Groups Slam Federal Regulators over Flawed Environmental Review of Cove Point LNG Export Facility

NEWS RELEASE: May 15, 2014
Contact:
Kelly Trout, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, 240.396.2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org
Kathleen Sutcliffe, Earthjustice, 212.845.7380, ksutcliffe@earthjustice.org

Groups Slam Federal Regulators over Flawed Environmental Review of Cove Point LNG Export Facility

Controversial project would hike energy costs, threaten public safety, speed fracking and climate change, harm Chesapeake Bay

WASHINGTON, DC – Environmental, public interest, and community groups are calling on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to go back to the drawing board today following the release of the agency’s Environmental Assessment (EA) of a controversial proposal to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Cove Point, Maryland, just 50 miles from the White House.
The $3.8 billion project, proposed by Dominion Resources, would pipe fracked gas from the Marcellus shale to the Cove Point facility in Calvert County, liquefy it, and export it to be burned in Japan and India.
Legal, environmental and safety experts are still reviewing the nearly 230-page document but noted that the analysis omitted or failed to sufficiently address key concerns. For instance:

  • The EA fails to analyze cumulative greenhouse gas emission impacts that the project would trigger from the process of fracking, piping, processing, shipping and eventually burning the liquefied natural gas.
  • The EA fails to include or require a thorough, quantitative assessment of the safety and explosion risks to nearby communities from the additional hazardous processes and chemicals that would be sited at the facility, which is located in the middle of a residential area.
  • The EA fails to analyze impacts of natural gas development undertaken in response to the project, despite information about where Dominion’s customers will source the gas, and news of new pipelines designed to shuttle gas to Cove Point.
  • FERC also dismisses expert concerns about the likely impacts of ballast water discharges, finding that while the potential exists for invasive species to be introduced into the Bay, there will not be any long term impact.

According to advocates, FERC’s failure to fully analyze the many and potentially widespread impacts of the project only underlines the need for, at minimum, a thorough federal Environmental Impact Statement, which requires a higher standard of scrutiny and public participation. Yet, in the EA released today, FERC concluded that it need not prepare the more robust Environmental Impact Statement. Environmental groups have intervened in the FERC proceeding, positioning themselves to sue the agency on the insufficient environmental review.
The following are statements from groups that have aligned in opposition to this project:
“President Obama has told us many times that failure to address the climate crisis amounts to the betrayal of our children and future generations, so it would be inexcusable for FERC to allow the LNG export facility at Cove Point to start operating without a full environmental review,” said Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune. “We can’t cut climate pollution and simultaneously expand the use of dirty fossil fuels, so we must fully understand the consequences of liquefying fracked natural gas for export before we license new export facilities. Building new fossil fuel infrastructure keeps America tied to the past. We should be exporting clean energy innovation, not the dirty fuels of the 19th century.”
“Today’s Environmental Assessment by FERC has failed to address the significant impacts of this LNG export facility — including the global warming pollution this project will cause, the potentially catastrophic threat to hundreds of nearby residents, the pollution of the Chesapeake Bay and risk to the critically endangered right whale, along with all the pollution associated with upstream fracking and fracked gas infrastructure. The agency needs to prepare a full Environmental Impact Statement — nothing less will suffice,” said Earthjustice Associate Attorney Jocelyn D’Ambrosio.
“One of many glaring holes in FERC’s draft review is the lack of anything close to a full analysis of the planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions that would be triggered, from the fracking wells all the way to the final smoke stacks,” said Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “If President Obama is serious about responding to the threat of climate change, which his own scientists show is already flooding Chesapeake Bay coastlines near Cove Point, he must hold FERC accountable. The Obama administration is inviting not only a grassroots uproar, but significant legal challenges until and unless it commits to conducting a full Environmental Impact Statement, including a rigorous review of the climate impacts triggered by Cove Point.”
“FERC has failed the public once again with the release of this flimsy and deeply flawed environmental review,” said Jorge Aguilar, the southern region director for Food & Water Watch. “The lack of a comprehensive environmental impact statement shows that FERC is fast tracking this natural gas export permit to the potential detriment of the safety and economic well being of Marylanders.”
Sue and Dale Allison, founding members of Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community and parents raising two daughters about 2,200 feet away from the newest LNG storage tanks at Dominion’s Cove Point facility, said: “Residents living closest to Dominion’s Cove Point facility have repeatedly called upon FERC to assess the worst-case scenarios for our families, given the catastrophic events at a Skikda, Algeria plant in 2004 and recent explosions and evacuations at LNG terminals in Plymouth, Washington on March 31, and in Opal, Wyoming on April 23. In its Environmental Assessment, FERC has failed to conduct or commit to the minimum standard — a transparent, quantitative risk assessment that considers the very real threat of explosions compromising our safety in our own homes due to Dominion’s proposed addition of extremely hazardous liquefaction equipment at Cove Point. We cannot accept anything short of a quantitative risk assessment as a legitimate safety study.”
“FERC has put blinders on in failing to look at the true impacts of this project,” said Betsy Nicholas, executive director of Waterkeepers Chesapeake. “Chesapeake communities depend on the Bay and local rivers for food, livelihoods and a way of life. It’s unconscionable that FERC would consider rubber-stamping this export project without a careful look at how our streams, communities and the Bay will be impacted by increased fracking for natural gas.”
“FERC’s decision that this project does not merit a more comprehensive review is ludicrous,” said Sarah Rispin, General Counsel of Potomac Riverkeeper. “We are tremendously worried about the impact on the Potomac watershed of moving huge amounts of LNG by pipeline, truck and rail from fracking sites southeast across the fragile rivers and ecosystems of our region.”
“LNG facilities like the one proposed for Cove Point are intended to ship America’s natural gas off to foreign lands,” said Michael Helfrich, Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper. “Gas drillers can ship American gas overseas in order to make more money, increase the price of natural gas for us, and our communities and environment get ravaged by the shale gas ‘gold rush,’ including thousands of miles of new pipelines through the upstream watersheds like the Susquehanna Watershed. FERC’s failure to recognize and address the nexus between upstream impacts and downstream LNG export in its environmental review of the Cove Point export proposal not only threatens community and environmental health, it also throws the idea of American energy independence out the window.”
“Dominion Resources has spent years training elected officials and the public in Calvert County to give them whatever they want and now they want plenty—including a leap of faith that this massive industrial project to export LNG has only negligible impacts when compared to their much smaller and ailing present day import operation,” said Fred Tutman, CEO, Patuxent Riverkeeper. “We citizens and our elected officials need to hold this special interest’s feet to the fire NOW, and get them to come clean about the full package of likely problems, hazards and liabilities.”
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Over the past year, the Cove Point project has attracted steady challenges on multiple fronts, ballooning into a regional controversy. In February, more than 700 people rallied outside the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) headquarters in Baltimore, urging the agency to reject controversial air and water pollution permits for the Cove Point project. In March, 16 national environmental groups penned a letter to President Obama demanding that he hold FERC accountable to conducting an EIS for Cove Point as a first step in reversing course on his administration’s fast-tracking of LNG exports. In April, a coalition of national, regional and community-based groups opposed to the project delivered over 40,000 public comments to the PSC. In May, advocates and a Dominion shareholder filed an official complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission over transparency concerns related to the project.

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Dominion CEO Greeted by Protests over Controversial Fracked Gas Export Plan at Annual Shareholder Meeting in Cleveland

Four shareholder resolutions challenging Dominion over inaction on climate change risks also garner unprecedented levels of support

CLEVELAND—Dominion Resources’ controversial proposal to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility at Cove Point in southern Maryland drew protest from anti-fracking activists in Ohio today, as the company’s CEO, board and shareholders convened for their annual meeting in Cleveland. The demonstration outside the meeting, organized by the Ohio Sierra Club, Ohio Student Environmental Coalition, and the Energy Action Coalition, is the latest example of the growing, regional opposition to Dominion’s $3.8 billion Cove Point plan, which advocates warn would incentivize a wave of new fracking and worsen the climate crisis.
“It is clear that Dominion’s agenda to export natural gas puts Ohioans at risk to more fracking, higher energy costs and more extreme weather,” said Brian Kunkemoeller, conservation manager at the Ohio Sierra Club. “Energy independence and curbing climate change starts and ends with clean energy sources like wind, solar, and geothermal — and that’s what we’re calling for today.”
On the eve of the meeting, a Dominion shareholder joined the Chesapeake Climate Action Network in filing an official complaint with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over Dominion’s failure to adequately disclose significant financial and environmental risks associated with the LNG export project. Dominion is seeking SEC approval to raise project funds through an initial offering of public stock.
Meanwhile, inside Wednesday’s meeting, Dominion faced unprecedented levels of shareholder concern over the financial and environmental risks of its expanding dirty energy portfolio. Of six shareholder resolutions presented, four were brought by Virginians concerned about the company’s failure to address and act upon the risks of climate change. Each of these four resolutions garnered more than 20 percent of the shareholder vote, compared to previous years in which only one sustainability resolution, focused on the financial risks of climate change, had garnered more than 10 percent of votes in support. (In 2013, that resolution received a then-unprecedented 22.6 percent of shareholder votes.)
“I have been involved in shareholder advocacy with Dominion since 2008, and I am saddened and frightened by their continued negligence on climate change,” said Ruth McElroy Amundsen, a shareholder from Norfolk, Virginia. “Dominion is the largest carbon emitter in a state where coastal cities like mine already see regular and costly flooding due to sea level rise. The resolution I presented this year asks Dominion to set a clear goal for reducing its greenhouse gas pollution, as opposed to the nearly 60 percent increase they are projecting over the next two decades.”
Specifically, the resolutions presented by Virginia shareholders call on Farrell and Dominion’s board to:

  1. Report on the financial risks posed to Dominion by climate change (24% of shareholders voting yes, representing $7.68 billion in shares);
  2. Report on how Dominion is measuring and reducing methane emissions, a powerful cause of global warming (21% voting yes);
  3. Report on the climate change impacts of the company’s reliance on biomass, or wood-burning, for energy (21% voting yes); and
  4. Adopt quantitative goals for reducing Dominion’s overall emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases (20% voting yes).

“Dominion plans for huge increases in its natural gas transmission capacity, including exports overseas via Cove Point that will promote increased fracking in eastern states,” said Seth Heald, a Dominion shareholder from Rixeyville, Virginia. “Methane leaks from fracking and natural gas transmission are a grave climate threat, because methane is a greenhouse gas that is far more potent than carbon dioxide. We’re calling on Dominion to take this threat seriously by providing full disclosure of methane emissions and setting concrete, aggressive goals for reducing them.”
As shareholders pointed out, even as Dominion plans to build the massive Cove Point gas export facility in Maryland, the company currently generates no utility-scale wind or solar power in Virginia. Instead of developing these renewable resources, Dominion is proposing to build seven new centralized, polluting power plants in the state over the next 15 years.

“Climate change is already impacting Dominion’s bottom line. In fact, the company recently moved to raise electric rates for Virginia customers by over 4 percent due to rising gas prices linked to this winter’s extreme weather,” said Emily Heffling, Virginia Field Organizer at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, who presented the financial risk resolution. “If Dominion refuses to be part of the solution, the least the company should do is come clean on the costs to shareholders. Many other large U.S. companies are conducting assessments of business risks posed by climate change, and our resolution simply asks Dominion to provide the same transparency.”

Resources for journalists:

Contact:
Kelly Trout, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org
Brian Kunkemoeller, Ohio Sierra Club, 513-213-5165, brian.kunkemoeller@sierraclub.org

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Dominion Confronted With SEC Complaint over Investor Risks in Cove Point LNG Export Plan

Shareholder and advocates file SEC complaint outlining inadequate disclosure of financial and environmental risks on the eve of Dominion’s annual shareholder meeting
Washington – In an effort to shed light on possible investment risks associated with a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal on the Chesapeake Bay, a shareholder and environmental advocates submitted an official complaint to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this morning. The filing details 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. These advocates argue that potential investors and the greater public have a right to know about any risks as the company seeks permission to raise project funds through stock sales.
“As the proposed Cove Point liquefied natural gas export terminal on the Chesapeake Bay continues to face intensifying community backlash and regulatory delays, Dominion is failing to disclose the full risks to potential investors,” said Diana Dascalu-Joffe, Senior General Counsel at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN), who filed the complaint on behalf of the organization and an existing shareholder of Dominion. “To sound the alarm, a current Dominion shareholder and advocacy groups are alerting SEC officials with this complaint.”
In late March, Dominion filed an application with the SEC to raise approximately $400 million for the export facility through an initial offering of public stock. The complaint accuses Dominion Midstream of failing to disclose various risks within its application.
These include: 1) The potential for project delays due to additional permitting hurdles or litigation (especially given Dominion omitted mention of a six month delay already triggered); 2) risks to the facility’s physical structure and operation due to environmental and climate change impacts, including sea level rise, land subsidence and severe weather; and 3) financial risks due to potential cost overruns and construction delays related to the project’s unique and significant safety and environmental hazards. The complaint notes that delays and cost overruns could impact Dominion’s end-user contracts with Japan and India for the exported gas.
According to the complaint, Dominion Midstream’s financial statements, including all registration statements, should include “a discussion of the most significant factors that make the offering speculative or risky” and “how the risk affects the issuer or the securities being offered.”
“The fact is, Dominion still has significant regulatory hurdles it needs to clear before it can even start construction,” said Deborah Goldberg, Managing Attorney at the environmental law firm Earthjustice. “Dominion may hope it can rush the regulatory process. But rushing the process and overlooking important unanswered environmental and safety questions could create significant risk for the nearby community – and even for investors. An incomplete review of impacts could also invite successful legal challenges – challenges that Earthjustice is fully prepared to bring.”
Over the past year, Dominion’s $3.8 billion plan to pipe fracked gas from the Marcellus shale to the Cove Point facility, liquefy it, and export it to be burned in Japan and India has ballooned into a regional controversy. On February 20, more than 700 people joined a rally outside the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) headquarters in Baltimore, urging the agency to reject controversial air and water pollution permits for the Cove Point project. In April, a coalition of national, regional and community-based groups opposed to the project delivered over 40,000 public comments to the PSC. As the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission prepares to weigh in this summer, anti-fracking and climate activists are planning to rally by the thousands outside the agency’s headquarters in Washington, DC on July 13.
“As the impacts of climate change accelerate, CEO Tom Farrell is exposing Dominion to significant long-term risks by investing in massive new fossil fuel projects instead of the clean energy technologies that will drive a stable economy well into the future,” said Matt Patsky, CEO and Managing Partner at Trillium Asset Management. “If the Cove Point export terminal goes forward, investors will be latching themselves to a socially and morally controversial project, with the fallout potentially tarnishing their own reputation.”
The SEC complaint comes just one day before Dominion’s executives, board and CEO Thomas Farrell convene in Cleveland for the company’s annual shareholder meeting. In Cleveland, Dominion will consider four shareholder resolutions challenging the company to address its vulnerability and contribution to climate change. Cleveland-area activists plan to protest outside, highlighting further concerns about the role Cove Point’s development would play in incentivizing expanded fracking for gas across the region.
The complaint filed with the SEC today is available at: http://chesapeakeclimate.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Dominion-Midstream-SEC-Registration-Statement-Complaint.pdf
CONTACT:
Kate Ray, Rabinowitz Communications, 202-265-3000, kate@rabinowitz.com
Kelly Trout, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

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Calvert County Community Group Demands Cove Point Answers and Safety Risk Assessment in the Wake of Plymouth, Washington LNG Facility Explosion


Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community
Contact:
Sue Allison: 410-474-0262, sueallison@comcast.net
Tracey Eno: 410-326-4222, traceyeno@comcast.net

Calvert County Community Group Demands Cove Point Answers and Safety Risk Assessment in the Wake of Plymouth, Washington LNG Facility Explosion

Citizens demand a full and transparent quantitative risk assessment of Cove Point hazards—including explosion risks—especially given the LNG export facility would be the first ever located so close to so many people
Seeing ‘our lives are literally on the line,’ citizens say they will no longer accept ‘business as usual’ at FERC and ‘vague assurances’ from Dominion
The liquefied natural gas facility explosion that rocked a Plymouth, Washington community on Monday, March 31, 2014, has Lusby residents demanding answers about a proposed expansion that would enable the Dominion Cove Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal to become an LNG export facility. The incident should also reignite debate on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s role as a sole siting authority and safety regulator, given the agency’s apparent ongoing failure to fully consider the worst-case, compound safety risks of locating LNG facilities within close proximity to people’s homes. [1]
In light of the concerns and questions outlined below, Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community is demanding that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission complete an objective and transparent quantitative risk assessment for Dominion’s proposed LNG export facility—an assessment open to public scrutiny and including all potential mishaps, including the worst-case domino effect of explosions like the one that occurred last week in Plymouth.
If FERC refuses to do such an analysis, we call on Governor O’Malley to order the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to conduct a similarly thorough updated risk analysis. With our and our neighbors’ lives literally on the line, we deserve no less.
WHAT WE KNOW: Dominion’s plan for Cove Point poses unique safety risks and vulnerabilities that could make the consequences of a similar explosion far more severe.
The still unexplained explosion and subsequent fire at the Williams Northwest Pipeline Facility in Washington State shook homes more than a mile away, injuring five workers and sending a “mushroom cloud” of black smoke into the air, according to the Associated Press.[2] Of special concern to Lusby residents, shrapnel from the explosion caused the failure of a single containment LNG storage tank, which led to the formation of a flammable vapor cloud and the evacuation of residents within a two-mile radius. As reported by Reuters, local authorities feared that a second blast could level a 0.75 mile “lethal zone” around the plant.[3]
The day after the horrific incident, LNG expert Jerry Havens, who helped develop the vapor dispersion models that federal regulators used until recently to evaluate hazards from similar facilities, went on record with The Oregonian [4]:

“We’re still learning about the safety of all these ventures because we’re moving into a whole new area where we’re handling such large amounts of LNG. … We’re talking about so much energy and so much potential for a catastrophic event to occur. We should really think about whether we should allow these things to be built close to any population center.”

The events in Plymouth, Washington were a chilling warning for Lusby residents, especially given the following factors:

  • The tanks in Plymouth were single containment tanks, considered the lowest integrity tanks with respect to protecting nearby residents from LNG spills and the resulting flammable vapor clouds.
  • The tanks at Cove Point are also single containment tanks. Yet, it should be noted that the largest tanks at the Cove Point terminal are designed to hold more than twice as much LNG volume as the tanks in Plymouth, WA.
  • Unlike the Plymouth site, which is in a relatively remote area, the Cove Point site is located within 4,500 feet of approximately 360 homes and is adjacent to a public park.
  • The proposed Cove Point export terminal footprint would crowd together additional hazardous processes that the Plymouth site doesn’t have, including a large scale liquefaction train utilizing high pressure, highly explosive liquefied propane gas.

WHY WE’RE CONCERNED: Dominion’s export plan is inherently more dangerous. Meanwhile, a state risk analysis from 2006 indicates that flash fire hazards ALREADY extend offsite at Cove Point, contradicting Dominion and FERC assurances.
If approved, the Dominion facility will be only the second LNG export facility ever built in the lower 48 states and will be the only LNG export facility to ever be built in such a densely populated area. LNG export terminals are believed to be inherently more hazardous than LNG import terminals. The explosion of a liquefaction train at an LNG export terminal in Algeria in 2004 caused massive devastation, killing 27 people and injuring more than 70 people.
FERC is well aware of the Algeria incident—they sent representatives to study it. Bill Powers, an engineer based in California who has studied LNG terminals, along with siting issues for both onshore and offshore proposals, also studied the Skikda, Algeria plant disaster. Noting that Halliburton engineers had missed a weak link in their safety planning for the facility, Powers delivered this stern warning [5]:

“That highlights the importance of putting these facilities in places where, no matter what, people will not be at risk. If a company like Halliburton missed a scenario that could cause this, that tells us that we cannot account for all possible accident scenarios at LNG facilities.”

The members of Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community are demanding answers that go beyond the mere assurances Dominion executives have given citizens and local leaders that no risks from the new expansion will go offsite. In fact, Lusby citizens have recently become aware of a report commissioned by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) that appears to directly contradict Dominion’s assurances [6]:

  • Apparently, Maryland DNR officials were tasked with producing an independent risk analysis of the 2006 Cove Point expansion, which included the two largest LNG single containment tanks on the site today.
  • The DNR report was a quantitative risk assessment that looked at every possible mishap scenario, including terrorism. The DNR report clearly shows that risks DO extend offsite as the plant exists today.
  • Indeed, if one of the new Cove Point tanks were to rupture and spill all of its contents, according to a chart on page 23 of that report, citizens within 1,300 meters (4,265 ft.) of that failed storage tank could be exposed to a fatal flash fire risk.

The DNR study of the last expansion appears to be much more extensive from a safety perspective than the limited prescriptive hazard assessment utilized by FERC. The worst mishap scenario referenced in the FERC Environmental Impact Statement for the 2006 Dominion Cove Point expansion was a one hour LNG storage tank leak from a 24 inch sump line into a sub-impound area. [7] The Plymouth, WA incident proves that a one hour LNG leak from an LNG tank is not the worst-case scenario at an LNG facility in the United States.
Lusby residents are demanding answers of our local, state and federal regulatory agencies. Specifically, we demand to know:

  • Why were Lusby residents never informed about the involuntary fatal risk hazards we were exposed to with the last expansion at Cove Point?
  • Would full containment tanks (in lieu of single containment tanks) have mitigated those risks? [8]
  • If FERC safety criteria stipulate that no fatal hazards from LNG terminals may extend offsite, why was the last expansion approved by FERC?

WHAT WE DEMAND: FERC must complete a comprehensive quantitative risk assessment of the worst-case, compound explosion hazards of Dominion’s LNG export facility—involving the full and open participation of residents living in its shadow.
Dale Allison, a father from Lusby, Maryland who is a retired U.S. Navy civilian aerospace engineer, responded to the news of the Plymouth LNG facility explosion with a fourth submittal to FERC’s docket on the Dominion Cove Point LNG export expansion, reiterating his concerns regarding the explosive hazards which residents will face with the addition of a utility-scale power plant and a large-scale, extremely hazardous liquefaction train at the already crowded footprint of the Dominion property, which is less than a half mile from his home. [9] Allison reacted to the events in Plymouth:

“The unfortunate mishap which just occurred at the Plymouth LNG facility once again highlights the absolute requirement that LNG terminals only be sited in remote locations. Cove Point is not that site.

“But, if you insist on proceeding, here is what we require. Because the proposed Cove Point liquefaction site is so tightly packed with hazardous process equipment and materials, and because there are so many homes in close proximity, we demand that a full quantitative risk assessment be performed that not only looks at ALL individual mishaps, but also addresses ALL POSSIBLE MISHAP ESCALATIONS. Unfortunately, the Plymouth, WA mishap also shows us that escalations are REAL. A full QRA is the only way that all residents living close to the Cove Point plant can possibly know the full cumulative risk they face—their probability of loss of life—based on their separation distance from the plant.”

Dale’s wife Sue Allison, who has become quite adept at translating her husband’s engineering jargon for neighbors, explained it this way:

“I think the Plymouth incident highlights the fact that even when safety precautions are taken, accidents can happen and one mishap can lead to another, and another. In Plymouth there was an explosion, which led to shrapnel flying through air, which led to a ruptured LNG storage tank, which led to an LNG leak, which led to a flammable vapor cloud, which led to a two-mile evacuation. In a word, there was a serious ‘escalation’ event in Plymouth.

“We continue to hope that FERC will require an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Cove Point, but whether the safety analysis for the Dominion expansion is done as part of an Environmental Assessment or an EIS, it must be done right and it must consider worst-case scenarios for residents, which would include escalation events. Residents are often told by our elected officials that we really don’t have a right to complain about the expansion because we bought our homes knowing the plant was there and the expansion will be built inside of the existing Dominion footprint. But the fact that Dominion’s Cove Point facility is constrained by that footprint is exactly why we should be concerned—the closer the hazardous equipment and materials are on site, the greater the chances are that a mishap can escalate.

“I recently spoke to a mother of young children whose house faces the plant on Cove Point Road. She explained that she is very anxious about the expansion. FERC’s safety analysis must be able to show that mother, based on how close her house is to the proposed expansion, exactly what her family’s safety risk would be should any foreseeable accident happen on site, which could include an explosion, a full tank leak, or both. If an objective QRA, done right, shows that the expansion will subject residents to an unacceptable level of safety risk, Dominion and our Calvert County government should start planning on buying some houses.”

The lesson from Plymouth is clear: It can no longer be “business as usual” at FERC where the safety of residents is concerned. The stakes are way too high at Cove Point. The members of Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community continue to believe that Cove Point is not an appropriate site for such a hazardous endeavor. We stand behind our neighbor, Dale Allison, who has spent countless hours researching these safety issues to protect his family and his neighbors. We join him in his call to FERC for an objective, transparent QRA that is open to public scrutiny and that includes all credible mishaps, including explosion mishaps and escalation events.
If FERC refuses to do such an analysis, we call on Governor O’Malley to instruct the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to do another independent risk analysis for the current expansion—one that will become a public document.
Our lives are literally on the line. We deserve nothing less. We will no longer accept vague assurances about Dominion being a “good neighbor.” We are all good neighbors. It is time to get all the safety facts out on the table.

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Plymouth Radius
CONSIDER THIS: An 850 foot radius from the LNG storage tank that was ruptured at the Plymouth, WA facility reaches the boundry of that site (see graphic above).  An 850 radius from the proposed location of the gas turbine compressors at the Cove Point terminal puts you at the front doors of homes on Cove Point Road!
Cove Point Radius
[1] “Some community groups and government officials fear that LNG terminals may expose nearby residents to unacceptable hazards. Ongoing public concern about LNG safety has focused congressional attention on the exclusivity of FERC’s LNG siting authority, proposals for a regional siting process, the lack of ‘remote’ siting requirements in FERC regulations, state permitting requirements under the Clean Water Act and the Coastal Zone Management Act, terrorism attractiveness of LNG, the adequacy of Coast Guard security resources, and other issues.” [Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Import Terminal: Siting, Safety, and Regulation, Paul W. Parfomak, December 14, 2009, RL32205]
[2] “Blast Rocks Washington Gas Plant; 5 Workers Hurt.” Associated Press, March 31, 2014, http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/hurt-natural-gas-blast-washington-plant-23129473
[3] “Blast at U.S. LNG site casts spotlight on natural gas safety.” Reuters, April 6, 2014, http://news.yahoo.com/blast-u-lng-casts-spotlight-natural-gas-safety-111335070–sector.html?soc_src=copy
[4] “Gas explosion at LNG facility in Washington prompts concerns about proposed export terminals in Oregon.” The Oregonian, April 1, 2014, http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2014/04/gas_explosion_at_lng_facility.html
[5] “Report sheds new light on LNG blast in Algeria,” Source: Washington Times, April 14, 2004, http://www.gasandoil.com/news/2004/05/nta41868
[6] “Cove Point LNG Terminal Expansion Project Risk Study.” Maryland Department of Natural Resources, June 28, 2006 (Revised January 14, 2010), http://org.salsalabs.com/o/423/images/CovePoint_Expansion_Risk_Study_MDDNR_UpdateJan2010.pdf
[7] Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Dominion Cove Point LNG, LP & Dominion Transmission, Inc. ‘s Expansion Project under CP05-130 et al., 10/28/2005, Accession #20051028-4000, Environmental Analysis Section page 4-158.
[8] A description of full containment LNG tanks available at this link: http://www.canaportlng.com/storing_lng.php.
[9] Mr. Allison’s letter to FERC regarding the Plymouth, WA incident is submittal # 20140402-5033, Case #CP 13-113; his previous FERC submittals are # 20140331-5110 March 31, 2014, Submittal # 20140307-5131 March 7, 2014, and submittal # 20140205-5035 February 5, 2014.

‘Stop Cove Point’ Coalition Delivers Over 40,000 Public Comments to MD Regulators

‘Stop Cove Point’ Coalition Delivers Over 40,000 Public Comments Urging MD Regulators to Reject Fracked Gas Export Facility

On deadline for public input, health, faith, environmental, student, and community leaders hand-deliver record number of comments to Public Service Commission headquarters
Opponents warn Cove Point plan would cause rising heating bills, pollution and climate change costs—all to boost the gas industry’s bottom line
BALTIMORE—Health, faith, environmental, community and business leaders converged in Baltimore this morning to hand-deliver a record 40,000 public comments urging the Maryland Public Service Commission to reject a controversial liquefied natural gas export facility proposed at Cove Point in southern Maryland. Today is the final day for public input on a key state-level permit that Virginia-based Dominion Resources needs to construct the Cove Point facility, which would take gas piped from fracking wells across Appalachia, liquefy it along the Chesapeake Bay, and export it to Asia.
The activists carried a giant replica of a rising heating bill “courtesy of Dominion,” along with boxes containing over 40,000 comments to the Public Service Commission headquarters. The comments were collected by 19 community, regional and national groups, from Lusby-based Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community to western Maryland-based Citizen Shale to Environmental Action and CREDO. At a press conference preceding the delivery, speakers outlined the overwhelming case that Dominion’s proposal would harm the “public interest”—which is the basic criterion the PSC must consider.
Activists cited studies commissioned by Dominion and the Department of Energy that confirm exporting gas from Cove Point would raise energy costs and lower real wages at home—ultimately harming every sector of the economy except the gas industry and hitting low-income, elderly and other vulnerable Marylanders especially hard. The proposed 130-megawatt gas-fired power plant and liquefaction facility that Dominion is seeking the PSC’s permission to build would force the public to bear the costs of rising heating bills, worsening climate change, increased smog pollution, and degraded quality of life in Calvert County—all in exchange for zero electricity to Maryland’s grid. The Public Service Commission must rule on Dominion’s application by May 30, 2014.
Groups contributing to the public comment delivery include: Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Citizen Shale, CREDO, Earthworks, Environmental Action, Food & Water Watch, Green America, HoCo Climate Change, Interfaith Power & Light (MD.DC.NoVA), Maryland Environmental Health Network, Maryland Sierra Club, Maryland Student Climate Coalition, Myersville Citizens for a Rural Community, Oil Change International, Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility, Public Citizen, Waterkeepers Chesapeake and 350.org.
Statements from groups and community leaders delivering comments to the Public Service Commission today included:
Zack Malitz, CREDO’s campaign manager: “If Gov. O’Malley lets the Cove Point project go through, he will be responsible for unleashing a massive expansion of fracking and exposing Marylanders to huge risks from the project. Gov. O’Malley must stand up to the fracking industry and reject this dangerous project.”
Betsy Nicholas, Executive Director, Waterkeepers Chesapeake: “Chesapeake communities depend on the Bay and local rivers for food, livelihood and way of life – all of which are threatened by the substantial increase in tanker traffic, and dumping of billions of gallons of wastewater into this large and complex estuary. The only ones who stand to benefit from this project are the gas companies. Everyone else—from Bay fisherman to residents living downstream from fracking fields—will suffer.”
Sue Allison, Lusby mother and member of Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community: “I’m a mother raising two daughters within 2,200 feet from the single containment LNG storage tanks at the Cove Point terminal. I believe that the PSC decision could be a matter of life or death for the families in my neighborhood, given the catastrophic events that took place at an Algerian LNG export facility in 2004 and the terrible events at an LNG facility in Plymouth, Washington on Monday. It is unimaginable that the PSC would consider approving a power station for the first LNG export facility to ever to be built in a residential area—within 4,500 feet of about 360 homes and next door to a public park.”
Fran Teplitz, Policy Director of Green America, which released a letter yesterday with the Chesapeake Sustainable Business Council from 50 Maryland businesses urging the PSC to reject the Cove Point project: “Maryland business leaders and associations realize that our state’s economic vitality going forward depends on our development of clean energy. The Cove Point LNG facility is a threat to human and environmental health while producing far fewer jobs than renewable energy can.”
Heather Kangas, a Baltimore resident and student at the University of Maryland School of Social Work: “As a social work student with a fixed income, higher gas prices will impact my budget while Dominion continues to profit from dirty energy. The clients I work with as a social worker will also face a financial burden and hardship.”
Jorge Aguilar, Southern Region Director for Food & Water Watch: “The proposed Cove Point gas export facility is an economic and environmental disaster waiting to happen. The ramifications of this project will not only be regional. The social, environmental, and economic ramifications of this project will have a domino effect nationally that will be a burden to future generations of Americans.”
Gina Angiola, Board Member, Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility: “The Cove Point LNG facility is a direct threat to the health of residents living nearby due to the additional air pollution it will create, the additional strain it will place on water supplies, and the potential for fires, explosions, and other catastrophic events—as just occurred Monday at a natural gas storage facility in Washington state. Most critically, it will contribute further to climate change, the biggest public health threat we face. For the health and well-being of Maryland residents, we urge the MD Public Service Commission to deny Dominion’s permit for this project.”
Chiquita Younger, a Lusby native and Program Associate at Interfaith Power & Light (MD.DC.NoVA): “Congregations across Maryland feel called to protect our climate and our water, so they have sent in comments opposing Dominion’s plans to build a major climate polluter that will export fracked gas. But I’m here to deliver their messages today to the Public Service Commission myself because, for me, this is personal. I grew up in Lusby, and my family has deep roots here. I’m here to speak out for my niece, my sister, my mother, my grandmother, and all those in Calvert County who have not been able to get their questions answered about the pollution Cove Point will cause and the dangers it poses to their neighborhoods.”
Mike Tidwell, Executive Director, Chesapeake Climate Action Network: “The Public Service Commission has all the evidence it needs and, as shown today, a popular mandate to reject Dominion’s Cove Point application. The more than 38,000 public comments submitted today help to shine a bright light on clear facts Dominion would rather keep hidden, namely that their plan promises to sacrifice our climate, our economy and our environment to let an already rich industry get richer.”
View a summary of the economic, environmental and quality of life case against a PSC permit for Cove Point.
View the full post-hearing brief submitted to the PSC by the Sierra Club and the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
Contact:
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, 717-439-0346 (cell), kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org
Mike Tidwell, 240-460-5838, mtidwell@chesapeakeclimate.org

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Business, Farmer, Labor and Environmental Leaders Decry ‘Anti-Wind Power’ Bill in Annapolis

Groups say HB 1168 will immediately shut down $200 million wind farm investment on Eastern Shore and trigger $1 billion in lost economic development and jobs for one of the state’s poorest regions
HB 1168 called totally unjustified given the U.S. Department of Defense’s statement this week that it is satisfied a proposed wind farm can co-exist with Naval radar tests
ANNAPOLIS—A group of business, farmer, labor rights, and environmental leaders today announced their strong opposition to legislation they said is intended to shut down most of Maryland’s land-based wind industry and could cost the state up to a billion dollars in lost business and jobs.
The leaders released an open letter (included below) to the Maryland Senate detailing their overwhelming opposition to HB 1168. They contend that the bill, which will go before a Senate committee on Tuesday, April 1, is a patently unnecessary and harmful attempt to shut down Eastern Shore wind development over military testing concerns that have already been resolved to the satisfaction of the Department of Defense.
Leaders emphasized the growing opposition to the bill, which now includes the president of the Somerset County Farm Bureau, the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, the Labor Network for Sustainability, and the Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition.
Leaders also addressed false reports in the media. U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski does not support HB 1168. She has not taken a position on the bill and has not lobbied to kill or support it.
The full letter follows below. Key leaders who oppose HB 1168 released the following statements:
Joe Uehlein, Director, Labor Network for Sustainability: “Wind power on the Eastern Shore is a clear instance where a cleaner environment also means putting Marylanders to work. Wind energy could help revitalize Maryland’s struggling industrial sector if HB 1168 doesn’t pull the rug out from Maryland workers first.”
Mary Ann Peterman, a fourth generation landowner in Somerset County whose property is an active farmland: “Revenue from wind power can be huge for farmers, especially small farmers, on the Eastern Shore. HB 1168 takes economic opportunities away from an area of the state than can least afford it.”
Bruce Burcat, Executive Director, Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition: “The Eastern Shore could be a $1 billion investment for the wind industry. Our companies are ready to build here, but if HB 1168 passes, then this would certainly present a deterrence for any company from considering to make an investment here.”
Karla Raettig, Executive Director, Maryland League of Conservation Voters: “For the past eight years, the O’Malley administration has made great strides in advancing wind power for our state and sent a clear message that Maryland is ready to lead our region’s transition into a clean energy economy. But, HB 1168 would send a message that Maryland wants to put a devastating hold on our actions to combat climate change. That is unacceptable. The Senate must reject it.”
View the full text of the letter below or view the PDF online here.
Contact:
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org
Tommy Landers, 301-442-0134 (cell), tommy@chesapeakeclimate.org

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OPEN LETTER OPPOSING HB 1168, RELEASED BY OPPONENTS TODAY:

Chesapeake Bay Foundation ● Maryland League of Conservation Voters ● Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition ● Sierra Club – Maryland Chapter ● Maryland Environmental Health Network ● Clean Water Action ● Environment Maryland ● Assateague Coastal Trust ● Chesapeake Climate Action Network ● Food & Water Watch ● League of Women Voters of Maryland ● Interfaith Power & Light (MD.DC.NoVA) ● West/Rhode Riverkeeper ● Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry for Maryland ● Eddie Johnson, President – Somerset County Farm Bureau

Dear Maryland Senators,
We are writing to clarify the record on one of the most important bills you will be asked to vote on during this legislative session, the so-called “anti-wind power” bill or HB 1168. As leaders from the fields of business, agriculture, labor rights, and the environment, we are positively alarmed by the harm that would come from HB 1168. If passed, it would effectively shut down an emerging $1 billion wind industry on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
But the very good news is this: The U.S. Department of Defense officially stated recently that it believes that the Great Bay Wind Energy Center – the state’s largest most mature wind farm in development – can be built and operated in a way that satisfies radar testing needs at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station. This essentially resolves the core reason supporters of HB 1168 introduced the bill. Again, for the first time, the DOD indicated this week that an agreement – already agreed to by a key wind company developing along the Eastern Shore – makes the DOD satisfied. That agreement is simple: The proposed Eastern Shore wind turbines will totally shut down and stop spinning whenever the Navy needs to test its radar system. After the test, the windmills can spin again. This approach, according to the DOD, creates “a feasible and affordable mitigation measure.”
That’s the good news. The bad news is that, if HB 1168 passes despite DOD satisfaction with radar measures, then the state of Maryland – and especially Eastern Shore communities, laborers, and farmers – will lose enormously. This is guaranteed. The president of one proposed wind farm in Somerset County – Pioneer Green – has emphatically stated that HB 1168 will kill the $200 million wind farm just as construction is nearly ready to begin. Passage of the bill will place a moratorium on wind development in all or parts of 12 Maryland counties, sending a message to the national and international wind industries that Maryland is effectively closed for business. The potential loss of investment opportunity for the Eastern Shore is conservatively estimated by the Maryland Energy Administration to exceed $1 billion. Simultaneously, a wind turbine manufacturing company currently considering opening a Baltimore plant may choose to go elsewhere if this bill passes. The cumulative loss of jobs, income, tax revenue and other economic benefits would be enormous.
Therefore, we appeal to you to carefully consider what is best for ALL of Maryland. HB 1168 will harm the entire state of Maryland – for decades to come – in an unnecessary attempt to resolve a problem that has already been resolved. Our state has made tremendous progress over the past decade in the fight for clean energy and a stable climate. Please do not vote to end that.
Sincerely,
Assateague Coastal Trust
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Chesapeake Climate Action Network
Clean Water Action
Environment Maryland
Food & Water Watch
Interfaith Power & Light (MD.DC.NoVA)
League of Women Voters of Maryland
Maryland Environmental Health Network
Maryland League of Conservation Voters
Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition
Sierra Club – Maryland Chapter
Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry for Maryland
West/Rhode Riverkeeper
Eddie Johnson, President, Somerset County Farm Bureau

National Leaders to Obama: Rush to Export Gas Would Significantly Undercut U.S. Climate Action

National Environmental Leaders to President Obama: Pell-Mell Rush to Export Gas Would Significantly Undercut U.S. Climate Action

Leaders of 16 national and regional groups call on the president to reverse course—and order a full review of the ‘Cove Point’ LNG export project in Maryland as a first step in the right direction

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Leaders of 16 national and regional climate advocacy groups sent a letter to President Obama today, calling on him to revisit proposals to radically expand U.S. exports of fracked and liquefied natural gas, which would significantly undermine his administration’s efforts to tackle the climate crisis. As a first step in the right direction, the letter urges the president to ensure a comprehensive federal environmental impact review for one of the most controversial liquefied natural gas export proposals currently before his administration—the Cove Point facility proposed by Dominion Resources just outside of Washington, D.C. on the Chesapeake Bay.

“President Obama, exporting LNG is simply a bad idea in almost every way. We again implore you to shift course on this disastrous push to frack, liquefy, and export this climate-wrecking fossil fuel,” the letter states.

“As a first step, tell [the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] to drop its shameful and unacceptably weak permitting process for Cove Point in Maryland. Demand a full Environmental Impact Statement for this massive $3.8 billion project just a short drive from your house. An EIS will put more facts on the table and, we believe, will persuade you and the nation that a pell-mell rush to export gas is a pell-mell rush to global climate ruin,” the letter continues.

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Cove Point: Six Marylanders Arrested at Calvert Co Courthouse Over Fracked Gas Export Plan

Cove Point Protests Go Statewide: Six Marylanders Arrested at Calvert County Courthouse Over Fracked Gas Export Plan

Peaceful sit-in led by local retired nurse and southern MD students comes less than 24 hours after federal regulators release apparent rubber-stamp review timeline
Protesters cite revelations over Dominion’s plan to build a giant vapor cloud containment wall as latest cause for a full federal environmental impact statement
PRINCE FREDERICK—Following on the heels of recent protests in Cumberland and Frederick, six Maryland residents were peacefully arrested this morning outside the Calvert County courthouse in Prince Frederick protesting Virginia-based Dominion Resources’ plan to build a liquefied natural gas export facility at Cove Point 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.
Less than 24 hours before the protest, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) formally announced it intends to release an “Environmental Assessment” on the project in May, a move strongly condemned by statewide and community leaders. The timeline ignores repeated demands made by local citizens, health, faith and environmental leaders, Maryland’s attorney general and the Baltimore Sun for a full Environmental Impact Statement—a more rigorous type of review that is customary for a polluting facility as massive as Cove Point. The plan also omits any specific commitment to public participation or hearings.
Holding signs like “Vapor Cloud Danger: We Need Answers” and “Dominion Pollutes the Truth,” the protesters in Calvert County cited recent revelations that Dominion plans to use a massive barrier wall as a means to contain potential releases of flammable vapor gas clouds as the latest reason for concern.
“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,” said David Hardy, a retired registered nurse and retired engineer craftsman in the Air Force Reserves who lives just three miles from the proposed facility. “Now we learn that Dominion has failed to reveal information about the serious possibility of a flammable vapor cloud reaching our homes. What else is Dominion hiding? We’re here to demand full answers from federal regulators whose first job should be protecting our safety.”

In recent a filing with FERC, 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 FERC to hold Dominion’s plans to the highest level of scrutiny by completing a full Environmental Impact Statement.
“Dominion’s proposal makes it quite clear that they aren’t concerned with our health or safety. What if their untested, sky-scraping concrete vapor barrier fails? Who gave them the right to put local families at risk?” said Ashok Chandwaney, a senior at St. Mary’s College. “I’m here today because I want a future with clean air and water. I want 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.”

The students arrested today included four studying at nearby St. Mary’s College and a student leader at the University of Maryland College Park. They echoed protesters from Cumberland to Frederick in drawing attention to the statewide impacts that could be triggered by the Cove Point export facility, including expanded fracking, new pipelines and compressor stations and, ultimately, significant new carbon pollution.
“How do you put a price on the future generations affected by the climate crisis that Cove Point’s greenhouse gas emissions will worsen? What is the cost of clean air and water?” said Ruth Tyson, a student at St. Mary’s College. “We’re speaking out because we can’t sit back anymore. We should be investing our resources in clean, renewable energy, which will create far more jobs, and it’s time for Dominion and our leaders to start listening.”
From Cumberland to Frederick to Calvert, the sit-ins reflect growing community opposition to Dominion’s plan that has spread across Maryland in recent months. Citing rising constituent concern, Maryland’s powerful U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski sent a letter to FERC last week calling on the agency to “go the extra mile” in engaging the public. The senators asked FERC to respond promptly to a request for public meetings on Cove Point in Garrett, Frederick, Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Montgomery Counties made by health, faith, community and environmental groups—a request ignored in FERC’s timeline announcement.
“I have spent countless hours fighting against this facility—I have petitioned, rallied, met with senators, testified in front of the Public Service Commission, and more,” said Ori Gutin, director of sustainability for the University of Maryland Student Government Association, which officially voted to oppose the Cove Point project. “And today, I physically plead with our lawmakers and regulators like FERC to stop siding with corporate profits, and to start protecting the planet and the people on it.”
RESOURCES:
See statements by the six Marylanders on why they engaged in civil disobedience over Cove Point.
View photos of today’s protest on Flickr.
Contact:
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022 (office), 717-439-0346 (cell), kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

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MD Groups: Cove Point Federal Review Timeline Fails to Serve the Public

Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community ■ Chesapeake Climate Action Network ■ Citizen Shale ■ Food & Water Watch ■ HoCo Climate Change ■ Interfaith Power & Light (MD.DC.NoVa) ■ Maryland Sierra Club ■ Myersville Citizens for a Rural Community ■ U. of Maryland Student Government Association

MD Groups: Cove Point Federal Review Timeline Ignores Key Safety and Environmental Concerns and Fails to Serve the Public

ANNAPOLIS—Late Wednesday afternoon, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released its official notice of a schedule for reviewing Dominion Resources controversial $3.8 billion proposal to construct a liquefied natural gas export facility at Cove Point in Southern Maryland. The timeline formally commits the agency to releasing an “Environmental Assessment” on May 15, and omits any mention of opportunities for public participation. Maryland community, faith, environmental and student groups responded with the following statement:

“Federal officials are serving Dominion, not the public interest, in formally endorsing a low bar of scrutiny on a fast-tracked timeline. The announcement is 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.

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Cove Point: Mikulski and Cardin ‘Exhort’ Federal Officials to Respond to a Call for Public Meetings Across MD

In response to rising concerns, senators ask Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to “engage the public to the fullest extent possible”

Letter requests prompt response to calls for public meetings in Montgomery, Frederick, Garrett, Baltimore and Anne Arundel Counties

ANNAPOLIS—Maryland’s powerful U.S. Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin have weighed in on the growing Cove Point gas export controversy by calling on federal officials to respond to a request for public meetings all across the state. In a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the senators said expressions of concern from health, faith, environmental, and community leaders statewide have led them to ask FERC to respond promptly to a request for public meetings on Cove Point in Garrett, Frederick, Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Montgomery Counties.

To date, FERC has agreed to hold only one public meeting—in Calvert County—for the proposed $3.8 billion Cove Point “liquefaction” and export facility for fracked gas. The project would take 770 million cubic feet of gas per day from all across the Marcellus Shale region of Appalachia, liquefy it to 260 degrees below zero, and then ship it to Asia via special tanker ships entering the Chesapeake Bay.

An outpouring of concern has emerged in recent months from citizens across the state—over possible new pipelines, fracking hazards, rising gas prices, and an increase in global warming pollution. Activists say these impacts would affect the entire state and therefore warrant official public meetings statewide in which FERC takes public comments and responds to these concerns.

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