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.
In a March 6th letter to FERC, Senators Mikulski and Cardin acknowledged these rising concerns and asked FERC’s acting chair and all members for the Commission to “go the extra mile” to fully engage the Maryland public statewide. “We appreciate your consideration of this request,” the senators wrote to FERC, “and [we] exhort the Commission to heed local community concerns and incorporate them fully into the [Environmental Assessment].”
Senators Mikulski and Cardin included in their note to FERC a copy of a February 27th letter written by Maryland health, faith, environmental and community leaders. That letter lays out more detailed justifications for having public meetings in five counties across the state. These include Garrett, Montgomery and Anne Arundel Counties where new federal mapping shows gas basins now exist and could be subject to hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) drilling. Also included in the request for public meetings was Frederick County, where the gas industry wants to build a large compressor station for pressurizing gas that could be piped to Cove Point from as far away as Pennsylvania. The final request for a public meeting was for Baltimore County where new or expanded pipelines and compressor stations could be built due to Cove Point.
An additional major concern of activists is the fact FERC has said it does not intend to conduct a full and customary Environmental Impact Statement for Cove Point. Activists have said the more limited “Environmental Assessment” that FERC now wants to conduct is insufficient given the cumulative, widespread impacts that would occur far outside Calvert County, including a projected rise in gas prices as high as 27 percent, according to a nationwide assessment of gas exports by the U.S. Department of Energy.
View a copy (PDF) of the senators’ letter to FERC and the accompanying memo from Maryland and regional leaders detailing the need for statewide public meetings.
CONTACT:
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org
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