Category: Blog

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:

• Why is the EA totally deficient? Check out CCAN’s Fact Sheet.
• Baynet quotes CCAN director Mike Tidwell on why we need a full Environmental Impact Statement for Cove Point
• DC Media Group reports that FERC Report on Cove Point Misses Big Picture with its Cove Point EA.
• Even oilprice.com asks if it’s the Wrong Time For This Natgas Project. –
• The Nation wants you to take action: Want to do something about Climate Change? Stop Cove Point.

 
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:

• Reuters reported that U.S. groups seek more time to comment on Dominion LNG export project
• The Calvert Recorder published Group files for FERC comment period extension on LNG project

 
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:

• The Appalachian Independent covered the story of Frostburg State University students calling on the senators.
• Read CCAN’s press release about the day of action.

 
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:

• Read CCAN’s summary of the DOE report and its implications
• ClimateProgress broke the news that LNG has no climate benefits now, if ever.

 
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.
At 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:

• Baynet’s Marty Madden gave background for the meeting and talked about preparations on both sides in his piece, Pros and antis prepare for FERC meeting
• Fox 45 reported that the community is Divided over Cove Point natural gas plan
• Attendees show colors at Cove Point hearing Baynet
• Elisabeth Hoffman’s blog “a tale of two walls” covers the drama of the day.

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.
 

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:
 

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.
 

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.
 

The White House released its 2014 National Climate Assessment yesterday, and the diagnosis is serious. It points out that many Americans are already feeling the impacts of climate change, and asserts that those impacts will only worsen if we continue on our current path. The report is over 800 pages long and, according to its authors, is the most comprehensive assessment of climate change impacts in the US to date. According to the Huffington Post, “average U.S. temperatures have increased 1.3 degrees to 1.9 degrees Fahrenheit (depending on the part of the country) since people began keeping records in 1895, and much of that warming has come in recent decades.”
Learn about the Climate Assessment in the White House’s own words here.
A national coalition of environmental and health groups as well as shareholders in Dominion filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this week asserting that the company behind the proposed fracked gas export facility at Cove Point had “potentially omitted or inadequately disclosed significant risks to potential investors as it seeks permission to raise project funds through a sale of stock.” Platts reports that “Dominion on March 31 filed a Form S-1 with the SEC regarding its proposed initial public offering of common units representing limited partner interests.” According to the BayNet, “Dominion spokesman Karl R. Neddenien said the SEC’s rules prohibit the company from making comments about the “master limited partnership” established in March.“
Four months after coal-processing chemicals spilled into the Elk River in West Virginia, Think Progress reports that “the Environmental Protection Agency will test the chemical in air and set a corresponding safety limit for breathing the fumes.” The decision is too little, too late for residents who, regardless of what the EPA finds, have been breathing this air for the past four months. Alarmingly, “while approximately 10,000 gallons of the chemical mixture are estimated to have spilled into the Elk River, just upstream from a major water intake facility, residents reportedly began smelling the licorice-like odor characteristic of crude MCHM several weeks before the spill was reported.”
On a conference call drawing people from across the Mid-Atlantic region last week, climate and anti-fracking leaders rallied activists behind the next big steps in the fight to stop Dominion’s proposed fracked gas export facility at Cove Point. Most immediately, on May 15th, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is expected to release its “Environmental Assessment,” a cursory environmental evaluation that, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, “should not contain long descriptions or detailed data which the agency may have gathered.” After the release, there will be a 30-day public comment period, during which time FERC has agreed to hold one public meeting. That meeting will likely be on May 31st in Lusby, Maryland; sign up here to receive updates.
Maryland:
During Earth Week, The Nation covered the Cove Point fight as a major battle to protect the climate. They close with a call to action, saying “In the struggle to mitigate the effects of climate change, Cove Point would take us backwards. We need to move forward.”

Last week, a train carrying 8,000 tons of coal derailed in Bowie, Maryland, spilling at least one car’s-worth of coal, according to the Bowie Volunteer Fire Department. There were no immediate public health or safety concerns as a result of the spill, but the spotlight is on CSX, the railroad involved in this and two other incidents in the past week. The Baltimore Sun reports that,“Three CSX employees who were aboard the train at the time were accounted for and uninjured.”
Last Wednesday, the American Lung Association released its 15th annual State of the Air report which revealed that “ozone, or smog, continues to be a major air pollution problem in many parts of Maryland.” Poor air quality isn’t unique to Maryland: “half of the country lives in counties where ozone and particulates make air unhealthy to breathe.” While smog levels remain high, the Capital Gazette reports, “there has been progress in reducing particulate pollution nationwide because of cleanup of coal-fired plants and reformulating diesel fuels.” The Baltimore Sun had a slightly more positive take on the state’s air pollution status quo, saying, “Air quality has improved a lot in Maryland and nationwide over the past 15 years, according to a new report.” But the story acknowledged that there is still a problem: “the state got failing marks for the number of days when people outdoors were forced to breathe levels of ozone pollution, also known as smog, that could trigger asthma attacks or heart attacks.”
The Washington Post reports on HB 1168, the bill that threatens to stall land-based wind power development in Maryland. Most immediately, the bill would effectively kill a state-of-the-art wind farm project ready to begin construction on the lower Eastern Shore. The nearby Patuxent River Naval Air Station and the wind farm developers had developed an agreement to turn the turbines off when the the Naval Air Station performed test flights. However, according to the Washington Post, they didn’t expect that  “U.S. House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) and a coalition of Southern Maryland lawmakers would circumvent the process.” Now, Governor O’Malley has a decision to make: will he veto the bill or sign it into law? Signing the bill would signal that Maryland doesn’t want the jobs and investment that come with wind power development, while a veto would protect Maryland’s growing clean energy economy. You can call on Governor O’Malley to veto HB 1168 here.
Virginia:
Lynchburg, Virginia, made international headlines last week when a train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded, spilling crude into the nearby James River. Thankfully, there were no injuries reported, but the fire sent black plumes of smoke several stories high into the air and caused the evacuation of about 300 people. Several sources initially reported that the train cars involved in the incident were a type of car banned in Canada for involvement in similar incidents. However, it now appears that these cars were a newer model, deemed safer by the oil industry. According to DeSmog Blog, “a whole new Pandora’s Box of problems just opened up for the oil industry and the rail industry if the ‘safer’ ones also exploded.” Click here for more on the explosion.
WVTF Public Radio reported last week on Dominion’s reluctance to invest in renewable energy in Virginia and the backlash they’re seeing from Virginians concerned about the company’s role in fueling climate disruption. The company announced last month “that it had bought six solar development projects in California,” yet the company still generates no utility-scale solar power in the commonwealth and is instead choosing to invest heavily in more fossil fuels. The report says that “shareholders have been introducing resolutions at annual meetings, asking Dominion to report on the financial risks of climate change, the use of biomass and the release of methane.”
This year, we’re seeing big changes as the demands for Dominion to be accountable are growing louder and stronger. “As [Dominion CEO Tom] Farrell and his board meet today in Cleveland, people are taking action to say enough is enough. Ohio anti-fracking activists are protesting outside todenounce Dominion’s Cove Point gas export plan. Meanwhile, inside the meeting, Virginia shareholders are presenting four resolutions that call on the company to address its contribution to climate change.” Those four resolutions were met with unprecedented support from over 20% of the voting shareholders.
Air pollution is making headlines in Virginia, too, as the Supreme Court ruled the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can regulate air pollution that drifts across state borders. The Daily Press reports on the decision and quotes the Sierra Club’s Glen Besa who says, “the ruling is good news for urban regions coping with air pollution issues, including Hampton Roads. Overall, he said the ruling is good for the state.”

Update, 1:30pm: Click here for a round up of the results of the shareholder meeting, including record-high levels of support among shareholders for climate-focused resolutions.
Today, Dominion Resources’ CEO, Thomas Farrell, board of directors and shareholders are meeting in Cleveland, Ohio for the company’s annual meeting. The meeting comes one day after the release of the most comprehensive assessment yet of the grave impacts that climate change is already having on communities across the U.S., from rising sea levels causing flooding along the East Coast, to more extreme precipitation damaging infrastructure everywhere, to severe droughts impacting food production in the West.
Unfortunately, as the impacts of climate change cost us more and more, Tom Farrell’s company is ignoring the problem, and making it worse. As Virginia’s biggest energy utility, Dominion is has built ZERO utility-scale wind or solar power projects in the commonwealth and is the state’s #1 climate polluter. Over the next fifteen years, instead of developing Virginia’s vast solar power and offshore wind potential, Dominion is proposing to build three new gas-fired power plants and to increase the company’s carbon emissions by 37 percent. On top of it all, Dominion now it wants to build a massive fracked gas export facility on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. This Cove Point project would become the state’s single biggest trigger of climate pollution and increase dangerous fracking throughout the region.
As Farrell and his board meet today in Cleveland, people are taking action to say enough is enough. Ohio anti-fracking activists are protesting outside to denounce Dominion’s Cove Point gas export plan. Meanwhile, inside the meeting, Virginia shareholders are presenting four resolutions that call on the company to address its contribution to climate change.

Here’s how you can join them in taking action:

1. Share and join the “Dear Dominion” photo petition: Tell Tom Farrell why we deserve MORE than fossil fuels. We’re delivering your photos today as Tom Farrell and his board arrive in Cleveland. But it’s not too late to upload your own photo and share it on social media. You can Tweet @DomNews (Dominion Resources), @DomVAPower (Dominion Virginia Power) or @Dom_CovePoint (Dominion Cove Point). Or, on Facebook tag “Dominion Virginia Power” or “Dominion Cove Point.”
2. Get involved to stop fracked gas exports at Cove Point. Dominion’s Cove Point facility would take gas piped from fracking wells across Appalachia, liquefy it to 260 degrees F below zero at a polluting facility on the Chesapeake Bay, and ship it to Asia on massive tankers. This plan would put our communities in the way of an expanding web of dangerous new fossil fuel infrastructure, while polluting the climate as much — if not more — than coal. Key federal and state decision deadlines are nearing, so this is a critical time to get involved in stopping it. Click here to learn how you can take action, including joining us in Washington, DC on July 13th for a major rally to say “no” to fracked gas exports at Cove Point and nationwide!
3. Learn more. For more resources on Dominion’s dirty and dangerous energy plans, and how people are standing up to them, check out these links:

• Stop Cove Point campaign page.
• Stand Up to Dominion’s Dirty Power campaign page.
• Read more about the shareholder resolutions that Virginians are presenting today in Cleveland via WVTF public radio.
• Read the Cleveland Plain Dealer op-ed by Mike Tidwell and Robert Shields: “Dominion shareholders should slow rush to export liquefied natural gas.”

While they’re in town this week (May 7^th), Dominion officials and shareholders should stop by Cleveland’s Grdina Park.
That playground marks where three shiny spheres and a giant cylinder once held millions of gallons of liquefied natural gas (LNG). They were a technological wonder in 1944, because 600 times more natural gas could be stored when liquefied at minus 260 degrees F.
But on Oct. 20, 1944, a spark ignited gas vapor seeping from one of the tanks, unleashing a fiery explosion. Homes along 61st and 62nd streets burst into flames, trapping residents. The gas flowed into the sewer system, launching manhole covers, bursting pavement, rushing into basements. Numerous blasts and waves of blistering heat shattered windows miles away. Telephone poles smoked and bent, grass caught fire, walls turned red, people’s shoes felt as if they were melting.
The East Ohio Gas Co. disaster left 131 people dead and hundreds injured. It destroyed a square mile of Cleveland’s east side, including 79 homes, two factories, 217 cars, seven trailers and a tractor. Nearly half the victims, including 21 never identified, are buried at Highland Park Cemetery on Chagrin Boulevard, where a monument honors the dead. If children had not been in school, the toll would have been much higher. After the disaster, public utilities started storing natural gas underground, in depleted wells, rather than as potential bombs in aboveground tanks.
This week, on May 7^th, less than four miles from Grdina Park, Dominion shareholders will consider dazzling CEO compensation packages and lucrative projects, including the proposed Cove Point LNG export plant in the Chesapeake Bay community of Lusby, Maryland. This $3.8 billion facility would liquefy fracked gas, pump it onto tankers and ship it to Asia.
But fears about explosions, thermal blasts, and limited escape routes dominate the debate. This facility, if approved, would once again place LNG tanks and much more next to too many people.
Opponents have raised numerous objections. The facility would ensure more fracking, compressor stations and pipelines. Exports would also raise prices for American consumers and manufacturers. A U.S. Department of Energy report shows that exporting gas harms every sector of the economy save one: the gas industry. And all that fracking, piping, compressing, chilling, shipping and re-gasifying is a climate nightmare.
But the most poignant alarms are from Lusby residents who live nearby. So near, in fact, that 360 homes are within a 4,500-foot radius. A vapor cloud, according to a state report on an earlier expansion, could drift nearly that far and still ignite — with a spark from a car, a lighter, a grill — enveloping all in a flash fire. Which sounds too much like Cleveland 1944. The nearest homes are 850 feet away. Confusion is widespread about a 60-foot-tall, three-quarter-mile-long wall around the site. Dominion calls it a sound barrier; documents suggest it would also serve as a vapor barrier; and company officials recently told residents that flames from an explosion could travel up the wall and, thereby, over the houses.

The unusual design, confined to the footprint of the existing and dormant import facility, means Dominion has to cram into tight quarters a utility-scale power plant, compressors and liquefaction equipment, and storage tanks for gases and toxic chemicals. Even minor accidents could escalate into a catastrophe. And 1,000-foot tankers would frequently lumber out of port with their explosive load.
Dominion insists accidents won’t happen. But residents have read with growing anxiety about the deadly 2004 explosion at an LNG export facility in Algeria, and more recent blasts at gas-processing plants in Washington, Wyoming and at Dominion’s Blue Racer in West Virginia.
In April, the local assistant fire chief resigned over concerns that his all-volunteer department lacks the staff, training and equipment to handle a disaster at the plant.
Despite all the hazards and questions, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is sticking to its lighter-weight environmental review and plans only one public hearing. The Obama administration even wants fast-track approvals for gas export facilities as another hammer in the geopolitical toolbox to use against Russia. Dominion will tell shareholders that Cove Point fits well with this nationwide rush to export gas.
Ideally, we would weigh the long-term effects of fracking and exporting on gas prices, our health, foreign policy, the climate. At the least, though, the explosion in Cleveland nearly 70 years ago teaches that LNG facilities have no place near homes and schools, playgrounds and parks, beaches and fishing docks. If they belong anywhere, and that is not a given, they belong in remote areas, not next to neighborhoods.
 

A dozen or more cars of a CSX Corp train carrying crude oil through central Virginia derailed in Lynchburg earlier this afternoon, causing a large explosion and fire. So far, no injuries have been reported, but hundreds of citizens have been evacuated from their homes. According to Reuters, several of the cars spilled their contents into the James River. The Huffington Post reports, “Its tankers may be a class of rail cars deemed an ‘unacceptable public risk’ by a member of the National Transportation Safety Board in February. These black, pill-shaped cars, known as DOT-111s, have been involved in recent notable oil train derailments in North Dakota and Quebec.” The decision to phase out these cars came after a DOT-111 caused the Quebec crash last July that killed 47 people.
You can follow DeSmog Blog’s updates as the story unfolds.
Earlier this month, concerns were raised about the possibility of just such an accident. Crude shipments via Lynchburg, Richmond and other heavily populated areas of Virginia began in December 2013, causing concern for environmental and public safety advocates. In early April, the Daily Press reported that “Virginia environmentalists and activists are worried that an uptick in tanker trains carrying petroleum crude oil to a new storage and shipping hub in Yorktown is a recipe for disaster.” Sierra Club’s Glen Besa told reporters he was “concerned that a train derailment could result in an explosion and the loss of life, or an oil spill that could jeopardize our drinking water supplies and the environment” Luckily, no fatalities were reported in the accident, but the city has switched to an alternate water supply in case of contamination.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “The crash is the latest in a string of fiery accidents caused by crude-by-rail transport, including one in Quebec last summer that killed 47 people and incinerated part of the town.”
The Associated Press reports that National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman said, “We are very clear that this issue needs to be acted on very quickly…There is a very high risk here that hasn’t been addressed.”
The Richmond Times Dispatch posted a chilling video of smoke and flames in the incident.
Follow the links below for more coverage:
Politico: Oil train derails, burns in Lynchburg
New York Daily News: Major fire, explosion after train carrying crude oil derails in Lynchburg, Virginia
WDBJ 7: Train carrying crude oil derails in Lynchburg
Financial Post: CSX Corp train hauling crude oil derails in Lynchburg, Virginia, bursts into flames
Washington Post: Train derails in downtown Lynchburg, shutting down streets, bridges
Climate Progress: Crude Oil Train Derails, Catches Fire, Spills Into Virginia’s James River
BBC: Derailed US train in bursts into flames in Lynchburg
ABC 13: BREAKING NEWS: Train Has Derailed in Lynchburg

What will Virginia’s renewable energy landscape look like by 2030? Not much different than in 2014 if you ask Dominion Virginia Power, the state’s largest electric utility. The State Corporation Commission kicked off proceedings this week to determine whether or not Dominion’s proposed energy plans for the next 15 years are “reasonable and within the public’s interest.” Dominion, Virginia’s largest climate polluter by far, is proposing to increase its renewable energy portfolio by less than 1 percent compared to the utility’s current generation mix. That’s right: LESS THAN ONE PERCENT!
It goes without saying that Dominion’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) sends the commonwealth down the wrong path. If adopted, Dominion’s IRP would increase carbon emissions by 37.5 percent of the utility’s current output over the next 15 years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report a few weeks ago warning of the dire consequences associated with climate change inaction. Yet, rather than being responsible by bringing more carbon-free technologies like wind and solar online, Dominion proposes to actually INCREASE its carbon footprint. In the face of climate impacts occurring with greater intensity and frequency, increasing carbon pollution is far from “reasonable” and is certainly not in “the public’s interest.”
One of the many benefits of clean energy sources like wind and solar is that the fuel is free. These free fuel sources mitigate the impact to consumers that is caused by rising or at times volatile fuel prices like those that occur in the natural gas industry. Of course, the cheapest source of energy is energy we don’t have to use. Thus, Dominion should significantly increase its energy efficiency measures as a supplement to investing in more renewable energy resources. Six years ago, Virginia’s General Assembly passed a state-wide goal of increasing energy efficiency by 10 percent by 2022. To date, Dominion has reduced energy consumption by less than 1 percent. These are reasonable options that benefit Dominion’s ratepayers and the public at-large.
Clean energy reduces emissions that damage our citizens’ health, is the proper medicine for reducing climate change disruption, and strengthens our economy by adding the jobs of the future that our commonwealth needs and deserves. Dominion’s proposed energy plan is far too risky and costly. Dominion can and should present a more diverse, cleaner plan to meet Virginia’s future energy needs. Of course, the final decision lies at the feet of Virginia’s three commissioners, who will decide the reasonableness of Dominion’s dirty energy plans.