Stand for Justice: Stop Dominion!
Last Wednesday, activists rallied at the courthouse in Annapolis to support the Sierra Club as they brought their case against Dominion Resources. The Virginia-based company plans to construct a liquefied natural gas export facility in tiny Cove Point, Maryland. If built, the facility would encourage fracking across the region, worsen air quality in surrounding Calvert County, and be the largest climate polluter in Maryland.
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By AMANDA SCOTT
About 100 residents from across the state, including Calvert County, and members and leaders of environmental groups rallied Wednesday morning at the Robert C. Murphy Courts of Appeal Building in Annapolis to support legal opposition to Dominion Cove Point’s proposed liquefied natural gas exportation project.
In March 2012, Dominion filed for a declaratory judgment in Calvert County Circuit Court regarding the implications of language in a March 2005 contract agreement among Dominion, the Sierra Club and the Maryland Conservation Council. Dominion claimed the contract permits the exportation of LNG, while the Sierra Club claims the contract allows for plant expansion but not LNG exportation.
This week’s climate insider will give you the scoop on CCAN’s 2014 legislative priorities in Maryland and Virginia. Both states’ legislative sessions kicked off on Wednesday, January 8th, and CCAN will be busy pushing climate solutions to the forefront of our legislators’ agendas.
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By Lyle Kendrick
A coalition of protesters stuffed papers into passing legislators’ hands calling for an extension of a statewide fracking moratorium as the General Assembly began its opening day Wednesday.
More than 75 protesters and members of environmental organizations, such as the Sierra Club and the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, met in front of the State House for the rally.
The coalition of protesters called for a bill that would mandate an 18-month review period before the General Assembly could allow any drilling permits, after a pending study concludes.
During 2011, Gov. Martin O’Malley issued an executive order preventing the Maryland Department of the Environment from approving drilling permits until the end of a scientific study looking at fracking. The study is planned to be finalized later this year.
By Tim Wheeler
Environmentalists concerned about shale gas drilling in Maryland returned to Annapolis Wednesday to try again for a legislative moratorium on “fracking,” as the controversial technique of hydraulic fracturing is called.
Waving signs and chanting “Protect us from fracking,” activists huddled in Lawyers Mall in front of the State House just before the opening of the 90-day session of the General Assembly. Speaker after speaker called for lawmakers to block any drilling in Maryland until studies determine if it can be done safely.
We had a busy November here at CCAN! Your Weekly Climate Insider has taken a hiatus as we’ve been traveling around Maryland and Virginia for some big fall events! The Maryland Crossroads Tour and Safe Coast Virginia Conference were great successes!
After a disappointing (albeit unsurprising) lack of progress at the Warsaw climate talks, Activists and grassroots organizers from around the world protested the talks. Greenpeace Germany’s Martin Kaiser believes “”The climate conference in Warsaw was a waste of energy.”
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Dominion had better take its plan off autopilot. The statewide campaign to stop the company’s proposed Cove Point facility that would export fracked gas has taken hold. One need look no further than the Baltimore Sun’s recent editorial to know that Chesapeake Climate Action Network and its broad coalition have been successful in raising serious questions about a disastrous project that was considered a done deal several months ago. (Read the full editorial here.)
The “stakes are high” but the “ramifications are great,” the Sun says in its editorial. It says the project would create demand for more fracking and require a new power plant just to liquefy the gas, as well as more pipelines and compressor stations across the state. It then urges federal regulators to require an Environmental Impact Statement, the most stringent type of review, rather than the paler Environmental Assessment:
[W]herever one stands on the project — excited about the jobs or fearful of what it may mean for global warming — everyone should agree that the proposal should be thoroughly examined and vetted to understand the potential impact and trade-offs involved. … Would it slow down the application process? Almost certainly. … But that seems like a small price to pay. … FERC owes that much to the people of Maryland, and frankly, given the potential impact on global warming, the rest of the country, too.
The Sun even referred to Cove Point as Gov. Martin O’Malley’s Keystone XL pipeline, because of the controversy it has created.
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By Rachel S. Karas
Local and state environmental activists joined around 150 area residents at Hood College on Nov. 18 to protest natural gas projects in Frederick County and on the Eastern Shore.
The Chesapeake Climate Action Network, a grassroots nonprofit organization working against global warming in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, visited the school with one message in mind: “Clean energy, not Cove Point.”
The group traveled to nine cities across Maryland to oppose Virginia-based Dominion Resources’ plan to build a liquefied natural gas export facility on the Chesapeake Bay. They claim the Cove Point project is tied to a Dominion subsidiary project to build a gas compressor station in Myersville, which could feed gas to Cove Point to be shipped overseas.
By Matthew Bieniek
CUMBERLAND — Speakers during the local stop in a statewide series of town hall meetings against a planned $3.8 billion gas export terminal in Cove Point said the project will bring further pressure to develop natural gas in Western Maryland. Speakers also said the planned natural gas terminal would move state policy away from a current emphasis on clean energy.
Cumberland’s stop for the meetings was Wednesday at the New Embassy Theatre, where about 50 people showed up.
Cove Point is in Calvert County on the Chesapeake Bay. The Cove Point project was linked to fracking by speakers and by informational material distributed to participants.
“If approved, the Cove Point export facility would provide a strong economic incentive for companies to expand fracking across our region, including in Maryland, where no drilling has yet occurred. In other states, the expansion of fracking has caused drinking water contamination, air pollution, illnesses and even earthquakes,” according to the informational material.
On Saturday, November 16th, more than 120 Virginians came together in Norfolk to launch the next phase of grassroots action to protect Virginia’s coastal communities from climate change. The science is clear: rising sea levels and more powerful storms – driven by our burning of fossil fuels – are already causing frequent flooding and disrupting lives, business and critical civilian and naval infrastructure up and down the coast.
As DeLevay Miner, a local resident featured in the documentary premiered at the conference, Sea of Change, said, “You cannot depend on the history before because everything is changing.”
If this urgent reality was what motivated so many to spend their Saturday at the “Safe Coast Virginia” conference (see pictures here), the question of what we can and must DO about it was the theme that charged the day.
Here are three big takeaways from the conference that will galvanize our action moving forward:
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