Category: Blog

The White House released its 2014 National Climate Assessment yesterday, and the diagnosis is serious. It points out that many Americans are already feeling the impacts of climate change, and asserts that those impacts will only worsen if we continue on our current path. The report is over 800 pages long and, according to its authors, is the most comprehensive assessment of climate change impacts in the US to date. According to the Huffington Post, “average U.S. temperatures have increased 1.3 degrees to 1.9 degrees Fahrenheit (depending on the part of the country) since people began keeping records in 1895, and much of that warming has come in recent decades.”
Learn about the Climate Assessment in the White House’s own words here.
A national coalition of environmental and health groups as well as shareholders in Dominion filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this week asserting that the company behind the proposed fracked gas export facility at Cove Point had “potentially omitted or inadequately disclosed significant risks to potential investors as it seeks permission to raise project funds through a sale of stock.” Platts reports that “Dominion on March 31 filed a Form S-1 with the SEC regarding its proposed initial public offering of common units representing limited partner interests.” According to the BayNet, “Dominion spokesman Karl R. Neddenien said the SEC’s rules prohibit the company from making comments about the “master limited partnership” established in March.“
Four months after coal-processing chemicals spilled into the Elk River in West Virginia, Think Progress reports that “the Environmental Protection Agency will test the chemical in air and set a corresponding safety limit for breathing the fumes.” The decision is too little, too late for residents who, regardless of what the EPA finds, have been breathing this air for the past four months. Alarmingly, “while approximately 10,000 gallons of the chemical mixture are estimated to have spilled into the Elk River, just upstream from a major water intake facility, residents reportedly began smelling the licorice-like odor characteristic of crude MCHM several weeks before the spill was reported.”
On a conference call drawing people from across the Mid-Atlantic region last week, climate and anti-fracking leaders rallied activists behind the next big steps in the fight to stop Dominion’s proposed fracked gas export facility at Cove Point. Most immediately, on May 15th, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is expected to release its “Environmental Assessment,” a cursory environmental evaluation that, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, “should not contain long descriptions or detailed data which the agency may have gathered.” After the release, there will be a 30-day public comment period, during which time FERC has agreed to hold one public meeting. That meeting will likely be on May 31st in Lusby, Maryland; sign up here to receive updates.
Maryland:
During Earth Week, The Nation covered the Cove Point fight as a major battle to protect the climate. They close with a call to action, saying “In the struggle to mitigate the effects of climate change, Cove Point would take us backwards. We need to move forward.”

Last week, a train carrying 8,000 tons of coal derailed in Bowie, Maryland, spilling at least one car’s-worth of coal, according to the Bowie Volunteer Fire Department. There were no immediate public health or safety concerns as a result of the spill, but the spotlight is on CSX, the railroad involved in this and two other incidents in the past week. The Baltimore Sun reports that,“Three CSX employees who were aboard the train at the time were accounted for and uninjured.”
Last Wednesday, the American Lung Association released its 15th annual State of the Air report which revealed that “ozone, or smog, continues to be a major air pollution problem in many parts of Maryland.” Poor air quality isn’t unique to Maryland: “half of the country lives in counties where ozone and particulates make air unhealthy to breathe.” While smog levels remain high, the Capital Gazette reports, “there has been progress in reducing particulate pollution nationwide because of cleanup of coal-fired plants and reformulating diesel fuels.” The Baltimore Sun had a slightly more positive take on the state’s air pollution status quo, saying, “Air quality has improved a lot in Maryland and nationwide over the past 15 years, according to a new report.” But the story acknowledged that there is still a problem: “the state got failing marks for the number of days when people outdoors were forced to breathe levels of ozone pollution, also known as smog, that could trigger asthma attacks or heart attacks.”
The Washington Post reports on HB 1168, the bill that threatens to stall land-based wind power development in Maryland. Most immediately, the bill would effectively kill a state-of-the-art wind farm project ready to begin construction on the lower Eastern Shore. The nearby Patuxent River Naval Air Station and the wind farm developers had developed an agreement to turn the turbines off when the the Naval Air Station performed test flights. However, according to the Washington Post, they didn’t expect that  “U.S. House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) and a coalition of Southern Maryland lawmakers would circumvent the process.” Now, Governor O’Malley has a decision to make: will he veto the bill or sign it into law? Signing the bill would signal that Maryland doesn’t want the jobs and investment that come with wind power development, while a veto would protect Maryland’s growing clean energy economy. You can call on Governor O’Malley to veto HB 1168 here.
Virginia:
Lynchburg, Virginia, made international headlines last week when a train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded, spilling crude into the nearby James River. Thankfully, there were no injuries reported, but the fire sent black plumes of smoke several stories high into the air and caused the evacuation of about 300 people. Several sources initially reported that the train cars involved in the incident were a type of car banned in Canada for involvement in similar incidents. However, it now appears that these cars were a newer model, deemed safer by the oil industry. According to DeSmog Blog, “a whole new Pandora’s Box of problems just opened up for the oil industry and the rail industry if the ‘safer’ ones also exploded.” Click here for more on the explosion.
WVTF Public Radio reported last week on Dominion’s reluctance to invest in renewable energy in Virginia and the backlash they’re seeing from Virginians concerned about the company’s role in fueling climate disruption. The company announced last month “that it had bought six solar development projects in California,” yet the company still generates no utility-scale solar power in the commonwealth and is instead choosing to invest heavily in more fossil fuels. The report says that “shareholders have been introducing resolutions at annual meetings, asking Dominion to report on the financial risks of climate change, the use of biomass and the release of methane.”
This year, we’re seeing big changes as the demands for Dominion to be accountable are growing louder and stronger. “As [Dominion CEO Tom] Farrell and his board meet today in Cleveland, people are taking action to say enough is enough. Ohio anti-fracking activists are protesting outside todenounce Dominion’s Cove Point gas export plan. Meanwhile, inside the meeting, Virginia shareholders are presenting four resolutions that call on the company to address its contribution to climate change.” Those four resolutions were met with unprecedented support from over 20% of the voting shareholders.
Air pollution is making headlines in Virginia, too, as the Supreme Court ruled the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can regulate air pollution that drifts across state borders. The Daily Press reports on the decision and quotes the Sierra Club’s Glen Besa who says, “the ruling is good news for urban regions coping with air pollution issues, including Hampton Roads. Overall, he said the ruling is good for the state.”

Update, 1:30pm: Click here for a round up of the results of the shareholder meeting, including record-high levels of support among shareholders for climate-focused resolutions.
Today, Dominion Resources’ CEO, Thomas Farrell, board of directors and shareholders are meeting in Cleveland, Ohio for the company’s annual meeting. The meeting comes one day after the release of the most comprehensive assessment yet of the grave impacts that climate change is already having on communities across the U.S., from rising sea levels causing flooding along the East Coast, to more extreme precipitation damaging infrastructure everywhere, to severe droughts impacting food production in the West.
Unfortunately, as the impacts of climate change cost us more and more, Tom Farrell’s company is ignoring the problem, and making it worse. As Virginia’s biggest energy utility, Dominion is has built ZERO utility-scale wind or solar power projects in the commonwealth and is the state’s #1 climate polluter. Over the next fifteen years, instead of developing Virginia’s vast solar power and offshore wind potential, Dominion is proposing to build three new gas-fired power plants and to increase the company’s carbon emissions by 37 percent. On top of it all, Dominion now it wants to build a massive fracked gas export facility on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. This Cove Point project would become the state’s single biggest trigger of climate pollution and increase dangerous fracking throughout the region.
As Farrell and his board meet today in Cleveland, people are taking action to say enough is enough. Ohio anti-fracking activists are protesting outside to denounce Dominion’s Cove Point gas export plan. Meanwhile, inside the meeting, Virginia shareholders are presenting four resolutions that call on the company to address its contribution to climate change.

Here’s how you can join them in taking action:

1. Share and join the “Dear Dominion” photo petition: Tell Tom Farrell why we deserve MORE than fossil fuels. We’re delivering your photos today as Tom Farrell and his board arrive in Cleveland. But it’s not too late to upload your own photo and share it on social media. You can Tweet @DomNews (Dominion Resources), @DomVAPower (Dominion Virginia Power) or @Dom_CovePoint (Dominion Cove Point). Or, on Facebook tag “Dominion Virginia Power” or “Dominion Cove Point.”
2. Get involved to stop fracked gas exports at Cove Point. Dominion’s Cove Point facility would take gas piped from fracking wells across Appalachia, liquefy it to 260 degrees F below zero at a polluting facility on the Chesapeake Bay, and ship it to Asia on massive tankers. This plan would put our communities in the way of an expanding web of dangerous new fossil fuel infrastructure, while polluting the climate as much — if not more — than coal. Key federal and state decision deadlines are nearing, so this is a critical time to get involved in stopping it. Click here to learn how you can take action, including joining us in Washington, DC on July 13th for a major rally to say “no” to fracked gas exports at Cove Point and nationwide!
3. Learn more. For more resources on Dominion’s dirty and dangerous energy plans, and how people are standing up to them, check out these links:

• Stop Cove Point campaign page.
• Stand Up to Dominion’s Dirty Power campaign page.
• Read more about the shareholder resolutions that Virginians are presenting today in Cleveland via WVTF public radio.
• Read the Cleveland Plain Dealer op-ed by Mike Tidwell and Robert Shields: “Dominion shareholders should slow rush to export liquefied natural gas.”

While they’re in town this week (May 7^th), Dominion officials and shareholders should stop by Cleveland’s Grdina Park.
That playground marks where three shiny spheres and a giant cylinder once held millions of gallons of liquefied natural gas (LNG). They were a technological wonder in 1944, because 600 times more natural gas could be stored when liquefied at minus 260 degrees F.
But on Oct. 20, 1944, a spark ignited gas vapor seeping from one of the tanks, unleashing a fiery explosion. Homes along 61st and 62nd streets burst into flames, trapping residents. The gas flowed into the sewer system, launching manhole covers, bursting pavement, rushing into basements. Numerous blasts and waves of blistering heat shattered windows miles away. Telephone poles smoked and bent, grass caught fire, walls turned red, people’s shoes felt as if they were melting.
The East Ohio Gas Co. disaster left 131 people dead and hundreds injured. It destroyed a square mile of Cleveland’s east side, including 79 homes, two factories, 217 cars, seven trailers and a tractor. Nearly half the victims, including 21 never identified, are buried at Highland Park Cemetery on Chagrin Boulevard, where a monument honors the dead. If children had not been in school, the toll would have been much higher. After the disaster, public utilities started storing natural gas underground, in depleted wells, rather than as potential bombs in aboveground tanks.
This week, on May 7^th, less than four miles from Grdina Park, Dominion shareholders will consider dazzling CEO compensation packages and lucrative projects, including the proposed Cove Point LNG export plant in the Chesapeake Bay community of Lusby, Maryland. This $3.8 billion facility would liquefy fracked gas, pump it onto tankers and ship it to Asia.
But fears about explosions, thermal blasts, and limited escape routes dominate the debate. This facility, if approved, would once again place LNG tanks and much more next to too many people.
Opponents have raised numerous objections. The facility would ensure more fracking, compressor stations and pipelines. Exports would also raise prices for American consumers and manufacturers. A U.S. Department of Energy report shows that exporting gas harms every sector of the economy save one: the gas industry. And all that fracking, piping, compressing, chilling, shipping and re-gasifying is a climate nightmare.
But the most poignant alarms are from Lusby residents who live nearby. So near, in fact, that 360 homes are within a 4,500-foot radius. A vapor cloud, according to a state report on an earlier expansion, could drift nearly that far and still ignite — with a spark from a car, a lighter, a grill — enveloping all in a flash fire. Which sounds too much like Cleveland 1944. The nearest homes are 850 feet away. Confusion is widespread about a 60-foot-tall, three-quarter-mile-long wall around the site. Dominion calls it a sound barrier; documents suggest it would also serve as a vapor barrier; and company officials recently told residents that flames from an explosion could travel up the wall and, thereby, over the houses.

The unusual design, confined to the footprint of the existing and dormant import facility, means Dominion has to cram into tight quarters a utility-scale power plant, compressors and liquefaction equipment, and storage tanks for gases and toxic chemicals. Even minor accidents could escalate into a catastrophe. And 1,000-foot tankers would frequently lumber out of port with their explosive load.
Dominion insists accidents won’t happen. But residents have read with growing anxiety about the deadly 2004 explosion at an LNG export facility in Algeria, and more recent blasts at gas-processing plants in Washington, Wyoming and at Dominion’s Blue Racer in West Virginia.
In April, the local assistant fire chief resigned over concerns that his all-volunteer department lacks the staff, training and equipment to handle a disaster at the plant.
Despite all the hazards and questions, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is sticking to its lighter-weight environmental review and plans only one public hearing. The Obama administration even wants fast-track approvals for gas export facilities as another hammer in the geopolitical toolbox to use against Russia. Dominion will tell shareholders that Cove Point fits well with this nationwide rush to export gas.
Ideally, we would weigh the long-term effects of fracking and exporting on gas prices, our health, foreign policy, the climate. At the least, though, the explosion in Cleveland nearly 70 years ago teaches that LNG facilities have no place near homes and schools, playgrounds and parks, beaches and fishing docks. If they belong anywhere, and that is not a given, they belong in remote areas, not next to neighborhoods.
 

A dozen or more cars of a CSX Corp train carrying crude oil through central Virginia derailed in Lynchburg earlier this afternoon, causing a large explosion and fire. So far, no injuries have been reported, but hundreds of citizens have been evacuated from their homes. According to Reuters, several of the cars spilled their contents into the James River. The Huffington Post reports, “Its tankers may be a class of rail cars deemed an ‘unacceptable public risk’ by a member of the National Transportation Safety Board in February. These black, pill-shaped cars, known as DOT-111s, have been involved in recent notable oil train derailments in North Dakota and Quebec.” The decision to phase out these cars came after a DOT-111 caused the Quebec crash last July that killed 47 people.
You can follow DeSmog Blog’s updates as the story unfolds.
Earlier this month, concerns were raised about the possibility of just such an accident. Crude shipments via Lynchburg, Richmond and other heavily populated areas of Virginia began in December 2013, causing concern for environmental and public safety advocates. In early April, the Daily Press reported that “Virginia environmentalists and activists are worried that an uptick in tanker trains carrying petroleum crude oil to a new storage and shipping hub in Yorktown is a recipe for disaster.” Sierra Club’s Glen Besa told reporters he was “concerned that a train derailment could result in an explosion and the loss of life, or an oil spill that could jeopardize our drinking water supplies and the environment” Luckily, no fatalities were reported in the accident, but the city has switched to an alternate water supply in case of contamination.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “The crash is the latest in a string of fiery accidents caused by crude-by-rail transport, including one in Quebec last summer that killed 47 people and incinerated part of the town.”
The Associated Press reports that National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman said, “We are very clear that this issue needs to be acted on very quickly…There is a very high risk here that hasn’t been addressed.”
The Richmond Times Dispatch posted a chilling video of smoke and flames in the incident.
Follow the links below for more coverage:
Politico: Oil train derails, burns in Lynchburg
New York Daily News: Major fire, explosion after train carrying crude oil derails in Lynchburg, Virginia
WDBJ 7: Train carrying crude oil derails in Lynchburg
Financial Post: CSX Corp train hauling crude oil derails in Lynchburg, Virginia, bursts into flames
Washington Post: Train derails in downtown Lynchburg, shutting down streets, bridges
Climate Progress: Crude Oil Train Derails, Catches Fire, Spills Into Virginia’s James River
BBC: Derailed US train in bursts into flames in Lynchburg
ABC 13: BREAKING NEWS: Train Has Derailed in Lynchburg

What will Virginia’s renewable energy landscape look like by 2030? Not much different than in 2014 if you ask Dominion Virginia Power, the state’s largest electric utility. The State Corporation Commission kicked off proceedings this week to determine whether or not Dominion’s proposed energy plans for the next 15 years are “reasonable and within the public’s interest.” Dominion, Virginia’s largest climate polluter by far, is proposing to increase its renewable energy portfolio by less than 1 percent compared to the utility’s current generation mix. That’s right: LESS THAN ONE PERCENT!
It goes without saying that Dominion’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) sends the commonwealth down the wrong path. If adopted, Dominion’s IRP would increase carbon emissions by 37.5 percent of the utility’s current output over the next 15 years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report a few weeks ago warning of the dire consequences associated with climate change inaction. Yet, rather than being responsible by bringing more carbon-free technologies like wind and solar online, Dominion proposes to actually INCREASE its carbon footprint. In the face of climate impacts occurring with greater intensity and frequency, increasing carbon pollution is far from “reasonable” and is certainly not in “the public’s interest.”
One of the many benefits of clean energy sources like wind and solar is that the fuel is free. These free fuel sources mitigate the impact to consumers that is caused by rising or at times volatile fuel prices like those that occur in the natural gas industry. Of course, the cheapest source of energy is energy we don’t have to use. Thus, Dominion should significantly increase its energy efficiency measures as a supplement to investing in more renewable energy resources. Six years ago, Virginia’s General Assembly passed a state-wide goal of increasing energy efficiency by 10 percent by 2022. To date, Dominion has reduced energy consumption by less than 1 percent. These are reasonable options that benefit Dominion’s ratepayers and the public at-large.
Clean energy reduces emissions that damage our citizens’ health, is the proper medicine for reducing climate change disruption, and strengthens our economy by adding the jobs of the future that our commonwealth needs and deserves. Dominion’s proposed energy plan is far too risky and costly. Dominion can and should present a more diverse, cleaner plan to meet Virginia’s future energy needs. Of course, the final decision lies at the feet of Virginia’s three commissioners, who will decide the reasonableness of Dominion’s dirty energy plans.

President Obama announced on Friday that he plans to delay his final decision on the Keystone XL pipeline until after the Nebraska state Supreme Court decides on a case that will impact the route of the pipeline. This delay could last a year or more, well past this November’s midterm elections. The President’s announcement was met with frustration from both sides, but many project opponents see the delay as a victory. Jamie Henn, a spokesman for 350.org said “It’s disappointing President Obama doesn’t have the courage to reject Keystone XL right now, but this is clearly another win for pipeline opponents.” After all, delaying the project means more tar sands are staying in the ground. Transcanada, the company proposing the pipeline, called the delay “inexplicable.”
The Cowboy Indian Alliance rode into DC yesterday to set up a week-long encampment on the National Mall urging President Obama to reject Keystone XL. The convergence, called Reject and Protect, will provide a packed schedule of events this week and will bring thousands to DC on Saturday for a massive tipi ceremony and march. The event brings together “tribal communities with ranchers and farmers living along the Keystone XL pipeline proposed route. Farmers and ranchers know the risk first-hand. They work the land every day. Tribes know the risk first-hand. They protect the sacred water, and defend sacred sites of their ancestors every day. They have united out of love and respect for the land and water on which we all depend.” According to Politico, “They’re estimating that as many as 5,000 activists will take part in a march past the Capitol on Saturday.
Sign up here to be a part of this historic action.
What happens when you have “almost no environmental regulation?” You end up with a situation similar to the one in China where ⅕ of agricultural land is contaminated. According to the Chinese government, “16.1 percent of the country’s soil in general and 19.4 percent of its farmland is polluted with toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, nickel and arsenic.” This is already impacting local communities; “health advocates have identified several ‘cancer villages’ in China near factories suspected of polluting the environment.”
In modern American political dialogue, polarization is the norm; Evangelical Christians and environmentalists are two groups that pundits assume will never agree. But here’s a take on climate change from David Jenkins, president of Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship and a lifelong evangelical Christian. He points out that God created the carbon cycle to keep the world’s carbon in balance and asks, “does it not then stand to reason that God, after designing the Earth’s processes to sequester excess carbon and keep our atmosphere’s chemistry in balance, would prefer that we respect His creation and find better ways to heat our homes and power our cars than using huge amounts of oil and coal?” Many religious organizations share Mr. Jenkins’ view; churches from Missouri to Minnesota have installed solar panels on their roofs and are living up to their goals of being good stewards of the earth.
The Chesapeake Bay, once an icon of biodiversity and delicious seafood, has been marred by pollution in recent years. “Thanks to an Environmental Protection Agency-led plan that puts limits on the amount of agricultural nutrients entering the bay,” efforts to clean up the bay have been strengthening, but Attorneys-General from states across the country have called the plan “EPA overreach,” saying the EPA doesn’t have a right to restrict the pollutants they put into the bay or to tell states how they can use their land. According to Chesapeake Bay Foundation director William Baker, “it’s hardly a mandate being imposed on high down to the states.” So while faraway states are concerned that protecting the Chesapeake Bay might somehow hinder their own economic and social development (an idea that Judge Sylvia Rambo found to be flawed), they fail to consider that polluting the bay hurts Bay-adjacent states. Baker says, “each bay state, including Virginia, voluntarily entered into the current restoration plan because of the economic, recreational, environmental and intrinsic value of a healthy Chesapeake Bay.”
Zooming in on Maryland:
Last week in Lusby, more than 50 people gathered at a community meeting to discuss the potential safety risks surrounding Dominion Resources’ proposed Cove Point facility. Local residents are especially concerned after the recent explosion at a gas plant in Washington. Many residents’ concerns stem from the fact that “other plants do not exist in populated areas. [Local resident, Dale] Allison said he estimates there are more than 300 homes within a 4,500-foot radius of the plant.” Mr. Allison worries that his family, friends and neighbors “will be an experiment.”
But the conversion of the Cove Point facility to a fracked gas export facility is far from a done deal. Sign up here to receive updates about the Cove Point fight and about an upcoming public meeting with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as they decide whether to approve Dominion’s plan.
This week, we bring you some common sense from the Frederick News-Post editorial board: Fracking chemicals should be disclosed. After a recent Mother Jones article outlining the health risks posed by fracking, the public is paying attention to the risky practice. Physicians for Social Responsibility “helped draft and promote legislation that, if passed, would allow Maryland health professionals to access information on the specific chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing”  Maryland’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Committee is taking up the question of who should have access to information about what’s in chemicals used in fracking. No decision has yet been made, but “that decision cannot be too long in coming at this point. If it decides to permit it, the state has an obligation — and the public has a right — to be fully informed about any and all processes and substances used in this controversial drilling method.”
The Maryland General Assembly passed a bill this session to create a council charged with minimizing the impact of sea level rise on new state buildings. The council will be comprised of “Secretaries of natural resources, business and management, the environment, general services, planning, transportation, and business and economic development; the chair of DNR’s Critical Area Commission for the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays; the director of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency; the chancellor of the University System of Maryland; and five others appointed by the governor to represent local government, business and environmental interests.” The council is being formed as a result of Governor O’Malley’s 2012 executive order that sea level rise be considered in future state construction. The bill passed unanimously in the senate and 95-40 in the House of Delegates, opposed by a handful of Delegates who are “skeptical about the role climate change plays in sea level rise.” The Governor will likely sign the bill which has the support of the Maryland Department of the Environment.
Also in Maryland legislative news, the Governor will soon decide whether or not to sign a bill that would kill a major offshore wind project in Maryland. HB 1168, a bill that would put a 15-month moratorium on Maryland’s offshore wind power development, passed both houses of the Maryland legislature. Bill proponents claimed the wind turbines would interfere with “the unique radar and testing mission at the Patuxent River base.” According to the Navy itself, this bill is patently unnecessary. According to David Belote, a former Air Force fighter pilot, commander of Nellis Air Force Base, and director of the Department of Defense Siting Clearinghouse, “if the turbines aren’t spinning, there’s no interference…There’s no need for additional studies to determine that stationary turbines cannot affect radar systems.” Click here to join Marylanders in urging Governor O’Malley to veto HB 1168.
Zooming in on Virginia:
Last week, a coalition of environmental groups held a forum on the impacts of coal dust in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. CCAN’s own Leslie Morrison spoke to an audience of around 90 people about the health impacts of coal dust, a fine, powdered form of coal released from any facilities that mine, process, or transport coal. The Lamberts Point Coal Terminal in Norfolk, Virginia, already ships 28 million tons of coal every year—and is legally allowed to release up to 50 tons of coal dust into the air each year. Coal is found in soil samples as far as 7.5 miles away and causes respiratory problems in nearby residents. It contains arsenic, mercury and other particulate matter and is extremely harmful if inhaled. Residents have also been suffering its effects in Curtis Bay, a Baltimore community with some of the worst air quality in the state. Morrison said, “it has been so inspiring to see communities around these facilities taking a stand to protect their air quality and their health.”
Major climate news came from Virginia last week when the state Supreme Court “ruled that the emails of a former University of Virginia climate scientist are exempt from disclosure under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.” The case began in 2011 when Michael Mann, a professor at the University of Virginia, came under fire by climate denying Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli who attempted to prove that Mann was misusing public funds. The Virginia Supreme court found that Cuccinelli had overstepped his bounds. By deciding that Mann’s emails were exempt from disclosure, the justices opted not to “put the state’s public universities at a disadvantage to private institutions.” According to Michael Halpern, program manager with the Center for Science and Democracy with the Union of Concerned Scientists, the state Supreme Court “was right to protect scientists’ ability to pursue tough research questions free from threats or intimidation. Freedom of information laws are meant to keep government accountable, not to enable the harassment of scientists.”
Citizens from across the mid-Atlantic are submitting photo petitions to Dominion CEO Tom Farrell demanding that the company clean up its act. Not only does Dominion Virginia Power’s 15-year energy plan include no new clean energy and an increase in carbon pollution for the commonwealth, but in Southern Maryland, Dominion Resources is trying to build a massively polluting fracked gas export facility at Cove Point. See the faces of people who demand better from Dominion and add your picture to the petition here. 

For three years, we’ve kept the gas industry at bay in Maryland thanks to supporters like you, and our grassroots pressure continues to pay off. At the April meeting of the governor’s fracking advisory commission on Monday, state agencies presented an updated timeline for their risk studies, which includes a 3-month extension of their original August 1^st deadline.
While this delay isn’t the 18-month pause we’ve been advocating for, it’s a step in the right direction and a clear sign that our ever growing movement is having an impact.  The extra three months gives the risk study teams more time to get all the facts on the table and ensures public involvement in the process.
Here’s the new timeline:

• April 14^th: April Meeting
• Early May: Final draft of the economic risks study released before the May 15^th commission meeting. RESI, the study team, will come to the May meeting to present and answer questions.
• May 15th: Commission meeting (To include: presentation by the Regional Economic Studies Institute (RESI) at Towson University on the final economic report; presentation on air pollution; update on risk assessment study)
• End of May/Early June: Final Best Management Practices (BMPs) report released
• June 13: Commission meeting (To include discussions on emergency preparedness; risk assessment; local land use)
• Saturday, June 28^th: Public meeting in Garrett or Allegany county. Health study will be presented, then a one month comment period.
• July 11: July Commission meeting (To include: update on health study, risk assessment, and an outline for draft final report)
• July 28^th: Health Study Public Comment period closes
• August 18^th: Commission meeting (To include: discussion of public health study, content of final draft report)
• Mid/Late August: Draft of final report released by MDE/DNR (One-month comment period on the final report.)
• September 15th: Commission meeting (Content of commission;’ Appendix to final report—Consultation with commission.)
• Mid/Late September: Final Report Public Comment period ends
• Mid October: Final draft of third and final report with response to comments

The commission meeting also included an in depth overview of progress to date from the UMD team completing the health study. You can follow their work here.
And, Dr. Anver Vengosh of Duke University walked the commissioners through his recent findings on underground methane migration from fracked wells to drinking water sources. His study shows that water wells within 1 kilometer (3,280 ft) of a fracked well have significantly higher levels of methane than wells beyond that boundary. Currently, the max proposed setback of fracking wells from drinking wells is only 2,000 ft. Clearly, not enough.
We’ll continue to watchdog the process and call for the strongest possible protections against fracking. Stay tuned for ways you can voice your opinions on this crucial issue for our climate, water, and communities.

In the final days of the 2014 legislative session, the Maryland General Assembly — despite passing many strong bills on climate change in recent years — voted to effectively stop construction of an entire modern wind farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
But that’s not all. The same bad bill — HB 1168 — would effectively delay and perhaps stop land-based wind power development in all or part of 12 Maryland counties in the eastern and southern parts of our state. Why? Because of military radar concerns that experts believe can be totally resolved without harmful new state legislation.
In solidarity with Maryland’s major environmental groups, Governor Martin O’Malley vigorously opposed this “anti-wind power” bill during the legislative session that just ended. The governor explicitly urged the General Assembly not to stymie wind power development this way. But with ferocious lobbying from special-interest defense contractors and their political supporters, the bill passed anyway. Now, for the sake of climate change and clean energy solutions, it’s time for Governor O’Malley to pull out his veto pen!
Click here to ask Gov. O’Malley to VETO HB 1168, the “anti-wind power” bill. Please send your email right now — the future of Maryland wind power is truly at stake. 
Overall, it was a challenging year for clean energy in the 2014 General Assembly. The so-called “black liquor loophole” bill — which would have ended renewable-energy bonuses to out-of-state paper mills that burn toxic pulp waste — did not pass. But we strongly believe that with your help, this bill will get over the finish line next year! Likewise, a great bill to double wind and solar power usage goals in Maryland by the year 2025 did not become law. This bill — also known as the “40% RPS bill” — was enthusiastically welcomed by many key lawmakers, especially given rapidly falling wind and solar prices nationwide. We’ll pass it next year. Finally, the General Assembly failed to act once again on fracking — we’ll keep you updated on ways to take action on that front this summer.
But there’s still time to turn the 2014 legislative year into a big win for the environment if Governor O’Malley simply vetoes HB 1168. A veto will send the message that Maryland really is serious about clean energy development that helps rural farmers and creates good-paying union jobs while remaining utterly compatible with national security needs. Indeed, stopping climate change is America’s TOP national security need.
So please ask Gov. O’Malley to VETO HB 1168, the “anti-wind power” bill, so Maryland can pursue a robust, clean energy future. 
Learn more facts about this bill by clicking here, including how the Patuxent River Naval Air Station is already in agreement with a wind farm developer on the Eastern Shore for how radar needs and wind power can co-exist. The key — confirmed by an MIT study — is simply to turn the windmills off when the Navy is using a key radar system. The wind company — Pioneer Green — has agreed to do this. But exaggerated concerns by private defense contractors led to passage of HB 1168 nonetheless.
Governor O’Malley — whose 8-year stint as governor ends this year — can leave office with perhaps his most heroic action yet on climate change: vetoing a bad bill so Marylanders can benefit forever from healthy, clean energy.
Click here to take action now.