Cove Point controversy draws growing media attention statewide

At one time, few people came to Dominion’s public meetings because they were “so boring,” an almost wistful Dominion spokesman, Don Donovan, told WAMU-FM in recent a news report.
Well, they’re attending now. Calvert County residents are taking note and finding nothing boring about Dominion’s plan for a $3.8 billion facility at Cove Point to export fracked natural gas to India and Japan.
People don’t come “unless somebody scares them to come,” Donovan said.
Or maybe they find out the stark truths hidden behind the fancy news releases about jobs (not so many permanent ones) and tax revenue (minus some hefty tax giveaways). After a news conference called by a Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN)-led coalition in September, regional media have been waking up to Calvert County as ground zero in this scheme. And residents of Lusby, who live closest to the planned facility, are making their voices heard. So far, coverage of the “Clean Energy, Not Cove Point” campaign has appeared in Southern Maryland Newspapers Online (SoMdNews), Bay Net, the Bay Journal, WAMU-FM, the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, the Daily Record (subscription req’d), the Frederick News-Post, and WJZ-TV.
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Cove Point: Opening salvos and closing windows

The Maryland Crossroads campaign for “Clean Energy, Not Cove Point” is heating up. As is the planet. And energy giant Dominion is getting a little hot under the collar as well.
A statewide coalition of environmental, health, faith and public interest groups kicked off a nine-stop Maryland tour Tuesday, Nov. 5, to raise the alarm about a proposed $3.8 billion climate-killing facility on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay that would export liquefied fracked gas to India and Japan. With three stops completed, interest and opposition to the Cove Point plant in Calvert County are building. The first stop was Tuesday, Nov. 5, in Annapolis, where a big crowd turned out at Broadneck High School. This was followed by an even larger crowd packing a hall at St. Mary’s College on Wednesday, Nov. 6. Last night, Nov. 7, a packed room of nearly 250 people from across Montgomery County gathered at the civic center in downtown Silver Spring.
In addition, a Gonzales poll of Marylanders released Nov. 5 finds that a huge bipartisan majority, 81 percent, wants Dominion to conduct a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement of the health, climate and safety hazards of the facility — rather than the less rigorous Environmental Assessment.
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Environmental group again rallies residents to action against Dominion project

SoMdNews

By Amanda Scott

Maryland is at a crossroads between clean, renewable energy and a “radical detour,” according to Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

On Wednesday night, about 50 people attended CCAN’s town hall meeting at St. Mary’s College of Maryland as part of the organization’s nine-stop “Maryland Crossroads 2013 Tour: Clean Energy, Not Cove Point!” The purpose of the tour is “to rally public opposition” and “educate Marylanders” about Dominion’s proposed liquefied natural gas export project at its Cove Point facility in Lusby, according to a CCAN press release. CCAN is a nonprofit group whose mission is to fight global warming in the Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., area. Wednesday’s meeting followed an Oct. 22 meeting CCAN held in Lusby.

“Maryland really has been, the last 10 years, on a path of transitioning off of climate-changing fossil fuels and on to clean, renewable energy,” CCAN Executive Director Mike Tidwell said. “But in the past six months, a radical detour has been proposed for our state. It’s a very different energy vision that would seriously knock us off our current path.”

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Should Maryland Allow A Natural Gas Export Facility On The Chesapeake Bay?

WAMU 88.5

By: Jonathan Wilson

Jean Marie Neal leads me down a short-mulched path behind her house, onto the sand of Cove Point Beach. We’re looking out onto the Chesapeake Bay — Cove Point Hollow specifically. There are other homes that back up to the beach, but mostly what you see here are trees, sand and water… until you look to your north and a bit west, about a mile in the distance.

That’s where Dominion’s property lies, and where two stark white storage tanks rise up above the trees.

“The overall concern is that what you’re doing is you’re turning this entire area into an industrial site — that, itself, just blows your mind,” Neal says.

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200 Calvert Residents Protest Council Decision to Give Zoning Control to Federal Government Over Controversial $3.8 Billion Proposed Gas Export Facility at Cove Point

At least 200 concerned Calvert residents left highly frustrated and dismayed October 29 after the County Commissioners and the Planning Committee held a joint public hearing about the proposed Dominion Cove Point LNG export facility. The hearing focused on a proposal to grant exemption from the International Building Code on LNG export facilities. This would exempt the buildings associated with the Cove Point project from county building and zoning regulations, leaving it up to federal regulators in Washington, D.C. to enforce key local laws meant to protect Calvert County residents and businesses.
Despite the testimony of at least 35 people expressing concerns over the proposed Cove Point facility, the Commissioners voted 4-1 to hand over control to Washington officials instead of maintaining local control. Attendees overwhelmingly expressed their belief that local citizens’ health and environmental well being would be best protected with local zoning control, not control in Washington.
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Weekly Climate Insider: Chinese Smog, Powershift, and Fracking in Virginia

Bad news from Huffington Post: The Canadian Arctic has reached the highest temperatures in at least 44,000 years. Gifford Miller, a researcher at the University of Colorado, Boulder, says, “This study really says the warming we are seeing is outside any kind of known natural variability, and it has to be due to increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.” This study reaffirms that global temperatures are rising at an unprecedented rate: we’ve seen a warming trend for the past century, but the process has been accelerating significantly since the 1970s and has skyrocketed in the last twenty years. Miller didn’t end on a happy note. “We expect all of the ice caps to eventually disappear, even if there is no additional warming.
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More than 300 people attend Calvert County town hall meeting concerning controversial proposal to export fracked gas from Maryland to Asia

The first town hall meeting concerning the risks of the proposed Cove Point LNG export terminal in Maryland was held Tuesday night, October 23. It was a big and rousing success. At least 300 people attended, most of them local residents. It was held at the Southern Community Center in Lusby, Md. in Calvert County, just a few miles from where Dominion Resources wants to build an industrial terminal to export fracked natural gas — piped in from Appalachia — and ship it to India and Japan. The $3.8 billion facility would chill the gas to 270 degrees below zero, turning it into liquid for 1000-foot-long shipping tankers coming into the Bay. It would generate 3.3 million tons of CO2 pollution per year. (You can learn more about the health and environmental risks of exporting fracked gas from Maryland by clicking here.) 

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Weekly Climate Insider: Green Business, VA Hybrid Tax and Power Shift!

Welcome back to the Weekly Climate Insider!
In Maryland, fracking and the results of the Environment America study posted in last week’s Climate Insider are still making headlines. As a recap, the report found that our water supply is put at risk by the billions of gallons of dirty wastewater produced by fracking. See the coverage from Capital News Service.

This week, we’re profiling two Maryland businesses that are environmentally newsworthy.
A Maryland construction company called Hobbitat builds small houses made out of reclaimed materials. The 250 square foot houses, called “hobs,” are made almost exclusively from from salvaged or repurposed materials, nearly eliminating the adverse effects of new construction. In energy terms, “The hobs’ square footage is about 11 percent of the median U.S. house size, so much less energy is required to heat and cool them.” Check out some photos of these gorgeous little hobs!

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