By Arielle Conti, Grassroots Organizing Intern
An eager and energetic crowd packed into The Brown Center’s Falvey Hall on Tuesday for the Baltimore Tour Stop of the Maryland Crossroads Tour. After great turnouts in Annapolis, St. Mary’s and Silver Spring, Baltimore was the 4th and largest stop of the tour. The turnout proved Marylanders do not want to take the “radical detour” of exporting fracked gas from Cove Point and instead want to continue to see clean energy grow in our state.
The evening began with the soothing, rooted sounds of Artie and the Vipers and kicked off with Mike Tidwell, CCANs Founder and Director, recognizing and rewarding local Baltimore Climate Heroes. Thanks again to Maryland Environmental Health Network, Free Your Voice, and Nina Beth Cardin for all you do to help fight climate change in your city.
Mike’s passionate, informative and well researched discussion on Dominion’s plan to build a fracked gas export facility at Cove Point in Calvert County Maryland incited both shock and anger among those in the auditorium. Audible unrest ensued when Mike showed that Cove Point would produce more carbon emissions than all 7 of Maryland’s current coal fired power plants combined. Some of the most noticible and detrimental effects will be the enormous network of new fracking wells, compressor stations and a web of pipes which will surely infiltrate the state.
Fortunately the crowd did not leave disheartened in the least, because Mike quickly picked up by discussing the very plausible and reasonable solution of homegrown, clean energy. The large turnout of Baltimore students and community members learned that Maryland is ripe for clean energy technology. We have tons of offshore wind capabilities and solar panels have come down enough in price to be cost effective. If Dominion took the $3.8 billion that it would cost to build the Cove Point facility and invested it instead in clean energy it would be able to double, yes double, the clean energy production of the entire East Coast!
This is not the oft told story of big oil and gas bulldozing over the little guy. This is the story of David and Goliath. We have the power to stop Cove Point, we are doing it with the Keystone XL Pipeline and we will do it here in Maryland. Together we are a force and we must make our voices heard!
Last night hundreds of people signed the petition to stop Cove Point and wrote personalized, hand written letters to Governor O’Malley asking him to oppose Cove Point and support a higher Renewable Portfolio Standard for Maryland. You too can Take Action!
Maryland, we are at a crossroads. We can either take the path laid out by Dominion and move towards a surge of fracking throughout the state OR we can continue on a clean energy path.
Learn more about the Campaign to stop Cove Point here.
