Category: Blog

President Obama announced on Friday that he plans to delay his final decision on the Keystone XL pipeline until after the Nebraska state Supreme Court decides on a case that will impact the route of the pipeline. This delay could last a year or more, well past this November’s midterm elections. The President’s announcement was met with frustration from both sides, but many project opponents see the delay as a victory. Jamie Henn, a spokesman for 350.org said “It’s disappointing President Obama doesn’t have the courage to reject Keystone XL right now, but this is clearly another win for pipeline opponents.” After all, delaying the project means more tar sands are staying in the ground. Transcanada, the company proposing the pipeline, called the delay “inexplicable.”
The Cowboy Indian Alliance rode into DC yesterday to set up a week-long encampment on the National Mall urging President Obama to reject Keystone XL. The convergence, called Reject and Protect, will provide a packed schedule of events this week and will bring thousands to DC on Saturday for a massive tipi ceremony and march. The event brings together “tribal communities with ranchers and farmers living along the Keystone XL pipeline proposed route. Farmers and ranchers know the risk first-hand. They work the land every day. Tribes know the risk first-hand. They protect the sacred water, and defend sacred sites of their ancestors every day. They have united out of love and respect for the land and water on which we all depend.” According to Politico, “They’re estimating that as many as 5,000 activists will take part in a march past the Capitol on Saturday.
Sign up here to be a part of this historic action.
What happens when you have “almost no environmental regulation?” You end up with a situation similar to the one in China where ⅕ of agricultural land is contaminated. According to the Chinese government, “16.1 percent of the country’s soil in general and 19.4 percent of its farmland is polluted with toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, nickel and arsenic.” This is already impacting local communities; “health advocates have identified several ‘cancer villages’ in China near factories suspected of polluting the environment.”
In modern American political dialogue, polarization is the norm; Evangelical Christians and environmentalists are two groups that pundits assume will never agree. But here’s a take on climate change from David Jenkins, president of Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship and a lifelong evangelical Christian. He points out that God created the carbon cycle to keep the world’s carbon in balance and asks, “does it not then stand to reason that God, after designing the Earth’s processes to sequester excess carbon and keep our atmosphere’s chemistry in balance, would prefer that we respect His creation and find better ways to heat our homes and power our cars than using huge amounts of oil and coal?” Many religious organizations share Mr. Jenkins’ view; churches from Missouri to Minnesota have installed solar panels on their roofs and are living up to their goals of being good stewards of the earth.
The Chesapeake Bay, once an icon of biodiversity and delicious seafood, has been marred by pollution in recent years. “Thanks to an Environmental Protection Agency-led plan that puts limits on the amount of agricultural nutrients entering the bay,” efforts to clean up the bay have been strengthening, but Attorneys-General from states across the country have called the plan “EPA overreach,” saying the EPA doesn’t have a right to restrict the pollutants they put into the bay or to tell states how they can use their land. According to Chesapeake Bay Foundation director William Baker, “it’s hardly a mandate being imposed on high down to the states.” So while faraway states are concerned that protecting the Chesapeake Bay might somehow hinder their own economic and social development (an idea that Judge Sylvia Rambo found to be flawed), they fail to consider that polluting the bay hurts Bay-adjacent states. Baker says, “each bay state, including Virginia, voluntarily entered into the current restoration plan because of the economic, recreational, environmental and intrinsic value of a healthy Chesapeake Bay.”
Zooming in on Maryland:
Last week in Lusby, more than 50 people gathered at a community meeting to discuss the potential safety risks surrounding Dominion Resources’ proposed Cove Point facility. Local residents are especially concerned after the recent explosion at a gas plant in Washington. Many residents’ concerns stem from the fact that “other plants do not exist in populated areas. [Local resident, Dale] Allison said he estimates there are more than 300 homes within a 4,500-foot radius of the plant.” Mr. Allison worries that his family, friends and neighbors “will be an experiment.”
But the conversion of the Cove Point facility to a fracked gas export facility is far from a done deal. Sign up here to receive updates about the Cove Point fight and about an upcoming public meeting with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as they decide whether to approve Dominion’s plan.
This week, we bring you some common sense from the Frederick News-Post editorial board: Fracking chemicals should be disclosed. After a recent Mother Jones article outlining the health risks posed by fracking, the public is paying attention to the risky practice. Physicians for Social Responsibility “helped draft and promote legislation that, if passed, would allow Maryland health professionals to access information on the specific chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing”  Maryland’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Committee is taking up the question of who should have access to information about what’s in chemicals used in fracking. No decision has yet been made, but “that decision cannot be too long in coming at this point. If it decides to permit it, the state has an obligation — and the public has a right — to be fully informed about any and all processes and substances used in this controversial drilling method.”
The Maryland General Assembly passed a bill this session to create a council charged with minimizing the impact of sea level rise on new state buildings. The council will be comprised of “Secretaries of natural resources, business and management, the environment, general services, planning, transportation, and business and economic development; the chair of DNR’s Critical Area Commission for the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays; the director of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency; the chancellor of the University System of Maryland; and five others appointed by the governor to represent local government, business and environmental interests.” The council is being formed as a result of Governor O’Malley’s 2012 executive order that sea level rise be considered in future state construction. The bill passed unanimously in the senate and 95-40 in the House of Delegates, opposed by a handful of Delegates who are “skeptical about the role climate change plays in sea level rise.” The Governor will likely sign the bill which has the support of the Maryland Department of the Environment.
Also in Maryland legislative news, the Governor will soon decide whether or not to sign a bill that would kill a major offshore wind project in Maryland. HB 1168, a bill that would put a 15-month moratorium on Maryland’s offshore wind power development, passed both houses of the Maryland legislature. Bill proponents claimed the wind turbines would interfere with “the unique radar and testing mission at the Patuxent River base.” According to the Navy itself, this bill is patently unnecessary. According to David Belote, a former Air Force fighter pilot, commander of Nellis Air Force Base, and director of the Department of Defense Siting Clearinghouse, “if the turbines aren’t spinning, there’s no interference…There’s no need for additional studies to determine that stationary turbines cannot affect radar systems.” Click here to join Marylanders in urging Governor O’Malley to veto HB 1168.
Zooming in on Virginia:
Last week, a coalition of environmental groups held a forum on the impacts of coal dust in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. CCAN’s own Leslie Morrison spoke to an audience of around 90 people about the health impacts of coal dust, a fine, powdered form of coal released from any facilities that mine, process, or transport coal. The Lamberts Point Coal Terminal in Norfolk, Virginia, already ships 28 million tons of coal every year—and is legally allowed to release up to 50 tons of coal dust into the air each year. Coal is found in soil samples as far as 7.5 miles away and causes respiratory problems in nearby residents. It contains arsenic, mercury and other particulate matter and is extremely harmful if inhaled. Residents have also been suffering its effects in Curtis Bay, a Baltimore community with some of the worst air quality in the state. Morrison said, “it has been so inspiring to see communities around these facilities taking a stand to protect their air quality and their health.”
Major climate news came from Virginia last week when the state Supreme Court “ruled that the emails of a former University of Virginia climate scientist are exempt from disclosure under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.” The case began in 2011 when Michael Mann, a professor at the University of Virginia, came under fire by climate denying Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli who attempted to prove that Mann was misusing public funds. The Virginia Supreme court found that Cuccinelli had overstepped his bounds. By deciding that Mann’s emails were exempt from disclosure, the justices opted not to “put the state’s public universities at a disadvantage to private institutions.” According to Michael Halpern, program manager with the Center for Science and Democracy with the Union of Concerned Scientists, the state Supreme Court “was right to protect scientists’ ability to pursue tough research questions free from threats or intimidation. Freedom of information laws are meant to keep government accountable, not to enable the harassment of scientists.”
Citizens from across the mid-Atlantic are submitting photo petitions to Dominion CEO Tom Farrell demanding that the company clean up its act. Not only does Dominion Virginia Power’s 15-year energy plan include no new clean energy and an increase in carbon pollution for the commonwealth, but in Southern Maryland, Dominion Resources is trying to build a massively polluting fracked gas export facility at Cove Point. See the faces of people who demand better from Dominion and add your picture to the petition here. 

For three years, we’ve kept the gas industry at bay in Maryland thanks to supporters like you, and our grassroots pressure continues to pay off. At the April meeting of the governor’s fracking advisory commission on Monday, state agencies presented an updated timeline for their risk studies, which includes a 3-month extension of their original August 1^st deadline.
While this delay isn’t the 18-month pause we’ve been advocating for, it’s a step in the right direction and a clear sign that our ever growing movement is having an impact.  The extra three months gives the risk study teams more time to get all the facts on the table and ensures public involvement in the process.
Here’s the new timeline:

• April 14^th: April Meeting
• Early May: Final draft of the economic risks study released before the May 15^th commission meeting. RESI, the study team, will come to the May meeting to present and answer questions.
• May 15th: Commission meeting (To include: presentation by the Regional Economic Studies Institute (RESI) at Towson University on the final economic report; presentation on air pollution; update on risk assessment study)
• End of May/Early June: Final Best Management Practices (BMPs) report released
• June 13: Commission meeting (To include discussions on emergency preparedness; risk assessment; local land use)
• Saturday, June 28^th: Public meeting in Garrett or Allegany county. Health study will be presented, then a one month comment period.
• July 11: July Commission meeting (To include: update on health study, risk assessment, and an outline for draft final report)
• July 28^th: Health Study Public Comment period closes
• August 18^th: Commission meeting (To include: discussion of public health study, content of final draft report)
• Mid/Late August: Draft of final report released by MDE/DNR (One-month comment period on the final report.)
• September 15th: Commission meeting (Content of commission;’ Appendix to final report—Consultation with commission.)
• Mid/Late September: Final Report Public Comment period ends
• Mid October: Final draft of third and final report with response to comments

The commission meeting also included an in depth overview of progress to date from the UMD team completing the health study. You can follow their work here.
And, Dr. Anver Vengosh of Duke University walked the commissioners through his recent findings on underground methane migration from fracked wells to drinking water sources. His study shows that water wells within 1 kilometer (3,280 ft) of a fracked well have significantly higher levels of methane than wells beyond that boundary. Currently, the max proposed setback of fracking wells from drinking wells is only 2,000 ft. Clearly, not enough.
We’ll continue to watchdog the process and call for the strongest possible protections against fracking. Stay tuned for ways you can voice your opinions on this crucial issue for our climate, water, and communities.

In the final days of the 2014 legislative session, the Maryland General Assembly — despite passing many strong bills on climate change in recent years — voted to effectively stop construction of an entire modern wind farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
But that’s not all. The same bad bill — HB 1168 — would effectively delay and perhaps stop land-based wind power development in all or part of 12 Maryland counties in the eastern and southern parts of our state. Why? Because of military radar concerns that experts believe can be totally resolved without harmful new state legislation.
In solidarity with Maryland’s major environmental groups, Governor Martin O’Malley vigorously opposed this “anti-wind power” bill during the legislative session that just ended. The governor 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 anyway. Now, for the sake of climate change and clean energy solutions, it’s time for Governor O’Malley to pull out his veto pen!
Click here to ask Gov. O’Malley to VETO HB 1168, the “anti-wind power” bill. Please send your email right now — the future of Maryland wind power is truly at stake. 
Overall, it was a challenging year for clean energy in the 2014 General Assembly. The so-called “black liquor loophole” bill — which would have ended renewable-energy bonuses to out-of-state paper mills that burn toxic pulp waste — did not pass. But we strongly believe that with your help, this bill will get over the finish line next year! Likewise, a great bill to double wind and solar power usage goals in Maryland by the year 2025 did not become law. This bill — also known as the “40% RPS bill” — was enthusiastically welcomed by many key lawmakers, especially given rapidly falling wind and solar prices nationwide. We’ll pass it next year. Finally, the General Assembly failed to act once again on fracking — we’ll keep you updated on ways to take action on that front this summer.
But there’s still time to turn the 2014 legislative year into a big win for the environment if Governor O’Malley simply vetoes HB 1168. A veto will send 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.
So please ask Gov. O’Malley to VETO HB 1168, the “anti-wind power” bill, so Maryland can pursue a robust, clean energy future. 
Learn more facts about this bill by clicking here, including how the Patuxent River Naval Air Station is already in agreement with a wind farm developer on the Eastern Shore for 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.
Governor O’Malley — whose 8-year stint as governor ends this year — can leave office with perhaps his most heroic action yet on climate change: vetoing a bad bill so Marylanders can benefit forever from healthy, clean energy.
Click here to take action now. 

The biggest climate news of the past few weeks came when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its first comprehensive report since 2007. Although the information wasn’t surprising, the urgent tone of the report and its claim that the worst impacts of climate change are still to come caught the world’s attention. According to the New York Times, the report “concluded that ice caps are melting, sea ice in the Arctic is collapsing, water supplies are coming under stress, heat waves and heavy rains are intensifying, coral reefs are dying, and fish and many other creatures are migrating toward the poles or in some cases going extinct.”
The report highlighted, among other threats, the devastating impacts climate change will have on the world’s food supply, a crisis that will adversely impact developing nations.
“There are those who say we can’t afford to act,” Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement. “But waiting is truly unaffordable. The costs of inaction are catastrophic.”

In order to mitigate these impacts, the US and other major energy consumers must transition to renewable, clean energy sources. Although progress is slow, it is noticeable.
So far in 2014, new wind energy construction has broken records as demand for renewable power has risen. “Now the cheapest means of generating electricity in many parts of the country, net power generation from wind energy was up 19 percent year-over-year in 2014, meeting 4.13 percent of U.S. grid demand, according to ACORE and the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).”
Congress is still debating extending the wind power Investment Tax Credit (ITC) and Production Tax Credit (PTC), which would further boost new clean energy investments. Last week, the Senate Finance Committee voted to pass a tax extenders package that included both the ITC and PTC. Read more about this important development in the Virginia section of this post.
The Southeast US isn’t usually synonymous with clean energy generation, but we’re starting to see significant progress. Currently, half of the solar currently installed in South Carolina is on one roof at a Boeing factory. But the hesitance to develop renewable energy is fading. “We now have three of the major energy providers in South Carolina recognizing the benefits of solar energy, which is a huge shift from just five years ago,” according to Andrew Streit, a former board member of the South Carolina Solar Council. Although the political climate of many southern states is hostile to renewable energy development, South Carolina utility SCE&G’s plan to go from 4 to 20 megawatts of solar is a step in the right direction.

Perhaps an argument that will help renewable energy thrive in these traditionally conservative states is the potential for renewable energy to create jobs for veterans. Compared to other industries, there is a relatively large number of veterans working in solar power: they make up 9.2 percent of the almost 143,000-member solar-power workforce compared to just over 7 percent of the national workforce. “Veterans view climate change as a threat to national security. Working in solar is one way for them to continue in their service as defenders of our nation.”

News in Virginia:
After a fruitful legislative session, we bring you more good news for renewable energy in the commonwealth. Community Housing Partners (CHP) and the town of Blacksburg are initiating a program that makes rooftop solar power a huge money-saver for town residents. “It works like this: If a site looks promising, one of two local solar installers working with the program will do a thorough assessment and provide an estimate for a system to meet the homeowner’s needs. The town and CHP will provide information to the homeowners on the federal tax credit, financing for their systems and other details.” More than 230 people have signed up for the program since its launch last month. The program will help homeowners save on their monthly electricity bills, and also potentially generate income by selling their renewable energy certificates to utilities looking to offset their own energy use.

This week, Governor McAuliffe announced plans to reactivate a commission to advise him on what can be done to protect Virginia from the threats of climate change. He focused on Hampton Roads and other coastal Virginia communities, saying, “It rains a day or two or three, and their roads are shut down. That’s just rain … We cannot afford to ignore this. We’ve got to prepare our coastal communities to deal with climate change and all natural disasters.” The climate commission hasn’t met in over four years, largely, according to McAuliffe, because the former attorney general of the state of Virginia didn’t believe in human-caused climate change. Governor McAuliffe acknowledges climate change as a serious threat to the commonwealth, and ran for governor on a platform that included a commitment to addressing that threat. He has a real opportunity in his first year in office to set a tone of action on climate change, and Virginians across the commonwealth are holding him to his promises.
Last week saw an important step in encouraging new wind power development. The Senate Finance committee voted to pass a tax extenders package that included an Investment Tax Credit (ITC) and Production Tax Credit (PTC). According to Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, “This provides a critical signal for our industry, which has created up to 85,000 jobs and has a bright future ahead, as we grow from 4 percent of the U.S. power grid to an expected 20 percent and beyond, so long as we have a predictable business climate.” Both Virginia Senator Mark Warner and Maryland Senator Ben Cardin supported extending these important tax credits. Virginia needs a strong climate champion in Senator Warner, so click here to let him know you appreciate his vote.

News in Maryland:
The Maryland legislative session has come to a close, and not all of the results were positive for Marylanders concerned about the climate and environment. You can see the Baltimore Sun’s take on the “good and bad” of the 2014 session in this slideshow. Of note, HB 1168, the so-called “anti-wind bill” is included in the “bad,” along with this call to action: “Governor O’Malley, who appears somewhat perplexed by this legislation, should veto it.”

The legislation in question would put a hold on offshore wind development in all or parts of 12 Maryland counties for thirteen months, a move that would kill the Great Bay wind farm under development now on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and threaten to scare off future wind development in the area, which the Maryland Energy Administration estimates is worth $1 billion to the state economy. While backers of the bill claim they were acting on radar testing concerns at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, the wind farm developers and the U.S. Navy have been negotiating for over a year and have nearly finalized an agreement that would ensure the project does not interfere with “Pax River.”
Opposition to the anti-wind bill has come from Marylanders of varying backgrounds, including labor union activist Joe Uehlein, who wrote this piece in the Baltimore Sun, and Mary Anne Peterman, the owner of a 100-acre farm in Somerset County. According to this interview on WYPR, Peterman planned to have a wind turbine installed on her property to power “the homes of about 500 neighbors without any pollution,” but the project is put on hold because of the bill. “It would generate extra income so our children would have the income. Our house was built in the 1840s, we’d like to keep that for our kids.” Peterman isn’t the only Eastern Shore landowner to feel this way. Last week, 25 Marylanders, including two farmers who rode a pair of tractors rallied in Annapolis to show their opposition to HB 1168. You can see pictures of their rally here.

After last week’s explosion at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing facility in Plymouth, Washington, the fight to stop a proposed liquefied natural gas export facility at Cove Point in southern Maryland has taken on even more urgency. The explosion occurred at 8:30 am on Monday, March 31st. Four hundred people who live within a two mile radius of the facility had to be evacuated from their homes, and five workers at the facility were hospitalized. According to the Benton County sheriff’s Deputy Joe Lusignan, it’s “a little bit of a miracle that no one was killed.”

This Reuters piece points out that the Plymouth explosion could emphasize the “risk of storing massive gas supplies near population centers.” When the “processing vessel” exploded, it sent “chunks of shrapnel as heavy as 250 pounds as far as 300 yards.” One of those pieces pierced an LNG storage tank causing leakage.
The incident has left Marylanders living in the vicinity of Cove Point to ask if their safety should really be left up to a “miracle.” The Bay Net reports that, “The citizens group is calling on FERC to complete ‘an objective and transparent quantitative risk assessment for Dominion’s proposed LNG export facility.’” You can read the full text of the press release here.

In this letter to the editor, Sarah Bur makes the compelling case to stop the Cove Point export project. She sums up the concerns of Quakers (Friends) from nine Quaker Meetings in central and southern Maryland:

“The Cove Point project has far-reaching potential impact on human health and environmental quality in every phase of the process — extraction, transportation, liquefaction, shipping, re-gasification and distribution of the natural gas abroad. We are especially concerned about the impact Dominion’s proposal will have on climate and air quality in Maryland. The proposed 130 megawatt power plant required to liquefy the natural gas would be Maryland’s fourth largest greenhouse gas emitter, just behind our three major coal-fired power plants.”

The conclusion is simple: “For the sake of future generations, Cove Point must be stopped.”

 

Climate change is a serious global threat. Ok, you already knew that. But a new report from the American Association for the Advancement of Science hopes to convey that not only does climate change pose a dire threat to life as we know it, it’s a threat we have to address right now. It contains language that is “sharper, clearer and more accessible than perhaps anything the scientific community has put out to date.” The report is only one component of a campaign to dispel climate myths and spread the truth far and wide. “The report warns that the effects of human emissions of heat-trapping gases are already being felt, that the ultimate consequences could be dire, and that the window to do something about it is closing.”
On the international stage, President Obama is joining EU leaders in Brussels in an effort to tackle climate change. The US and EU will pledge to cut emissions in the first quarter of 2015 in an effort to set an example ahead of the 2015 UN summit in Paris. That summit’s “aim must be to limit any global average temperature increase to less than 2 degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial levels ‘and should therefore include ambitious mitigation contributions, notably from the world’s major economies and other significant emitters.” The EU has talked about increasing their emissions reductions targets to a 40% reduction from 1990 levels by 2030, up from a 20% reduction by 2020 which they have very nearly achieved. “The United States by contrast has said it will reduce carbon by 17 percent by 2020 compared with 2005, which equates to a fall of 3.5 percent below 1990 levels.” 

This week, the White House launched its climate change data website, aimed at making climate data available to researchers, businesses, and governments working to adapt to climate change. You can check out the early phase of the website here. “The project includes the introduction of a climate-focused section of the federal government’s open data platform at climate.data.gov; an innovation challenge to solicit ideas from the private sector to demonstrate coastal flooding; and collaboration with companies like Google and Ersi to provide technological support.”

Speaking of the White House, 16 environmental groups wrote a letter to President Obama on Tuesday calling on the administration “to reverse course on this plan [to expand natural gas extraction] and commit instead to keeping most of our nation’s fossil fuel reserves in the ground, in line with the recommendations of most of the world’s leading climate scientists.” The letter called on the President to demand an Environmental Impact Statement for Cove Point as a good faith first step. You can read the full letter here. The letter was announced in a tele-press conference with CCAN director Mike Tidwell, 350.org director and world renowned climate activists Bill McKibben, and Sierra Club Director Michael Brune. It generated press coverage across the country. Read articles from the Wall Street Journal, Wisconsin Gazette, Chicago Tribune, and local Baynet. The arguments against exporting American natural gas aren’t just environmental; the costs to our wallets and ur daily lives of exporting our energy sources are often very high.

National Geographic has entered the gas exports conversation, pointing out that gax exports would mean that “Not only would Americans pay more for heating fuel, but manufacturers, who use natural gas not only for power but as a feedstock for a wide array of plastic products, would see higher costs as well.” The article also points out that there is strong opposition to natural gas exports from industry leaders, including Dow Chemical, who oppose the price increases that would accompany exporting American natural gas.

Cove Point isn’t the only big environmental issue in Maryland. As the General Assembly session is wrapping up, we bring you news from Annapolis. CCAN’s DC and Maryland Policy Director, Tommy Landers, is quoted in this piece about the House committee’s failure to pass a bill to exclude dirty “black liquor” from maryland’s clean energy standards. “As a result, Maryland ratepayers will again send over $20 million in 2014 to out-of-state paper mills that have been burning this carbon-intense industrial waste called black liquor for decades and, for the last seven years, selling the power back to us as ‘clean’ energy,” Landers said. Bill supporters will return to Annapolis next year to build on existing momentum and ensure that the black liquor bill passes in 2015.

Environmental groups are still fighting in Annapolis against a bill that would kill wind turbine projects in Maryland. The bill would put height restrictions on wind turbines and would “essentially kill a wind turbine project in Somerset County.” While supporters of the Cove Point project claim it would create jobs that negate the serious environmental risks involved, this anti-clean energy bill doesn’t toe that party line on job creation; Adam Cohen, vice president and founder of Pioneer Green Energy points out that this bill would “deprive the poorest county in Maryland of a $200 million investment doesn’t seem to be a solution.”
Now that Virginia’s legislative session is over, the Commonwealth’s primary energy and climate news relates to its biggest polluter, Dominion Virginia Power.
Every two years, Dominion is required to submit a 15-year plan called an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) to the State Corporation Commission. This year’s IRP significantly increases Dominion’s fossil fuel dependence and carbon emissions, and it ignores our state’s potential for clean energy and energy efficiency. The State Corporation Commission is tasked with making sure our state’s energy plans are reasonable and within the public interest, so we’re telling them to demand clean energy from Dominion. Submit your public comment now, and tell the SCC that Dominion needs to develop a plan that serves the public interest and invests in clean energy.
For more information on how Dominion is standing in the way of energy progress in Virginia, listen to the first installment of Sandy Hausman’s Going Green series.

The past three weeks have been busy ones in the climate movement. Right here in Virginia and Maryland, citizens have been fighting to pass critical clean energy legislation even as we fight to stop a potential climate disaster in our backyard — the proposed Cove Point liquefied natural gas export facility. Across the country, students, farmers, and environmentalists continue upping their game to stop Keystone XL, as the Obama administration’s decision time nears. And we’ve seen a show of support from U.S. senators, who delivered an all-nighter of speeches about the urgency of climate action.
We begin with updates from the Cove Point fight, which has moved into high gear with a series of protests leading to peaceful arrests across the state. On February 27th, four activists were arrested for blocking the entrance to the Allegany County Courthouse in Cumberland. They were released a short time later with misdemeanor charges. This was the first time any Cove Point protest had ended in an arrest, and the media took notice. The Associated Press picked up the story and it made impressions around the country.
That weekend, the Maryland Public Service Commission held a public hearing in Lusby about the Cove Point project. After seven hours of testimony, the PSC had heard from 85 speakers, the majority of whom spoke in opposition to Cove Point gas exports. In a setback the day before the hearing, a state appeals court ruled in Dominion’s favor in the company’s ongoing legal battle with the Sierra Club over its right to export gas from Cove Point. But Dominion still needs a series of permits, including from the PSC, before it can move forward with any construction. The company will almost certainly face additional legal challenges, too. To have an impact right now and add your voice to the fight, submit a public comment to the Maryland Public Service Commission. They need to hear from you that Dominion’s Cove Point project is NOT in the interest of Maryland’s public — and comments are due by April 2nd.
The week following the hearing, four more activists were arrested in a protest in Frederick. They carried signs reading, “FERC: We Demand Justice for Myersville,” and, “FERC: Don’t Bully Frederick County,” while chanting against both Cove Point and Dominion’s plan to build a compressor station less than a mile from the elementary school in nearby Myersville, MD. (You can submit a comment to the Maryland Department of the Environment here to let them know that a compressor station polluting the air of Myersville’s kids is not acceptable.) Like in Cumberland, the “Frederick Four” were released after a short time with misdemeanor citations.
Senators Cardin and Mikulski have taken notice of the momentum building against Cove Point. They wrote a letter last week to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission calling on them to respond promptly to a request from environmental, faith, health and community leaders to hold statewide public meetings about the proposed project. FERC has yet to respond to their request.
This past Wednesday, however, FERC “announced it will issue its environmental assessment on the proposed Dominion Cove Point liquefied natural gas export project May 15 and will issue its decision by Aug. 31.” A coalition of Maryland faith, health, and environmental groups responded to FERC’s announcement, calling it “a slap in the face to citizens and leaders across Maryland who have repeatedly called for a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)—a type of review most protective of public health and safety and customary for a polluting project as huge as Dominion’s.”

The next day, six more protesters were arrested in Calvert County as they peacefully protested the facility outside the courthouse in Prince Frederick. The activists specifically highlighted recent revelations that a six-story high and three-quarters of a mile long wall that Dominion plans to build around its facility would also be part of an apparently untested system to contain potential releases of flammable vapor clouds. They were held for over eight hours before they were finally processed and released with misdemeanor charges.

Protests have also been happening across the country in the final weeks before President Obama makes his decision about the Keystone XL pipeline. The project, which has been stirring up fierce resistance for more than three years, would transport filthy, climate polluting tar sands from Alberta through the American plains, to be exported from the gulf coast. However, citizens from every walk of life and all along the political spectrum see the pipeline as a dire threat to our climate and way of life. They point out that the tar sands oil moving through the pipeline would be shipped overseas and have little to no impact on American energy security. Additionally, the jobs estimates for the project are thought by many, including President Obama, to have been overstated.
The deadline to submit public comments to the State Department has passed, and an estimated 2 million-plus comments against the project were delivered last Friday.

Some of the vocal student activists opposed to the plan converged on the White House on March 1st for XLDissent, and 398 youth were arrested in what is being called the largest youth sit-in of this generation. The protests aren’t just coming from students; a coalition of tribal communities, farmers, and ranchers, Canadian First Nations and others are coming together in Washington for “Reject and Protect,” a week of actions to send a clear message to President Obama: Reject Keystone XL now. You can sign up to join Reject and Protect here.

A number of United States senators took up the anti-Keystone rallying cry earlier this week during #Up4Climate, a night of floor speeches about the urgency of action to address climate change. Thirty-eight senators took the floor, including Virginia’s Tim Kaine and Maryland’s Ben Cardin. Sen. Kaine emphasized moving forward to a cleaner energy future, saying, “We can solve the problem of climate change for the good of the economy and the good of the planet. The story of American innovation is a story of solving the hard problems and I know we can solve this one.” You can read Senator Kaine’s full remarks here. Senator Cardin emphasized that federal facilities “are being jeopardized because of the climate change that’s occurring in our communities.” He also highlighted the economic benefits of growing clean energy, emphasizing that, “Green energy will give us more jobs than the fossil fuel industry, and we need good paying jobs, and we can leave our children and grandchildren a cleaner planet and a better future.” You can watch his full speech here.

The legislative session is over in Virginia, and we made some great progress. Governor McAuliffe officially signed repeal of the hybrid tax into law two weeks ago. As of July 1st, this arbitrary and unfair tax on Virginians doing their part to reduce carbon pollution will be wiped off the books. Two other significant clean energy bills — to eliminate tax barriers to solar power development (SB 418/HB 1239) and to fix a major loophole in Virginia’s renewable energy law (SB 498/HB 822) — are on their way to the governor’s desk for his signature. If you’re a Virginian, click here to thank your legislators and Governor McAuliffe for their action this session. 

Today marks the third group of arrests in a series of peaceful Cove Point protests that have crossed Maryland — from Cumberland to Frederick to Calvert County — over the past few weeks. Six Maryland residents were peacefully arrested today outside the Calvert County courthouse in Prince Frederick protesting Virginia-based Dominion Resources’ plan to build its Cove Point liquefied natural gas export facility in nearby Lusby. The protesters, led by a retired nurse and former Air Force reservist from Lusby and including five students, blocked the courthouse entrance to demand justice in the federal handling of Dominion’s controversial $3.8 billion plan.
This demonstration comes shortly after Dominion publicly admitted for the first time that a six-story tall and three-quarter mile long wall—previously referred to only as a “sound abatement wall”—is part of an apparently unprecedented and untested barrier wall system that would be constructed to protect nearby residents from vapor gas clouds. Local citizens said this revelation only underscores the need for federal regulators to hold Dominion’s plans to the highest level of scrutiny by completing a full Environmental Impact Statement.
In the following statements, the six Marylanders explain why Cove Point threatens our communities, and why they engaged in peaceful civil disobedience to stop it. (Click here for a PDF of their statements.)

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David Hardy
Lusby, Maryland
My name is David Hardy. I’m a retired Registered Nurse and retired Civil Engineering Craftsman from the Air Force Reserves. I live in Chesapeake Ranch Estates about 3 miles from the proposed Dominion Cove Point LNG Export Facility.
Personally, I have a lot of concerns regarding this project.
I’m concerned about Little Cove Point Road and the traffic on this small state road with buses hauling construction workers in and out and large construction trucks hauling equipment, materials and supplies. I feel sorry for the folks who live in this area who will have large lowboys rumbling through in the middle of the night while they deliver the generators and compressors. Dominion promises to deliver the heavy equipment during the night to cut down on traffic problems. But they haven’t promised to repair the road after the oversized and overweight trucks tear it up. Looks like the State Highway Administration will foot the bill for keeping it repaired since it is a state road.
I’m concerned about the dust and emissions from the construction. It’s going to take an awful lot of truckloads of dirt to build the noise barrier. My rough calculations, figuring a 3/4 mile by 60 foot high dirt monument, comes to roughly 533 thousand cubic yards of material. That’s about 53,000 dump truck loads of dirt. Where is that coming from and how is it getting to the site?
I’m concerned about the perpetual noise from the compressors running night and day. The carbon dioxide from the 4th largest power plant in the state that is going to be built to provide power to the compressors and refrigerators that are needed to cool the dirty gas down 300 degrees to make it a liquid.
I am worried sick about the hazardous chemicals that are going to be removed at Cove Point, that come from the ‘fracking’ process, that now have to be disposed of. Where??? At Sweetwater Road landfill? There will be a lot of things like mercury, benzene, and heavy metals that will have to go somewhere.
I am concerned about the danger of explosion of all of the volatile gasses that will be coming through the pipeline from the gas fields. There have been some recent gas pipeline explosions and fires causing destruction and death in neighboring states. Do we want this in Calvert County? I am concerned about the emergency evacuation route that passes through Chesapeake Ranch Estates. Our roads can’t handle a mass evacuation of Cove Point residents added to our own.
This export plant is planning for 100 ships a year to export this gas to Japan and India. And they have a permit for 200 ships a year. Why?? We need the gas right here in the USA to power our homes, factories and power plants.  We don’t need the gas to be shipped overseas halfway around the world to keep our gas prices inflated at home.
I’m concerned about pipeline leakage contributing to more and more greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere causing more and more global warming.  It was recently reported that gas pipelines leak over 3% of their capacity. Dominion is projecting 5 million tons of production a year. That’s 15,000 tons a day! A 3% loss would be 450 tons of methane and ethane and other volatile gasses lost into the air we breathe each and every day. As if we don’t have enough asthma, COPD and other breathing problems now. And this is a very conservative estimate of pipeline losses. Some reports have the number at twice what I’m saying.
I’m frankly frightened by the prospect of a LNG plant being 3 miles from a nuclear power plant. I sure hope there is some of that tax money spent on increased security offshore for both facilities. We could have our own Armageddon if an LNG ship was to explode at the nuclear plant.
I’m concerned about the offsite areas that Dominion needs just for construction of the plant. About the pier within yards of the Thomas Johnson Bridge; our only evacuation route in case of an accident. One misdirected barge carrying large compressors could close down this vital highway artery.
I’m concerned with the ballast water that the ships from Japan and India will be delivering to waters in or near our beloved Chesapeake Bay. Water that is contaminated with radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. The water from the inbound India ships will be contaminated with Vibrio and other disease forming microbes and Pfisteria and other algae which can produce toxic blooms. We don’t need more invasive species in the Bay to destroy our valuable fisheries and recreation resources.
Those of us who live in Southern Calvert County are really concerned about our quality of life being degraded by a large industrial facility being built so close to our homes, schools and churches. Several of our homeowner associations have already gone on record to protest this invasion of our quiet enjoyment of our property.
We need jobs in Southern Maryland, but please let them come from other enterprises that do not harm our environment or force people to listen to constant noise or breathe polluted air or drink hazardous water.
Thank you for listening to my concerns.

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Ashok Chandwaney
St. Mary’s City, Maryland
My name is Ashok Chandwaney. I’m a second semester senior at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and I live in a world that is on the cusp of a global climate catastrophe. With reckless disregard for our health or safety, companies like Dominion are trying to construct export facilities from coast to coast, including near where I was born in Washington State.
These fights all have something in common: radical companies, bent on profiting off fossil fuels no matter how it affects the local community and the world at large. In Washington, they want to run asthma-causing coal trains through densely populated areas. Here, Dominion’s proposal makes it quite clear that they aren’t concerned with health or safety either. They’re concerned their stockpiles of chemicals may produce “fireballs,” a risk they plan to “mitigate” with an untested and skyscraping concrete wall. What if the wall fails?  Who gave them the right to put local families at risk?
But even if they weren’t planning on explosions at Cove Point, the expansion Cove Point will affect the people who live nearby. This proposal is an environmental nightmare: it will poison the air and soil that over 300 families breathe and live in. Dominion’s own workers will be exposed to these dangerous airborne chemicals too, and facing (along with local families) high risks of asthma and heart disease.
Once Dominion builds this gargantuan facility, they’re going to want more natural gas to sell from it to make their profits. That means building more leaky natural gas pipelines across the state, which means seizing people’s back yards and farmland with eminent domain and then tainting them when their pipes inevitably leak. That means starting to frack here, bringing earthquakes and flammable tap water to Maryland.
I want a future with clean air and water my children can swim in and safe jobs so families can have both their health and food on the table. I want a future where St. Mary’s hasn’t been inundated by the rising sea levels that Cove Point would accelerate. I want a future with clean energy, not Cove Point — and that’s why I participated in a civil disobedience today.

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Ruth Tyson
St. Mary’s City, Maryland
As a local student and passionate environmentalist, I don’t see any other way to stress the urgency of raising awareness about this plan. This is something worth fighting for. Dominion has their voice being heard. They have funds to make sure their story is shared. I don’t have money to buy radio commercials or place fancy posters all over the state with the full story. What I do have is my body and a right to express myself. I’m willing to put everything on the line if that will make people pay attention.
Cove Point expansion will jeopardize the health, economies, land, and water of local people affected by the fracking gas that is processed as well as communities surrounding the facility. Are a few jobs really worth our health? How do you put a price on the future generations affected by climate change that Cove Point’s greenhouse gas emissions will greatly contribute to? What is the cost of clean air and water? We should be investing our resources in clean, renewable energy. Liquified natural gas isn’t the answer to anyone’s energy crisis. I want legislators, Dominion, and most importantly, the people, to see that this isn’t a wise decision. We value our environment and our people’s health. This isn’t a time to be passive and accept business as usual. We’re speaking out because we can’t sit back anymore and it’s time for Dominion to start listening.

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Emily Tanner
St. Mary’s City, Maryland
I am one of the students being arrested at the courthouse this Thursday in opposition to the proposed LNG Export Facility at Cove Point.
I did not grow up in Maryland. I grew up on the coast of Virginia, and I did not know much at all about Maryland until I came to St. Mary’s College in the fall of 2011. I grew up on the Chesapeake Bay and now I live by the St. Mary’s River and it always feels wrong to me when I’m away from the water. Growing up, I watched the Chesapeake Bay deteriorate as more and more pollutants were shuttled in to the precious estuary and I heard about the endangerment of the blue crabs, sea birds, and oysters that call the Bay home. I watched as more and more trash washed up on protected beaches and every time I heard about a new oil spill far away, I worried that it would one day be my home.
My friends in Virginia make fun of me now because I’ve fallen so deeply in love with Maryland and all that the state represents. Now I see a new threat to my new home on the horizon. The Cove Point LNG Export Facility would be located about 20 miles away from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and any problems on the site would undoubtedly create problems here. The potential for disastrous spills, air pollution, and water contamination is undeniable. The site is a high risk area and, as we know, pipelines leak so a pipeline carrying gas across the entire state seems like a pretty bad idea if you ask me. I am worried about Maryland, I am worried about St. Mary’s, and I am worried that we are soon to follow in the United States’ new legacy of oil spills, fracking, and the careless treatment of our precious Earth.
Cove Point will open Maryland to Fracking, in addition to the multitude of other issues it would bring to the state. What we have been told is that the natural gas basins in Maryland (with the exception of the Marcellus Shale in the West) are too deep to frack, but the Marcellus Shale was once too deep for drilling too. If Fracking is profitable for gas companies, it will find its way into Maryland and Cove Point is setting that dangerous precedent for us right now. With fracking comes destruction and I don’t want to see my new home go the way that so many others have. I want our water to be drinkable, our air to be breathable, and our world to livable. Cove Point has the potential to take all of that away from me and from you. It’s time to stand up and say no to Dominion.

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Ori Gutin
College Park, Maryland
People often think that activists, environmental or otherwise, enjoy getting arrested. People on the periphery of environmental or social movements think activists get some type of pleasure, or high, from engaging in civil disobedience. Well, to those people I say, you could not be more wrong. No child grows up wanting to be arrested or to engage in civil disobedience. However, children do grow up loving the planet around them, the trees, waters, fresh air, bugs in the dirt, birds in the sky, and fish in the sea. In fact, I was one of them. I also grew up naively thinking that no one would ever try and take away those things that I loved. Unfortunately, childhood is fleeting, reality is stark, and money is powerful. The truth is there are many people out there who are constantly trying to marginalize the things that I and many others love in the name of profit.
Dominion Resources is the perfect example. They are an out of state company that wants to come into my beautiful home state of Maryland and build a 3.8 billion dollar environmental catastrophe. Why? To boost their profit, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. They are not here because they want to help Maryland’s economy, provide jobs, or even provide LNG to foreign markets. They are here to make money. Dominion is willing to compromise the health of the bay, the air quality of the surrounding community, and not to mention the climate because they want money, plain and simple. And after they’ve made their money and have left Maryland, who will be left with this damage in a few years? Me. My brothers and sisters. My friends. My classmates. My entire generation. This cannot happen.
I have spent countless hours fighting against this facility. I have petitioned, written op-eds, rallied, testified in front of the Public Service Commission, gotten the UMD Student Government Association to officially oppose this project, made phone calls to Senators, met with Senators, written letters, and more. And to some extent it is making a difference, but not nearly enough, and not nearly quickly enough.
So, no; no activist wants to get arrested. We don’t get a high or take pleasure in it. But when an issue like Cove Point arises that is so potentially damaging to all the things you love in this world, and nothing else seems to be making a big enough difference, how can you not do absolutely everything in your power to stop it? So today, I will put my body on the line to physically plead with lawmakers and regulators like FERC and PSC to stop siding with corporate profits, and start protecting the planet and the people on it by saying no to Dominion Cove Point. I pray that they listen.

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Gabriel McKinney
St. Mary’s City, Maryland
As a Christian, my morality is based on the Love of God whom I believe created all things. In my Love for him I find my love for all of his creation, be it the Earth or the Animals or plants or Humans. That love which I hold forbids me to destroy this glorious, beautiful, and nurturing creation. While I do not believe that the fight to save this creation from those who wish to destroy it for their own personal gain is The End, I do believe that The End is Love, and that I therefore must participate with all of my power to make sure that That End is achieved. And towards this End of Love, I must fight with all radical, peaceful, and Loving ways to preserve this thing given to us by a God whom I know to be Loving, radical, and peaceful.
In the building of a structure which will destroy the habitats and livelihoods of the humans and of the wildlife in that area known as Cove Point, I do not see any Love. In giving wealth and power to a few while subjugating many others to depravity and the destruction and perversion of this, our World, home, and all our material sustenance, I do not perceive any Love. In justifying this action of the destruction of the wealth and homes of those, plant, animal, and humans by saying that we are giving jobs to other Americans and strengthening our nation, not only do I fail to glean where Love might reside in this action but I fail to perceive the logic. What use is it to wrench the livelihood of one man from his hands to place it into another? How does destroying the very ground on which we walk, the air we breathe, and the water we drink, build the Nation in which we live? To achieve this End, Love, I wish to use any peaceful power at my disposal towards preventing this heinously unloving action.