just across a two-lane road and, lo and behold, they are!
I got out of the car to take a few photos, and as soon as I got back in, security pulled up behind us, lights flashing. They asked what I was doing there. I explained that I had heard about Dominion Cove Point and wanted to see for myself how close the LNG facility was to the community. He asked for my ID and then went around and took down Gregg’s license plate. He was on his walkie-talkie the entire time and continued to detain us there, as if we were a threat of some sort. After a few minutes, Gregg said we had been detained long enough, and we parted ways.
Really? Was it necessary to detain us for taking a couple of photographs outside of the facility? Who’s the real threat to security? A concerned citizen or a proposed LNG export facility that has the proven potential to explode right beside a residential neighborhood? The answer should be a no brainer. Apparently it’s not.
Domion Cove Point’s LNG export facility is currently being rubber-stamped by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Despite the insistence by concerned citizens, environmental organizations, health professionals and faith leaders that FERC conduct a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), FERC instead conducted an Environmental Assessment (EA). It is a profoundly inadequate study of the potential impacts this LNG export facility would have on the environment and public heath and safety.
I am not going to go into the extensive details on the EA in this post (see links below). What I am going to say is that not conducting an EIS makes a bold statement that people are expendable, that the risks to their lives, to their health and safety, is the price we must pay in order for Dominion Resources and related gas industry companies to make obscene profits by shipping our natural gas overseas to India and Japan.
Not conducting an EIS says that it doesn’t matter that this LNG export operation will allow for intolerable amounts of methane to enter our atmosphere – a greenhouse gas 84 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over 20 years – at a time when we desperately need to stop contributing to climate change.
Not conducting and EIS says it doesn’t matter that a web of pipelines and compressor stations will cross the state and region, putting in jeopardy the safety and health of communities. Pipelines leak and explode. Compressor stations can explode, too. They also pour tons of nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds into the air and, therefore, into the lungs of children, their families and their communities. The current compressor station Dominion is ready to build in Myersville, Maryland – despite the town’s objections – is less than a mile from the town’s elementary school.
Not conducting an EIS says that FERC, Dominion and the gas industry don’t care about people in states like Pennsylvania and West Virginia – people whose health and economic welfare are being ravaged by fracking, which will increase in activity to an intolerable degree once the LNG export facility is built. Fracking is poisoning drinking water and air at an alarming rate, and the effects to citizen’s health are significant and disastrous. Dominion acts as if the LNG terminal has nothing to do with fracking, but, in fact, fracked gas is what they will convert to liquid natural gas. They plan to transport per day through Maryland four times the amount of fracked gas that all of Maryland uses in one day!
I am stunned that citizens are not the priority when it comes to the construction of this LNG export facility that is smack dab in the middle of a neighbor and next to a big, beautiful park filled with baseball fields, picnic areas, playgrounds and children. An LNG export facility has never been built in a residential neighborhood for good reason!
There are thousands and thousands of us in the region and across the country that are not going to allow this LNG export terminal to be fast-tracked. The natural gas industry has pockets as deep as they get, but the mothers, fathers, grandparents, students and others who wish to safeguard our natural resources and protect our fellow citizens and our future are a force that won’t back down. We stand for the security of people over profit. This kind of security should be a no brainer, but apparently it’s not.
 

Challenging Dominion & Tom Farrell face to face

Shareholder activists at Dominion's annual shareholder meeting presented their resolutions in front of the Board of Directions and CEO, Tom Farrell. This year's four resolutions each received an unprecedented 20% of the vote.

When I started working for CCAN almost two years ago, I never imagined that I would be shaking hands with Tom Farrell, Dominion’s CEO, and addressing the Board of Directors on the impact that climate change has on the Company. But that’s exactly what I did last week in Cleveland, Ohio, with a group of shareholders at Dominion Resources’ annual shareholder meeting.
This year was my first experience working on the inside to change Dominion’s energy portfolio, but Virginian shareholder activists have been submitting resolutions to Dominion Resources since 2011. Shareholders are people who own stock in Dominion Resources; unhappy shareholders are able to submit resolutions that seek to promote environmental, social, or governance changes from within a company. And for the past four years, Dominion shareholders have submitted resolutions pressuring the company to push towards clean, renewable energy, and to disclose more analysis on how climate change impacts the Company, customers, and investors.
Although a resolution itself can only be 500 words, the process that comes before presenting the resolutions at the annual meeting is a long, technical process, and often comes with facing Dominion’s legal team head on. Each resolution has to go through the official guidelines of the Securities and Exchange Commission–so for every resolution filed on climate change, we submitted supporting statements, rebuttals to counter Dominion’s challenges, and other documents hoping to convince the SEC to rule in our favor and persuade investors to vote for change.

While activists inside the meeting presented resolutions to increase Dominion's commitment to clean energy, protestors outside drew attention to Dominion's contribution to Climate Change and the risky business of the proposed liquified natural gas export facility, Cove Point.
While activists inside the meeting presented resolutions to increase Dominion’s commitment to clean energy, protestors outside drew attention to Dominion’s contribution to Climate Change and the risky business of the proposed liquified natural gas export facility, Cove Point.

And, I’m happy to report that all of the hard work this year paid off! At this year’s meeting, we received record-high support for each of our four climate-related resolutions. Here’s a rundown of the climate change resolutions, with the final vote counts:

  • Financial Risks to Dominion Posed by Climate Change, 24%: Report to shareholders describing the financial risk to Dominion posed by climate change, specifically including the impact of more frequent and more intense storms, as well as any actions planned to address these risks.
  • Methane Emissions, 21%: How is Dominion Resources is measuring, mitigating, setting reduction targets, and disclosing methane emissions? While Dominion Resources operates one of the largest natural gas storage and transportation systems in the U.S. and plans to significantly increase its investments in natural gas assets, the company has no system for reporting on, or thus minimizing, the risks to shareholders or the environment from its methane emissions.
  • Environmental and Climate Change Impacts of Biomass, 21%: What are the environmental and climate change impacts of the company using biomass as a renewable energy and climate mitigation strategy?
  • Quantitative Goals for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions, 20%: Adopt quantitative goals for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, taking into account International Panel on Climate Change guidance, from Dominion Resources Inc.’s products and operations.

 
In the past four years, shareholder activists have never seen across the board double digits of support. To put these numbers into perspective, the Climate Risk resolution, which received 24% of the vote, represented 80,695,951 votes. If you multiple that by $70 per share (the current cost of Dominion stock), that’s $5.65 billion worth of shares supporting the resolution.
As we’re coming off our celebratory high of this year’s meeting, we’re also planning on how to earn even more support, and make an even bigger imprint for next year’s meeting.
Do you own shares in Dominion or know someone who does? If so, and if you want to take part in changing corporate business models that disrupt our climate, email me at: Emily@chesapeakeclimate.org

Gov. O'Malley's Veto of 'Anti-Wind Bill' Will Clear Path for Billion Dollar Eastern Shore Industry

For Immediate Release
May 16, 2014
Contact:
Tommy Landers, 301-442-0134, tommy@chesapeakeclimate.org
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

Gov. O’Malley’s Veto of ‘Anti-Wind Bill’ Will Clear Path for Billion Dollar Wind Industry on Maryland’s Eastern Shore

Governor earns praise from national and state environmental leaders for today’s announced veto of HB 1168

ANNAPOLIS—Today, Governor Martin O’Malley officially vetoed HB 1168, a Maryland bill that would have stymied the development of clean energy in the state. With his veto, the governor will effectively unlock the construction of a $200 million wind farm on Maryland’s lower Eastern Shore. He will also clear the path for development of a wind power industry on the Eastern Shore worth an estimated $1 billion.
The bill Governor O’Malley vetoed would have unnecessarily established a 13-month moratorium on land-based wind power in all or part of 12 counties across much of Maryland, chilling clean energy investment and impeding the state’s ability to reach a goal of obtaining 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2022.
Today’s veto was hailed by national and state environmental leaders as a significant act of leadership on climate change:
Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org: “Governor O’Malley is standing up for climate solutions with his veto of this ‘anti-wind power’ bill. Governor O’Malley has shown the nation that wind power can co-exist with military bases and that, indeed, climate change is our number one ‘national security’ threat.”
Michael Brune, executive director, Sierra Club: “The Sierra Club applauds Governor O’Malley’s defense of clean energy solutions. His action today will accelerate the development of East Coast wind farms that will bring new jobs to Maryland while helping to slow sea-level rise in the Chesapeake Bay.”
Mike Tidwell, director, Chesapeake Climate Action Network: “Today will be remembered as a pivotal turning point in Maryland’s march toward a clean energy economy. The governor’s veto of this unnecessary anti-wind power bill will open the door to a billion dollar wind industry on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. This will create a clean-energy foundation that Maryland families, farmers, workers and businesses so urgently need in the face of intensifying climate change.”
Background:
The Maryland General Assembly — despite passing many strong bills on climate change in recent years — voted earlier this spring to effectively stop development of an entire modern wind farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The same bad bill — HB 1168 — would have effectively delayed and perhaps stopped land-based wind power development in all or part of 12 Maryland counties in the eastern and southern parts of the state. Why? Because of military radar concerns that experts have believed all along can be totally resolved without harmful new state legislation.
Governor Martin O’Malley vigorously opposed this “anti-wind power” bill during the legislative session of 2014. The governor, a nationally recognized supporter of clean energy, explicitly urged the General Assembly not to stymie wind power development this way. But with ferocious lobbying from special-interest defense contractors and their political supporters, the bill passed. Now the governor is pulling out his veto pen.
The governor’s forthcoming veto sends the message that Maryland really is serious about clean energy development that helps rural farmers and creates good-paying union jobs while remaining utterly compatible with national security needs. Indeed, stopping climate change is America’s TOP national security need.
The ranking officer at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station was already in agreement with a wind farm developer on the Eastern Shore over how radar needs and wind power can co-exist. The key — confirmed by an MIT study — is simply to turn the windmills off when the Navy is using a key radar system. The wind company — Pioneer Green — has agreed to do this. But exaggerated concerns by private defense contractors led to passage of HB 1168 nonetheless.
Now Governor O’Malley — whose eight-year stint as governor ends this year — can leave office having achieved one of his most important actions yet on climate change: vetoing a truly harmful bill so Marylanders can benefit from good, clean energy.
The Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) has conservatively estimated the value of the land-based wind industry on the state’s Eastern Shore at $1 billion. That’s in large part because, along with mountainous western Maryland, the shore is one of the best areas in the state for wind power development. In February testimony against HB 1168, MEA told Maryland lawmakers: “Based on MEA analysis of available resource, we feel a conservative estimate of the potential total value of projects on the Eastern Shore is well over $1 billion, with hundreds of millions of dollars of local economic impact.”
Concerns from military contractors led to the bill, but experts have explained that those concerns are misplaced. Retired Air Force Col. David Belote submitted testimony to a state committee in April saying as much. Mr. Belote wrote of the ADAMS radar testing capability at the Patuxent River or “Pax River” Naval Air Station in southern Maryland: “I’m confident that the Pax River mission is safe, and I’m equally confident that no base commander or Pentagon official would sign an agreement that would endanger a unique, critical capability like ADAMS.”

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