Courtroom update on Cove Point: the fight continues

I’m writing with an update for southern Marylanders and all of you who joined our fight — and continue to fight — to stop Dominion’s disastrous fracked-gas export facility at Cove Point.
As you may remember, in April the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in our lawsuit challenging federal approval of Dominion’s gas export facility, which Earthjustice filed on behalf of CCAN, the Patuxent Riverkeeper, and the Sierra Club.
We argued that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission broke the law in several ways: 1) by failing to consider the direct impacts of the project on the safety of local residents and on the Chesapeake Bay; and 2) by failing to consider the “upstream” and “downstream” air, water, and climate impacts that would be triggered by fracking, piping, compressing, liquefying, and burning the exported gas.
Unfortunately, the court recently gave FERC a free pass. The three judges decided FERC did enough to consider the public safety threat on one hand. On the other hand, they decided that the buck stops with the Department of Energy, not FERC, to consider the full climate and environmental harm of exporting fracked gas, a decision that our lawyers say makes no sense under federal environmental law.
With this ruling, the court failed to protect the citizens of Calvert County, and — at best — further delayed much-needed protections for our climate and for communities from Dimock, Pennsylvania to Myersville, Maryland and everywhere in between that could see new air and water pollution from gas extracted and piped to Cove Point.
But our fight will continue.
First, the judges left the door open to challenge the Department of Energy. The judges did not rule on our core argument that the climate impact of exporting nearly a billion cubic feet of gas every day for 20 years must be weighed by the federal government. They punted the claim to DOE, and we are moving forward. The Sierra Club recently filed a lawsuit challenging DOE. CCAN is actively exploring ways to help with this legal effort, and to finally hold the federal government accountable for fully assessing the climate harm of gas export facilities.
Meanwhile, right now, you can join our friends at We Are Cove Point in urging Governor Larry Hogan to order an independent safety study for the Cove Point export facility. No government agency has yet conducted a so-called “Quantitative Risk Assessment” of the dangers of a chemical spill or explosion from Dominion’s refinery and export terminal, which sits in a densely populated residential neighborhood. Sign the petition now to join We Are Cove Point in asking, “Where’s our safety study?”
We’re determined to keep fighting Dominion’s polluting and dangerous facility, and to support southern Marylanders who continue the on-the-ground campaign. We’ll keep you updated on ways you can continue to help, as we work to spread clean solar and wind power to every Maryland community and to stop fracked-gas infrastructure in its tracks.

A report from Governor McAuliffe's house

There were people who said it couldn’t be done. You can’t turn out over 600 people – from every region of Virginia – to march a mile through 99-degree heat to Governor Terry McAuliffe’s house.
But guess what? We did it. With drums banging, banners waving, and people chanting, “McAuliffe: We don’t want your dirty pipelines,” over 600 people rallied on Brown’s Island in downtown Richmond Saturday and then marched till our voices were cascading off the front door of McAuliffe’s mansion.
The message to the Governor was clear: We don’t want fracked-gas pipelines in our mountains or oil drilling off our coast or toxic coal ash dumped in our rivers. We want solar and wind and a real energy democracy in Virginia where no communities are sacrificed for the profits of fossil fuel polluters. We want a safe climate for our kids.
And that message made news headlines across Virginia, from NBC 29 to CBS 19 to ABC 8 to the Richmond Times-Dispatch to the Associated Press story that ran in papers from Roanoke to Norfolk to the Washington Post.
If you missed the rally, check out and share the photo highlights on Facebook. I guarantee you’ll be inspired. Also, stay tuned: There’s much more to come as we keep up the pressure on our Governor to put people over polluters, and stop reckless pipelines and coal ash dumping.

No one who attended the rally and march will ever forget what they saw and heard: the music, the buses full of activists arriving from as far away as Newport News and Blacksburg, the artwork, and the speakers defiant and full of determined hope.

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A full busload from Blacksburg and Roanoke hit the roads early in the morning to join us in Richmond.

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Hampton Roads activists boarded buses from Norfolk and Newport News and carried great artwork.

 
Pastor Paul Williams, minister to the Union Hill and Union Grove Baptist churches in Buckingham County, the proposed site of a massive compressor station for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
Pastor Paul Williams, minister to the Union Hill and Union Grove Baptist churches in Buckingham County, the proposed site of a massive compressor station for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

Pastor Paul Wilson of Buckingham County spoke first, describing how Dominion Resources – with Gov. McAuliffe’s blessing – wants to build a massive compressor station for fracked gas next to two African American rural churches.
Dan Marrow of Quantico broke down in tears describing how his family has to drink bottled water because of Dominion’s coal ash pollution.
Before we hit the streets, Jane Kleeb, a leader from Nebraska who helped defeat TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, reminded us of our power: “We never had as much money as TransCanada … But what we had was our folks. What we had was putting on our boots every morning and getting into the streets. … Every single one of you is a seed of resistance.”
And this photo shows you just how many “seeds” were among us:

If you missed the rally, check out these photos and share on Facebook. Then, stay tuned for the next ways you can get involved in this growing movement across Virginia for clean energy, clean water and climate justice!
We can stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline for fracked gas. We can stop the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and its dirty compressor station. And offshore oil drilling. And the toxic dumping of coal ash in our rivers.
And we can move Virginia toward something better. Solar panels on a million rooftops are in our future if we fight. Huge offshore wind farms are in our future if we fight. The end of Dominion Power’s dominion over our democracy is in our power if we fight. And an end to reckless pro-pollution policies from politicians like Gov. Terry McAuliffe – that’s in our future too if…we…fight!
We’re ready. And I know you are too.
Onward!
Mike, Harrison, Drew, Monique and all of the team at CCAN

Virginia: See you Saturday at McAuliffe's House

This Saturday, hundreds of people from across Virginia will converge in Richmond to march to Governor Terry McAuliffe’s doorstep. Our “March on the Mansion” is going to be the biggest rally for climate justice Virginia has ever seen.
It’s even attracting the attention of famous actor Mark Ruffalo. For real. He released a video message on Thursday to urge Virginians to join us: Click here to watch on Facebook and share!
It’s surely going to be hot — but it also couldn’t be a more important time to turn up the heat on our leaders.
As we hit the streets this Saturday, major decisions are pending on the proposed Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast Pipelines. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is about to decide on the next round of permits for Dominion’s reckless coal ash disposal plans. And, yet, our Governor continues to shrug his shoulders at fossil fuel plans that would harm our communities and worsen climate change.
So it’s time we bring our voices straight to him.
I can’t wait to see you in Richmond this Saturday at noon. Hundreds of you have been filling up bus seats, painting beautiful banners, and — I hope — exercising your chanting voices.
Now, here’s everything you need to know to join us on Saturday — please read to the end!
THE BASICS: Our rally begins on Saturday at 12 noon on Brown’s Island in downtown Richmond. Click here for a Google map. The island is accessible via pedestrian entrances at Tredegar Street & South 5th and South 7th Streets respectively, and by Richmond’s Canal Walk. (Note: a bag check is required to enter Brown’s Island, so make sure to leave knives or glass bottles at home.) The island has restrooms.
BUSES: If you signed up for a bus seat, you will have received (or will shortly get) an email, call or text directly from your bus captain. Find bus pick-up details and contact info for bus captains on the transportation page: http://marchonthemansion.org/transportation.
PARKING: If you’re driving, we have a list and map of parking garages located within a few blocks of Brown’s Island on the transportation page: http://marchonthemansion.org/transportation. (The garages are also just a few blocks from our march end-point at the Capitol.)
OUR AGENDA: Our official rally program begins at 12 noon, but the activity on Brown’s Island will kick-off earlier. Here’s a run-down of the full agenda:

  • Pre-rally: Interfaith leaders are holding a prayer service at 11:15 a.m. — all are welcome! Local musicians will begin playing around 11:30 a.m.
  • Rally: We’ll get fired up with great speeches from fellow Virginians on the front lines of fossil fuel impacts, and from student, faith, social justice, and climate leaders. ASL interpretation will be available!
  • The march: We’ll start marching toward Capitol Square by 1 p.m., guided by marshals, and we’ll wrap up around 2:30 p.m. at the Capitol Bell Tower. If you need help making this walk, we’ll have bus shuttles to take you from the island to the Capitol.
  • After the march: Buses will depart from the same block where our march will end. For those not departing on buses, join us for a post-rally debrief and issue session at St. Paul’s church at 815 E Grace St.

SPREAD THE WORD: Throughout the day, post and share updates, photos and video on social media using our march hashtag: #ReachTerry.
THE WEATHER: It will be hot on Saturday — and we’re prepared for it. We’ll have tents to provide shade, water, ice, and mister bottles — plus cooling spots along the march route. Make sure to bring: a water bottle, hat, sunscreen, umbrella, snacks, and anything else that helps keep you cool. St. Paul’s church at 815 E Grace St. (across from the Capitol) will be open from 12 noon – 4 p.m. for marchers as a cooling spot with AC and restrooms. You can also duck into air-conditioned restaurants and shops along the march route as needed.
BRING YOUR OWN DRUMS, SIGNS AND BANNERS: Let’s make this not only the biggest rally for climate justice Virginia has ever seen, but the most beautiful! Do you have a snare drum? Conga? Bass drum? Bring it! And bring your best signs and banners that show why you’re marching.
QUESTIONS? Please check out the FAQ page on our rally website: http://marchonthemansion.org/faq-details. And don’t hesitate to email us at: info@marchonthemansion.org.
We are going to have a fun, peaceful, creative and POWERFUL event this Saturday. We’re going to come together in bigger numbers than ever before to make sure our Governor puts the welfare of citizens over the profits of polluters.
As our friend Mark Ruffalo said, “We can win these fights if we choose to fight.”
Let’s hit the streets together on Saturday!
Mike Tidwell

National Week of Action to #StopOilTrains Builds Momentum in Baltimore

The first week of July marked the start of an international week of action aimed at highlighting the growing opposition to dangerous oil trains in the US and Canada. With over 70 events taking place across North America, this event is scheduled to commemorate the 47 people killed in the Lac-Mégantic 2013 oil train disaster by people taking up the struggle to fight against these oil trains in own communities.
As participants in the week of action, CCAN coordinated with members of Clean Water Action to raise awareness about the dangers that oil-train blast zones pose to the Baltimore community.
A number of Baltimore’s most iconic institutions are located in the “blast-zone”, which activists highlighted by using light projections on places like the National Aquarium and during the Baltimore Artscape Festival.
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Additionally, on Wednesday July 6th  CCAN and Clean Water Action delivered over 2000 petitions and handwritten letters to City Council President Jack Young calling for further action to be taken against dangerous oil trains in Baltimore city.
 
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Click here to add your name to our petition demanding the Baltimore City Council to pass Health and Safety Ordinance for oil trains in Baltimore.
 
 
 
 
Screen Shot 2016-07-08 at 6.46.32 PMWrapping up the week of action, activists participated in a Banner Drop at Camden Yards in Downton Baltimore in protest of oil trains that run alongside the stadium and threaten this beloved Baltimore institution.
The international week of action to #StopOilTrains reaffirmed the growing movement across North America to take back our communities from oil companies and explosive oil trains. Now, more than ever, is the time to get organized and get loud. To get involved, attend our monthly volunteer meetings to plan and strategize how to make our voices as loud as possible.
 Volunteer Meetings are held the last Wednesday of the month at 6pm at Impact Hub located at 10 E North Ave, Baltimore, MD 21202. Click here to RSVP.
 
 
 
 
 

It's time: Join the call to ban fracking in Maryland

Governor Hogan issued us a new challenge when he vetoed legislation to expand our renewable energy standard. He thumbed his nose at a decade of bipartisan climate progress in Maryland and, until we overturn his veto, he temporarily blocked our path to new jobs and cleaner air.
But you know what else? Governor Hogan fired us up even more to fight for what we know is right.
This summer, CCAN and our allies in the “Don’t Frack Maryland” coalition are moving full-speed ahead with an all-out campaign to permanently ban fracking in our state. We’re launching this long-planned effort even as we commit to overturning Hogan’s harmful clean energy veto. And we’ll need your help right from the start!
Join us next Wednesday evening, June 15th, for a statewide grassroots conference call to kick off a summer of organizing to ban fracking. Climate champ Heather Mizeur will be our special guest!
Heather will help get us fired up for action. I will give you the latest updates on the fight against fracking across the country and the world, as well as the momentum we’re already seeing towards a permanent ban right here in Maryland.
Then, we’ll dig in on how you can make the biggest difference this summer: by working in your own communities to ban fracking. After the call, we’ll send you our hot-off-the-presses activist toolkit with everything you need to get started.
Just over a year ago, we made history by passing a two-year moratorium on fracking that prohibits dangerous drilling through October 2017. That clock is now ticking down.
Unless we act in the next General Assembly session, our hard-won moratorium will expire and the Hogan administration could finalize regulations that invite the fracking industry in. We can’t let that happen. The science is in. Fracking pollutes the air we breathe and the water we drink, and threatens local economies, all while worsening climate change.
That’s why CCAN is gearing up THIS SUMMER to educate more Marylanders about the dangers of fracking, to help more cities and counties ban the practice, and ultimately to build the grassroots power we need to win.
Join me, CCAN organizers — and special guest Heather Mizeur — on Wednesday, June 15th at 7pm to find out how you can be a part of permanently banning fracking in Maryland this year.
Already, over 70 groups (and counting) in Maryland have called for passage of a permanent fracking ban – from climate groups like us, to environmental groups like our friends at the Maryland Sierra Club – who just announced their support this morning – to riverkeepers, outfitters, service unions, health groups, farmers and faith leaders. And Maryland’s two most populous counties — Montgomery and Prince George’s — have effectively banned the practice.
With or without Governor Hogan, we’re ready to move forward — not backwards — on climate in Maryland. That means keeping clean energy solutions on the fast-track while keeping harmful fossil fuels like fracked gas in the ground.
RSVP now and help us launch a summer of organizing to ban fracking!

Hogan vetoed clean energy progress. Call him today!

Last Friday, just before the long holiday weekend, Governor Larry Hogan made a deeply harmful and hypocritical decision to veto the Clean Energy Jobs Act.
The Baltimore Sun called the Governor’s move “short-sighted.”1 Bill sponsor Delegate Bill Frick called it “infuriating.” I‘d call it flat-out wrong. And, with your help, we WILL overturn it.
Thousands of Marylanders like you fought to pass this bill, and increase our state’s renewable energy standard to 25% by 2020. With this shocking veto, Governor Hogan has frozen the promise of thousands of new jobs, cleaner air, and a safer climate. And he’s put the jobs of hundreds of Maryland solar installers at immediate risk.2
As a first step, we need to make sure Governor Hogan understands the line he’s crossed.
Pick up the phone and call Governor Hogan today. Tell him Marylanders will not stand by and let him stall our clean energy progress!
In his veto letter, Governor Hogan misleadingly called the Clean Energy Jobs Act a “tax” on ratepayers. We know it’s an investment in a brighter, more just future.
Marylanders pay a high cost for dirty energy now — every time a business floods from rising seas or a child misses school for asthma. With an investment of less than a penny per day per resident, we can get a quarter of our electricity from clean sources within five years, saving lives through cleaner air and lowering bills over the long-term. In fact, the Hogan administration’s own study confirms that our current clean energy standard is a multi-billion dollar boon to Maryland’s economy.
With his veto, Governor Hogan not only misled the public, he backtracked on his own policy. The Governor recently signed legislation requiring a 40% cut in greenhouse gas pollution by 2030. Now he’s vetoed our number one tool to curb emissions. So what’s his plan?
Call Governor Hogan now. Tell him Marylanders want action — not empty promises — on climate change.
Thanks to your action, we passed the Clean Energy Jobs Act with bipartisan support and veto-proof majorities in the General Assembly. Over 71% of Marylanders and over 170 small businesses across the state support expanding our use of renewable energy.
Governor Hogan sent a message that he is not listening to his constituents, the General Assembly, or business leaders.
Now it’s time for us to send a message to Governor Hogan.
Next, we will work together to override this veto!

The Grades are In on Governor McAuliffe

Here at CCAN, we believe grading “curves” have their place. But not when it comes to climate leadership. When the stakes are so high — when coastal neighborhoods are already flooding at “normal” high tides and when extreme heat, storms, ice melt, and wildfires keep shattering records — we believe it’s our job to hold our leaders to the highest standards. When scientists warn we must keep 80% of the world’s known fossil fuel reserves in the ground to have a chance of stabilizing the climate, climate leadership requires championing clean energy solutions 100% of the time.
From this perspective, we released a first-of-its-kind, comprehensive report card this week, giving Governor Terry McAuliffe some mid-term feedback on his two-year climate and energy record in Virginia.
The Governor earned an interim “D+” average across five categories. Governor McAuliffe has fallen far short compared to his promises as a candidate and in light of the growing urgency of the climate crisis. You can read the full report and read why here.
While we give the Governor credit for positive steps – like modest solar and efficiency measures, a veto of coal tax credits, and securing federal funds to combat sea-level rise – his championing of decades more reliance on fracked gas threatens to have a far more substantive, long-term negative impact.
For example, Governor McAuliffe has lobbied for major new fracked gas pipelines – Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline – that could trigger more greenhouse gas pollution than all of the state’s current coal- and gas-fired power plants combined. He’s also pushed for opening up Virginia’s coastal waters to offshore drilling (only to see that plan, thanks to an outpouring of grassroots opposition, withdrawn by President Obama).
But Governor McAuliffe also gets a major “incomplete” – and a major chance to rescue his average – when it comes to the federal Clean Power Plan.
Some great allies – leaders with Virginia Organizing, the Virginia Student Environmental Coalition, and Interfaith Power & Light (DMV), as well as landowners fighting fracked gas pipelines and riverkeepers fighting to protect our rivers from coal ash – joined CCAN Director Mike Tidwell on a conference call with reporters to get this message out. And it was picked up by news stories we generated in the Roanoke Times, on Washington’s WAMU radio station, in the Virginian-Pilot, on Blue Virginia, in the Bay Journal, and more.
As Joelle Novey, director of Interfaith Power & Light, said, “We’re calling on Gov. McAuliffe now to implement a strong Clean Power Plan in Virginia that maximizes reductions in heat-trapping climate pollution.”
By designing a state plan that puts a strong cap on total pollution from both existing and future power plants – and fully embraces wind, solar and efficiency solutions – the Governor can still transform his legacy. Of course, this will require standing up to the state’s biggest polluter and biggest non-party campaign donor, Dominion Virginia Power. Not surprisingly, Dominion would rather the Governor adopt a “rate-based” workaround, rather than put a so-called “mass-based” cap on total emissions. That would allow the company to continue its heavy reliance on fracked gas and to continue increasing its carbon emissions for decades to come.
If the Governor is serious about his campaign promises – to act on climate and to let science be a strong guide – he has a clear chance now to get back on track.
As Laura Cross, a University of Virginia sophomore and member of the Virginia Student Environmental Coalition, said during the call with reporters, “We won’t settle for less because the climate crisis demands no less.”
Scroll through the full report here:
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Letter from the Director: Organized people are winning!

Dear CCANers,
Everyone knows that Big Oil is the most powerful special interest on Earth. So here’s the question: Can activists in one U.S. state like Virginia really stop the oil barons from drilling off the coast of Virginia Beach?
And what about Big Gas? The frackers virtually rule America. Can two suburban counties with shale gas deposits in Maryland really send the frackers packing? And what about trash incineration? Can citizens in one Baltimore neighborhood take down a proposed mega-dirty incinerator project that everyone thought was a done deal?
Turns out, the answers to these questions are yes, yes, and again yes! Across the Chesapeake region of Maryland, Virginia and DC, it’s been a year full of people-powered victories so far.
In Virginia, on March 15th, Obama administration announced that no oil companies will be allowed to drill off the fragile shores of coastal Virginia for at least the next five years (and perhaps forever). The decision came after thousands of Virginians submitted comments in strong opposition to offshore drilling. And leaders from the tourism, business, faith, student, and environmental communities campaigned openly and noisily against Governor Terry McAuliffe’s unacceptable support for ocean drilling. Once again: organized people can beat organized money. Go Virginia!
And on April 12th, the Prince George’s County Council – on Maryland’s border with DC — voted unanimously to ban gas companies from fracking along a gas deposit that runs under the county. The vote came after landowners, homeowners, students, businesses and others from across the county signed petitions, packed hearing rooms, and said “no!” (A year earlier, the County Council of neighboring Montgomery County did the same thing). Now CCAN and our partners are turning our attention toward passing a permanent, legislative statewide ban on fracking in the Maryland General Assembly in 2017. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, in Baltimore, a David vs. Goliath fight to stop the nation’s largest trash-burning incinerator achieved a key victory in March. Students and utterly determined neighbors in Curtis Bay succeeded in pressuring Maryland regulators to finally terminate the company’s permit. Twenty-year-old Destiny Watford, who helped lead this fight, just won the prestigious Goldman prize for her visionary work for environmental justice against a power company that wanted to soak her neighborhood in more mercury, soot, and other pollutants from the combustion of trash.
I’m happy to say that in all of these fights across the region, CCAN played a key part in building the winning coalitions that got the job done. What’s next? Well, get ready D.C. Two of the most exciting upcoming fights include passing a historic carbon “fee and dividend” bill in the District of Columbia and also getting the nation’s capital to commit to 50% clean electricity.
And, oh yeah, at the risk of burying some real headlines, the Maryland General Assembly also passed two major bills to fight climate change in its just-ended 2016 session. One, supported and signed by Republican Governor Larry Hogan, mandates a statewide 40% cut in carbon pollution by the year 2030. The other mandates that 25% of the state’s electricity come from renewable energy by the year 2020.
I get tired just writing about all of this hard-won progress. But I’m never too tired to move on to the next clean-energy campaign in our region. You are the reason we win. You are the reason we keep fighting.
On we go,
mike-tidwell
Mike Tidwell

Report from the DC Circuit: Federal Court Hears Case Against Cove Point Export Facility

From left to right: Mariana Lo, Earthjustice; Fred Tutman, Patuxent Riverkeeper; Moneen Nasmith, Earthjustice; Cindy Peil, CCHC; Leslie Garcia, CCHC; Deborah Goldberg, Earthjustice; Anne Havemann, CCAN; Jon Kenney, CCAN
Outside the courthouse after oral argument. From left to right: Mariana Lo, Earthjustice; Fred Tutman, Patuxent Riverkeeper; Moneen Nasmith, Earthjustice; Cindy Peil, CCHC; Leslie Garcia, CCHC; Deborah Goldberg, Earthjustice; Anne Havemann, CCAN; Jon Kenney, CCAN

Using every tool available, CCAN and many others have been fighting the massive Cove Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal for over three years. The facility, located on the Chesapeake Bay in southern Maryland, would be the first LNG export terminal on the East Coast, linking the fracking fields of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio to Asian markets. The fight on the ground continues, but our legal fight against the facility reached a significant milestone yesterday. That’s when Earthjustice Managing Attorney Deborah Goldberg faced off with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and its friends before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.
Several CCAN staffers and I joined Leslie Garcia and Cindy Peil with Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community in the gallery to watch the argument.
You may remember that Earthjustice filed the lawsuit, EarthReports v. FERC (No. 15-1127), in May 2015 on behalf of CCAN, Patuxent Riverkeeper, and the Sierra Club. We had to wait to file suit in federal court until FERC officially denied our request for a rehearing. It took the agency seven months to deny our request, even as it approved order after order allowing Dominion to begin construction.
Deborah had eight short minutes to present her argument. Her goal was to show the court that FERC shirked its duty under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing to fully assess the direct and indirect environmental impacts of exporting nearly a billion cubic feet of gas every day for 20 years. Essentially, she argued, FERC’s finding of “no significant impacts” was based on not looking very hard. (You can hear the entire oral argument here.)
She first argued that FERC failed its duty under NEPA when it found that the export facility would not promote any regional gas development. That this massive facility would induce gas development not only makes logical sense, but it’s also backed up by facts. She reminded the court that a Pennsylvania-based energy company plans to drill new wells and ship the gas to Cove Point for export to Japan. She stressed to the court that this new gas production would require the use of millions of gallons of water, thousands of truck trips, and would greatly impact the lives of people living near the not-yet-drilled wells.
She also argued that FERC fell far short of its statutory obligations by refusing to take the lifecycle climate emissions of the project into account. Even the direct emissions of two million tons of greenhouse gases per year, she argued, should have triggered a finding of significance. When you take the lifecycle of natural gas into account, the emissions increase to 26 million tons per year—about the same emissions as Maryland’s entire fleet of coal-fired power plants.
In a strange twist, the energy giant BP was on our side of the aisle yesterday. Before Dominion proposed to expand and convert the terminal, Cove Point was a mostly dormant import facility. Energy companies, including BP and Statoil, had contracts to import natural gas to the terminal. Dominion granted Statoil the opportunity to relinquish its import capacity, but did not grant BP the same opportunity. BP was challenging FERC’s approval of this arrangement.
The attorney for BP walked the judges through the Natural Gas Act and explained why BP should have gotten the same opportunity as Statoil to get out of its contract. The issue was complex, though narrow, and seemed to capture the attention of all the judges on the panel.
Once the petitioners–EarthReports and BP–had finished arguing, it was the respondents’ turn to respond. FERC was joined by Dominion and the American Petroleum Institute, both of which had intervened on FERC’s behalf.
FERC’s attorney was most prepared to discuss the environmental issues but the judges focused the majority of their attention on BP’s claim. While that focus meant that FERC did not have much opportunity to respond to our environmental claims, it also seemed to distract the judges from the larger and more impactful issues at stake. Allowing BP to terminate its contract early has far less of an impact than forcing FERC to fully account for the human and environmental costs of the unprecedented natural gas expansion it’s facilitating.
When FERC’s attorney was able to respond to our environmental claims, she argued that any indirect effects were too speculative for FERC to consider.
Dominion argued that FERC conducted a sufficiently thorough review of the relevant information. Judge Rogers pushed back. Sure, she said, an agency could write 215 pages, but if it left out the main analysis it wasn’t worth much. Summing up our argument, the judge said that these natural gas infrastructure projects have impacts beyond the facility itself that aren’t being considered. “It’s not as if we’re planting flowers here.”
The lawyer from API had nothing new to add.
Deborah had saved two minutes for rebuttal and did an excellent job. Every party was in agreement, she said, on the key question: What effects will this project cause? She argued that Dominion’s liquefaction plant is the “crucial link” inducing demand for more gas drilling. FERC had produced an environmental assessment that turned “a blind eye” to the evidence before it.
She pushed back against FERC’s claim that we were asking the agency to speculate. Federal agencies, from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Council on Environmental Quality, are pushing FERC to consider indirect effects, other agencies are actually doing it, and FERC itself, in subsequent reviews, has even done it. She concluded by asking the DC Circuit to send the order back to FERC for it to conduct a full Environmental Impact Statement.
Every brief we submitted in this case has emphasized FERC’s failure to adequately address the safety threats to nearby residents in Lusby, Maryland. The liquefaction plant in Lusby would be built in closer proximity to residences than any other facility previously approved by FERC. Additionally, our briefs stressed how foreign tanker ships could threaten the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale.
This case is one of several where environment groups are challenging FERC approval of natural gas export infrastructure. In November, the DC Circuit heard challenges by Sierra Club and Galveston Baykeeper to FERC’s approval of LNG export facilities at Sabine Pass, Louisiana and Freeport, Texas. Sierra Club has also challenged FERC’s approval of the Corpus Christi, Texas, LNG export facility. That case is fully briefed, but has not yet been set for oral argument.
The court has no deadline to decide our challenge. It’s possible that it’s waiting to hear all the cases against the export facilities before deciding.

Keeping the pressure on Dominion

12718370_10153534648352219_3806623516957001997_nThe past few months Virginians across the state have risen up to fight Dominion’s plans for coal ash disposal into our rivers. After Dominion unveiled its disastrous plans to dispose of this waste into waterways — at allowable toxin levels far exceeding those of neighboring North Carolina — we’ve learned a lot. We’ve learned Dominion dumped 33.7 million, later *revised* to 27.5 million gallons, of untreated coal ash wastewater into Quantico Creek last May. We’ve learned the Director of our Department of Environmental Quality, David Paylor, took a trip to the Master’s Golf Tournament on Dominion’s dime; they even paid for a nice bar tab, too! And we’ve learned that Governor Terry McAuliffe is more willing to side with Dominion than with us.
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None of that has changed Virginians’ minds that this plan for toxic coal ash disposal has to stop. And it’s led to some of the most inspired resistance I’ve ever seen in Virginia. Over 600 strong marched in Richmond, students peacefully occupied the Department of Environmental Quality demanding answers, and citizens across the state are mobilizing to organize film screenings, workshops, and trainings to fight back.
I think we’ve reached a tipping point. Virginians are tired of business as usual — namely, Dominion getting its way. We’re tired of Dominion using its money to buy off our legislators. We’re tired of Dominion killing bills to promote wind and solar power. And we’re tired of Dominion pushing its dirty Atlantic Coast Pipeline down our throats.12974261_10153598119927219_8920039749179302504_n
So we’re pushing back, because this fight is far from over. Potomac Riverkeeper Network and the Southern Environmental Law Center continue to challenge the legality of Dominion’s dewatering permit at the Possum Point Power Station. They’ve called on the Environmental Protection Agency to launch a criminal investigation into Dominion’s dumping in Quantico Creek last summer, and we’re working to support their call. We’re continuing to bring attention to the cozy relationship between Dominion and DEQ, and have no plans of stopping.

10462812_10153534648377219_6860514380997912823_nNext up, DEQ will be releasing the draft permits for Dominion’s handling of the solid coal ash waste piled up in its ponds across Virginia — and we plan to fight them tooth and nail. We already know they are inadequate, because Dominion wants to leave the toxic coal ash in dated, unlined landfills right along our rivers. Instead of moving the toxic ash to modern, lined landfills like North Carolina is doing, or going ‘coal ash free’ like South Carolina, Dominion wants to let its pits leach heavy metals into our groundwater for decades to come. If they have it their way, we’ll see carcinogens such as arsenic, cadmium, mercury, and hexavalent chromium make their way into our drinking water for decades to come.
But we have no intention of letting that happen. Together, we’ll continue to fight Dominion’s plan in the courts, in the media, and in the streets. Dominion’s a tough player. We’ve known this for years. But I don’t think Dominion has seen an uprising take off this quickly before. And I can feel we’re onto something.
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