On February 20th, hundreds of activists from across the mid-Atlantic will come to Baltimore to rally outside the Public Service Commission as they decide on key permits for the proposed Cove Point facility.
If you haven’t already, sign up to join us and be a part of the biggest environmental rally Baltimore has ever seen.
As we get ready for February 20th, we’ve asked a few activists coming to the rally to tell us their story and explain why this issue is so important to them.
What’s your name? Vivian Stockman
What’s your age? 52
Where do you live? Roane County, WV
What do you do for a living? I work for OVEC, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, based in Huntington, WV, www.ohvec.org.
Why is Cove Point important to you? How will your immediate community be affected? Is there already fracking in your neighborhood or do you live in an area that has a gas basin beneath it?
For years, OVEC members have been working to end mountaintop removal coal mining and coal prep plant waste “disposal” via underground coal slurry injection or giant coal sludge dams. We do this work because these extreme coal industry practices are ruining human health and destroying and poisoning our life support systems – our water, land and air. As deep shale gas fracking moved into West Virginia, we began working on this issue too, for the exact same reasons. People are getting sick and once pleasant rural communities are turned into industrial waste zones.
What is your biggest concern surrounding the Cove Point project?
Cove Point would drastically increase the pressure to drill, baby, drill, no matter the consequences. Cove Point would mean a mad dash to export natural gas and that ultimately would mean that our birthright here in West Virginia, clean water, would be sacrificed for the sake of short-term corporate profit.
What message would you deliver to the fossil fuel industry and the folks at Dominion?
Clean water is essential to life. As your industries continue to use our streams, rivers and groundwater for dumping toxic waste, you are creating a vast network of people from all walks of life who are rising up. Water unites us. Poison water unites us in action. We will defend our right to clean water, and we demand truly cleaner renewable energy now. We stand in this defense, we make this demand as if our lives depend on it, for they do.
Remember to sign up now to join Vivian and hundreds of other activists in Baltimore on February 20th. We’ll see you there!