Clean Power Plan is Win-Win Solution for Virginia

Clean Power Plan Gives Va. Win-Win Way to Tackle Coastal Flooding While Saving Consumers Money

By joining proven regional system, Va. can cut emissions efficiently and generate $200 million annually to invest in solutions
RICHMOND, Va.—Today the Obama administration issued the first nationwide rules for cutting carbon emissions from power plants under the Clean Air Act. The “Clean Power Plan” standard represents the most significant federal action yet to tackle climate change, which is driving the sea-level rise already routinely flooding Virginia’s coastal communities. The final rules allow states to work together to develop regional compliance plans to reduce carbon dioxide pollution through 2030, and provide incentives to states who choose this option.
The Chesapeake Climate Action Network, joining a wide range of advocates across the state, believes that the best path forward for Virginia to meet the new federal standard is to join an existing nine-state pollution reduction system called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).
By incentivizing investments in energy efficiency, the RGGI program is proven to save consumers money. By capping carbon pollution and requiring power plants to buy emissions permits, the market-based RGGI system would send much-needed funds back to Virginia. Virginia would receive about $200 million annually through 2030 to reinvest in solutions, such as flooding adaptation projects, energy efficiency, and job training.
Dawone Robinson, Virginia Policy Director at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, had the following statement in response:
“Virginia has a win-win solution at its fingertips. Joining the nine-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is the smartest path forward for Virginia to lower emissions, while creating jobs and generating resources to invest in solutions. Over the past three years, RGGI has saved consumers $460 million, generated $1.30 billion in net economic value, and created 14,200 new jobs, all while reducing carbon pollution faster than the rest of the nation. Virginians currently pay some of the highest average electric bills in the country, primarily because we lag far behind on energy efficiency, a problem that RGGI resources would help solve.
“Notably, RGGI is the only plan on the table to jump-start a shared solution to sea-level rise in Virginia. Our coast needs a massive, coordinated investment to protect citizens, critical infrastructure, economic assets, and the world’s largest naval base from flooding that’s here now and only getting worse. Bipartisan legislation that would move Virginia into the RGGI system — a bill called the Virginia Coastal Protection Act — would help Virginia meet the requirements of the Clean Power Plan while creating the state’s first dedicated funding stream for flooding adaptation projects, which would also be a major job creator.
“The General Assembly has a huge opportunity to maximize the benefits of the Clean Power Plan by passing the Virginia Coastal Protection Act in 2016 and moving Virginia into RGGI.”
Background: The Virginia Coastal Protection Act is a bipartisan solution introduced in the 2015 General Assembly by Senator Donald McEachin of Richmond and Delegate Ron Villanueva of Virginia Beach. In 2015, the bill gained broad and high-profile support, including from the cities of Portsmouth and Virginia Beach, the Virginia Chapter of the American Association of Pediatrics, the Virginia Housing Coalition, and statewide environmental groups. The bill would join Virginia into RGGI and create the Commonwealth Resilience Fund to reinvest the funds generated into statewide climate solutions. A full half of the funds would help localities pay for flooding adaptation measures, while additional funds would support energy efficiency and clean energy programs statewide, as well as economic development in Southwest Virginia.
Contact:
Dawone Robinson, 804-767-8983, dawone@chesapeakeclimate.org
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

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The Chesapeake Climate Action Network is the biggest and oldest grassroots organization dedicated to fighting climate change in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. We’re building a powerful movement to shift our region away from climate-harming fossil fuels and to clean energy solutions.

Baltimore City Council Moves to Endorse Statewide Fracking Ban

Committee advances resolution urging permanent ban on dangerous drilling; full Council hearing scheduled for August 17

Statement of ‘Don’t Frack Maryland’ Coalition Members Mitch Jones, Shilpa Joshi and Andy Galli

Baltimore, MD – On Tuesday, the Baltimore City Council took its first step toward urging a statewide ban on the dangerous practice of fracking in Maryland. After hearing public testimony, the Council’s Judiciary Committee voted 3-0 to advance a resolution calling on the state to place an outright ban on fracking due to its harmful health, environmental and economic impacts. The resolution currently has 13 co-sponsors and is scheduled for a vote by the full Council on August 17.
Earlier this year, the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill that prohibits the state from issuing fracking permits through October 2017. The bill became law this May. The resolution, introduced by Councilmember James Kraft last week, calls on the state to enact permanent protections for Maryland communities, noting, “There is no scientific research supporting claims that [fracking] can be carried out in a way that reduces health and environmental risks to an acceptable level.”
In response, several representatives of the “Don’t Frack Maryland” coalition issued the following statements:
“Just since the General Assembly approved a two-year moratorium important new public health studies have confirmed the risks fracking poses to our state,” said Mitch Jones, Senior Policy Advocate at Food & Water Watch. “Studies showing increased hospitalizations in heavily fracked areas, correlations between lowered birth weights for newborns and proximity to fracked wells, and the distance that air pollution from fracking can travel are just the latest in the mountain of research that shows fracking is dangerous to our health. Fracking’s impacts are widespread and don’t just affect people living next to fracked wells – which is what Baltimore realizes.”
“The Baltimore City Council is taking the right step for both communities and our climate,” said Shilpa Joshi, Maryland Campaign Coordinator at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “Studies show that fracked gas could be worse for the climate than coal because the fracking process leaks methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. With so much of Maryland’s economic activity at risk due to rising sea levels and growing flooding, we can’t afford to take steps backward toward another dirty fossil fuel.”
“Just as the City Council lead in 2013 with legislation to ban the treatment of fracking wastewater, they are leading again with a resolution to ask for a statewide fracking ban. Council members certainly understand the best way to protect Baltimore’s water and the public’s health from fracking is not to frack at all. We applaud their decision,” said Andy Galli of Clean Water Action.
Contact:
Kelly Trout, (240) 396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

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Background: More than 100 groups came together and worked tirelessly to empower Marylanders to form the Don’t Frack Maryland Campaign and fight for a long-term moratorium on fracking. During the 2015 General Assembly, more than 100 Western Maryland business owners joined this call, and Marylanders sent over 25,000 messages to legislators supporting a moratorium. Letters signed by more than 100 health professionals, and more than 50 restaurant owners, chefs, winemakers and farmers from across the state were also delivered to the legislature. Even actor and Maryland native Edward Norton helped the effort, providing a radio ad appealing to the Governor to sign the bill. Two commissioners of the “Marcellus Shale Safe Drilling Initiative,” released a letter in January outlining the commission’s study did not incorporate a great deal of the recently-released studies exploring the health effects of fracking.

Maryland Adopts One of the Highest Energy Efficiency Targets in America for Electricity

PSC also commits to major gas efficiency

Environmentalists praise historic move: New policy is equivalent to retiring a major coal plant every two years or tripling the state’s existing wind farms annually

BALTIMORE—On Thursday, the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) launched Maryland into the top tier of electricity-saving states by embracing one of the highest energy efficiency targets in the country. The PSC also ordered, for the first time, that natural gas usage reduction goals will be adopted for all gas companies in Maryland. The long-awaited decision, incorporating input from a wide range of stakeholders, gives a huge boost to the state’s “EmPOWER Maryland” program, designed to help consumers while fighting climate change.
Thursday’s order requires that Maryland’s electric utilities achieve annual incremental electricity savings of 2.0% of retail sales per year in perpetuity. That is a significant increase over today’s levels. In 2013, Maryland achieved gross savings equal to 1.3% of retail sales. To put Maryland’s new goals into a national perspective, only two other states—Rhode Island and Massachusetts—achieved saving levels higher than 2% last year. In terms of future targets, Maryland’s new goals are among the top five in the country.
“The state of Maryland has just taken a huge step in showing that action on air pollution and climate change can go hand in hand with consumer savings,” said Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “The PSC deserves praise for hearing the public’s voice that efficiency is a win-win. We now hope other states will follow suit at this same high level.”
The impacts of the PSC decision on Maryland’s electricity grid and the resulting carbon reductions are significant. The new EmPOWER rules will require utilities to save over 1.2 million megawatt-hours per year.[1] That’s the energy equivalent of closing a 460 megawatt coal-fired plant every two years, [2] and will reduce carbon at levels equivalent to taking 173,000 cars off the road annually [3]. To put that another way, today’s new EmPOWER rules will reduce carbon emissions at a rate equivalent to building 470 megawatts of new wind power every year. That’s nearly three times greater than Maryland’s installed wind capacity today.
The Commission’s decision to extend the EmPOWER Maryland program to all gas companies is also a potential game-changer for energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions. While a handful of gas companies already offer some energy savings options to their customers, the state lacks a unified natural gas savings goal. Given that direct consumption of natural gas accounts for 10% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, reductions in this sector are imperative as part of a comprehensive climate change strategy. The PSC did not establish specific goals for natural gas in this order, but they did establish a timeline for developing those goals and prescribed certain minimum parameters that must be observed during the process. This order ensures that natural gas savings options will eventually be made available to customers statewide.
CCAN worked very closely with a large and diverse coalition of energy efficiency advocates to achieve Thursday’s important victory. We look forward to continuing our work with this coalition, the PSC, and other state actors to ensure these rules are fully implemented to achieve maximum energy savings.
View the PSC’s order at: http://167.102.231.189/case-decisions/order-no-87082-case-nos-9153-9157-9362-empower-md-energy-efficiency-goal-allocating-and-cost-effectiveness/
REFERENCES:
1. Maryland 2013 retail sales: 61,899,478 MWh per EIA-826, <http://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/eia826/>. 2% of 2013 sales is 1,237,990 MWh.
2. Based on 2014 annual coal capacity factor (60.9%) <http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_6_07_a>
3. Assumes offset emissions factor of 1,480 lbs/MWh. From the Maryland Energy Administration’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act analysis of EmPOWER
Contact:
Mike Tidwell, 240-460-5838, mtidwell@chesapeakeclimate.org
Kelly Trout, 717-439-0346, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

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The Chesapeake Climate Action Network is the biggest and oldest grassroots organization dedicated to fighting climate change in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. We’re building a powerful movement to shift our region away from climate-harming fossil fuels and to clean energy solutions.

Baltimore Residents Protest Dangerous Oil Trains as City Council Weighs Action

Analysis indicates 165,000 Baltimore residents live within the potential oil train blast zone
City Council urged to place a moratorium on permits for crude oil shipping terminals
BALTIMORE—Over 70 concerned citizens gathered outside City Hall and packed a hearing room on Wednesday evening to protest the growing public safety and environmental dangers of potentially explosive oil trains moving through Baltimore. The rally preceded the Baltimore City Council’s first informational public hearing on the issue, and was organized as part of the “Stop Oil Trains” week of action uniting dozens of cities across North America. This week marks the two-year anniversary of the worst oil train derailment and explosion in North America, in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec.
Oil companies are increasingly targeting Baltimore as a gateway for shipping crude oil to East Coast refineries. In recent years, the industry has used trains to move millions of gallons of highly toxic and flammable Bakken crude oil to and through Baltimore—past homes, schools, churches, hospitals, and likely the Inner Harbor—and over tracks that were never designed for this dangerous cargo.
The nonprofit organization ForestEthics calculates that 165,000 Baltimore residents—and City Hall itself—are within the potential oil train “blast zone,” the one-mile evacuation zone recommended by safety officials in the case of a derailment and fire.
“It’s clear that a crude oil train derailment in densely populated areas like Baltimore City could lead to a disastrous loss of life and property,” said Delegate Clarence Lam, MD, MPH (District 12—Howard and Baltimore Counties), who spoke at the rally and also testified before the City Council. “Communities should be informed about the potential dangers they face, and reasonable steps undertaken to reduce the risk to residents living nearby.”
To underscore those risks, rally-goers assembled a replica “oil train” marked with the dates and sites of accidents that have occurred across North America, including the tragedy in Lac-Mégantic, which killed 47 people.
Speakers called on city and state leaders to act now to protect local rail communities. Specifically, the City Council could place a moratorium on approving permits for crude oil shipping terminals until local emergency management, health and safety officials study the associated dangers. Vancouver, WA, and Albany, NY, have already enacted similar city moratoria on permits for crude oil shipping facilities.
“The City Council has taken an important first step to shed light on the risks of oil trains,” said Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “A city moratorium on permits is the sensible next step. If we want fewer code-red air days and less extreme weather, we cannot allow oil companies to use Baltimore as a gateway for extremely toxic, explosive, and climate-disrupting oil.”
During the 2015 legislative session, Delegate Lam introduced a state bill that would have required rail companies to disclose the route, frequency and volume of crude oil being transported by rail through Maryland. CSX and Norfolk Southern have sued the state to prevent the public release of this information. Neither company sent representatives to the City Council hearing.
“Oil trains put the lives of hundreds of thousands of Baltimoreans at risk, including me, my family, and my neighbors, all for the benefit of dirty energy,” said Pastor Amy Sens, a pastor at six:eight United Church of Christ who lives near train tracks in Morrell Park. “Oil trains are an equal opportunity danger, and one we ignore to our peril.”
“Baltimore does not need another environmental injustice that lets ‘Big Oil’ use our city as a throughway to East Coast refineries,” said Will Fadely, Baltimore Program Organizer at Clean Water Action. “Oil trains put our water at risk of spills of oil and other toxic chemicals, and will run right through the heart of the most vulnerable communities in the city. The environmental, community health, and safety impacts far outweigh any benefits.”
“Oil trains don’t have to explode to be dangerous,” said Trisha Sheehan, Regional Field Director at Moms Clean Air Force. “They leak toxic chemicals, endangering everyone’s lungs, especially those most vulnerable to air pollution—our children.”
Wednesday’s rally in Baltimore was organized by the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Clean Water Action, and the Maryland Environmental Health Network.
It coincided with over 80 events planned across North America during the week of July 6th to draw attention to the growing threat oil trains pose to our health, safety, and climate. Organizers of this week of action are demanding a federal ban on dangerous oil trains.
Reporting by the Baltimore Sun shows that the oil industry has used the Fairfield Peninsula in South Baltimore to unload and ship over 100 million gallons of crude oil over 2013 and 2014, up from zero gallons the previous two years. In addition to bringing significant safety dangers, oil trains threaten to worsen air quality in communities like South Baltimore, where residents already breathe in some of the dirtiest air in Maryland.
Nationally, oil train traffic has grown by 4,000 percent in the past six years, due to the rapid increase in fracking for oil in the Bakken shale fields of North Dakota and in tar sands oil extraction in Canada. The oil moving by train—which represents a small percentage of overall U.S. oil consumption—is more volatile and flammable than conventional oil. Five derailments and explosions occurred in North America in the first five months of 2015.
RESOURCES FOR JOURNALISTS:

Contact:
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

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In Grassroots Victory, Two-Year Fracking Moratorium Becomes Law in Maryland

The following news release is from the Don’t Frack Maryland coalition:

Gov. Hogan quietly allows fracking moratorium bill to become law without his signature

Annapolis, Md. – At the end of the day today, Friday May 29, a two and a half year fracking moratorium will become law in Maryland. Over Memorial Day weekend, Governor Hogan announced that he would not veto the bill (HB 449/SB409) and will allow it to pass into law without his signature. This past legislative session, the Maryland General Assembly passed the bill with veto-proof majorities (60%) in each house. The Maryland House of Delegates passed the bill 103-33 and it passed 45-2 in the Senate.
“I am relieved and delighted that Governor Hogan will allow mine and Delegate Fraser-Hidalgo’s bill for a 2 year moratorium on fracking to become law without his signature,” said Senator Karen Montgomery, the bill’s Senate sponsor. “Now we have two years to continue to compile indisputable scientific data.”
“Governor Hogan neither signed nor vetoed the bill, so it becomes law, said Delegate David Fraser-Hidalgo, the bill’s House sponsor. “We would have liked the moratorium to span 8 years according to the original bill to allot more time for public health and scientific study of the industry, but we are satisfied that no fracking will take place in Maryland before October 2017. This is a significant accomplishment for the state and one that we believe all counties and localities in Maryland will benefit.”
The Don’t Frack Maryland Campaign has worked across the state in support of this moratorium and brought together a broad coalition of Marylanders from health professionals, business owners, farmers, families and residents from across the state. Over 100 groups came together and organized to collect and deliver letters to the Governor and the Maryland General Assembly in support of the moratorium. The group backed an ad recorded by actor and Maryland native, Edward Norton, targeting the Governor to sign the bill. The Baltimore Sun also editorialized in favor of the moratorium, calling it “the kind of compromise that … Gov. Larry Hogan ought to embrace.”
“Governor Hogan is rightly following the will of the public in allowing Maryland’s first statutory moratorium on fracking to become law,” said Shilpa Joshi, Maryland campaign coordinator at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “This victory belongs to the citizens from Mountain Maryland to the Eastern Shore who have fought for years to protect our air, water, economy, and climate from the gas industry. The grassroots movement that flooded Governor Hogan’s office and the General Assembly with emails and calls this spring will only grow and get louder over the next two years to ensure our communities remain protected.”
“The movement behind this moratorium was unyielding,” said Mitch Jones, Common Resources Director for Food & Water Watch. “Passing a moratorium under a pro-fracking Governor is a testament to the effectiveness that organizing can have. As more and more scientific studies show the health and environmental problems with fracking, more and more Marylanders oppose the practice. When we are used to seeing moneyed interests rule, it is encouraging to see elected officials heed the will of the people to protect their communities.”
Rebecca Ruggles, Director of the Maryland Environmental Health Network said, “In the short time since the legislature passed this bill, we have already seen new health threats being documented. There is a new University of Maryland study published which raises questions about Maryland air pollution from fracking in other states, a new review of the risks to communities, and a study looking at impacts on vulnerable populations. We really need at least 30 months to monitor and assess this flow of health studies and analyses.”
“This moratorium will give us time to assess the constant flow of new studies about the health, economic and societal effects of fracking before it comes to our home,” said Dr. Ann Bristow, a commissioner who served on Governor O’Malley’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission. “Proactive and preventive action through community-based education and citizen engagement is necessary in policy decisions that will effect people’s health. Hitting the pause button on fracking is the most responsible and ethical way for public health and safety policy to move forward.”
“For the growing numbers of western Maryland residents and business owners who live in fear that fracking will ruin our communities, natural resources, property values and thriving tourism economy, this moratorium is a relief,” said Nadine Grabania of Citizen Shale and owner of Deep Creek Cellars. “We now have two years to explore fracking’s threats to public health and safety and potential to drive away visitors, homeowners, and businesses, who, for over a century have vacationed and invested in our mountains for reasons that a vast majority of Marylanders hold dear.”
“Clean Water Action is pleased that HB 449 and SB 409 have become law,” said Andy Galli Clean Water Action’s Maryland Program Coordinator. “However we were hoping that the Governor would affirm his commitment to protecting Maryland and its citizens from the many dangers of fracking by signing the law, which was passed by both houses with a large bi-partisan majority. Clean Water believes that in two years many more accounts of the health impacts, water pollution, environmental degradation as well as violations and legal cases, will cause the Legislature and Administration to reach the conclusion at the end of that time that the only future path regarding fracking in Maryland is the one taken by New York.”
Contact:
Shilpa Joshi, 240-396-2029, shilpa@chesapeakeclimate.org
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

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Background: More than 100 groups came together and worked tirelessly to empower Marylanders to form the Don’t Frack Maryland Campaign and fight for a long-term moratorium on fracking. This Don’t Frack Maryland campaign brought together more than 100 Western Maryland business owners and has also sent over 25,000 messages to legislators supporting a moratorium. Letters signed by more than 100 health professionals, and more than 50 restaurant owners, chefs, winemakers and farmers from across the state were also delivered to the legislature. Even actor and Maryland native Edward Norton helped the effort, providing a radio adappealing to the Governor to sign the bill. Two commissioners of the “Marcellus Shale Safe Drilling Initiative,” released a letter in January outlining the commission’s study did not incorporate a great deal of the recently-released studies exploring the health effects of fracking.

CCAN Condemns Maryland Decision to Approve Exelon-Pepco Merger

Group says Public Service Commission failed utterly by approving monopolistic deal that will harm ratepayers and the environment for years to come

BALTIMORE—The Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) today deeply harmed the interests of ratepayers and the environment by approving a widely contested merger between Chicago-based utility giant Exelon and regional utility Pepco. The Maryland regulators’ 3-2 decision to approve the deal is being denounced by environmental and consumer advocates as a major blow to the state’s ability to achieve a clean, reliable and efficient 21st century electric grid.
Click here to read the Maryland PSC order on the Exelon-Pepco Merger.
The D.C. Public Service Commission has yet to rule on the merger, and could still block the deal.
Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, a group that intervened before the PSC against the proposed merger, released the following statement in response:
“The PSC has made a grave error today in approving the Exelon-Pepco merger. This approval, with no meaningful conditions added by the commissioners, threatens to negatively affect Marylanders for decades to come. The PSC has totally failed in its responsibility to protect the ratepayers from exactly the sort of monopolistic harm that they have now ushered in. The PSC has put the profits of a Chicago-based corporation over the public interest of Marylanders, despite the overwhelming opposition of the state’s attorney general, the Office of People’s Counsel, the Maryland Energy Administration, and Maryland’s environmental community.
“This decision today by the PSC will prove to be historic – and the commissioners themselves long-remembered in the sharpest negative light – for the rate increases soon to follow and the harm to the environment and the economy. Of particular note, Commissioner Kelly Speakes-Backman – an O’Malley appointee to the commission and a staunch advocate for environmental protection through clean energy – defied expectations and cast the swing vote in the 3-2 decision, joining Chairman Kevin Hughes and Commissioner Lawrence Brenner. (Commissioners Anne Hoskins and Harold Williams dissented, voting against the merger). Speakes-Backman has simply stunned the environmental and renewable energy industry with her inexplicable support of a decision that will now make her effectively known for years for the negative consequences to come.
“As the PSC commissioners themselves noted in their decision, this nearly $7 billion merger raised unusually deep concerns across the state about risks to consumers, businesses, and the environment in Maryland. The merger could raise rates and inhibit wind and solar development, as well as reduce efficiency gains, across 85 percent of the state’s customer base for electricity. Unless D.C. PSC regulators make the right choice where Maryland went wrong, these negatives impacts are almost certain to occur with today’s flawed approval. Maryland attorney General Brian Frosh spoke for many opponents before this decision in saying ‘no amount of money or structural changes can make this deal into one that’s in Maryland’s best interest.’ Yet the PSC today, tragically, ruled otherwise.
“As the Commissioners surely know, Exelon will now become the largest utility in America and will almost certainly double down on its established business model of protecting its aging and unprofitable nuclear fleet at all costs while fighting any significant expansion of wind and solar power in Maryland. Likewise, the company will likely continue to oppose significant increases in energy efficiency gains or meaningful development of community-based energy systems and micro grids.
“Exelon’s application is still pending before the D.C. Public Service Commission. Just this week, several D.C. Council members called on the mayor to oppose the merger. Hopefully, D.C.’s Public Service Commissioners will heed the call of leaders and residents throughout the District, and reject this woefully insufficient merger proposal.”
Contact:
Mike Tidwell, 240-460-5838, mtidwell@chesapeakeclimate.org
Kelly Trout, 717-439-0346, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

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CCAN Applauds Step to Boost Va. Energy Efficiency Goals

Among states, Virginia ranks toward the bottom in efficiency; has 8th highest average electric bills

RICHMOND—Governor Terry McAuliffe today announced he is accelerating Virginia’s goal to reduce retail electricity consumption from 10 percent by 2022 to 10 percent by 2020, and establishing the Governor’s Executive Committee on Energy Efficiency to develop a state plan to ensure Virginia hits this new target.
Dawone Robinson, Virginia Policy Director at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, had the following statement in response:
“We applaud Governor McAuliffe for taking this win-win step forward for Virginia’s environment and economy. Increasing energy efficiency is our lowest-hanging fruit when it comes to reducing the carbon emissions fueling severe weather and sea-level rise. Currently, Virginia ranks toward the bottom of U.S. states in reducing energy use, which is a big reason our families pay the 8th-highest average electric bills. By investing in energy efficiency solutions, we will cut pollution while lowering the bills of low- to moderate-income homeowners and renters and putting people to work.”
Contact:
Dawone Robinson, 804-767-0372, dawone@chesapeakeclimate.org
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

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The Chesapeake Climate Action Network is the biggest and oldest grassroots organization dedicated to fighting climate change in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. We’re building a powerful movement to shift our region away from climate-harming fossil fuels and to clean energy solutions.

Groups Appeal Federal Approval of Cove Point Fracked Gas Export Facility

Lawsuit charges that regulators illegally ignored the project’s impact on fracking, climate change, and the Chesapeake Bay

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Environmental groups sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) today over its decision to approve a massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal along the Chesapeake Bay in southern Maryland without conducting a rigorous environmental review.
The lawsuit, filed in the federal appeals court for the D.C. Circuit, charges that FERC circumvented the law by failing to consider how Dominion Resources’ $3.8 billion Cove Point project would trigger expanded fracking for natural gas in the Marcellus shale region, leading to significant new amounts of air, water and climate-disrupting pollution. Additionally, the groups contend that FERC failed to adequately consider the impact of foreign ships dumping dirty wastewater into the Chesapeake Bay. Earthjustice filed the suit today on behalf of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Patuxent Riverkeeper, and Sierra Club.
“After months of delay, we will finally get our day in court to challenge the fundamentally flawed approval of Dominion’s climate- and community-wrecking project,” said Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “Time and again, FERC has shown a blatant disregard for the health and safety of people and the climate and, we believe, the law. Tragically, FERC’s foot-dragging has allowed Dominion bulldozers to start construction before Calvert County residents had legal recourse to challenge the agency’s decision.”
For nearly seven months, FERC had delayed ruling on the groups’ request for a rehearing of its September 29 decision approving the project, even as the agency approved order after order allowing Dominion to begin construction. FERC finally rejected the groups’ rehearing motion on Monday, clearing the way for today’s legal challenge.
Dominion’s construction activities have already begun to irrevocably damage the landscape and quality of life in Calvert County, Maryland. Some local residents have put their homes up for sale and moved away rather than deal with mounting pollution, noise, and large trucks and construction vehicles inundating roadways, as well as the potential for catastrophic explosions and fires if the facility becomes fully operational.
“With this order, FERC yet again has failed to fulfill its duty under federal environmental law,” said Jocelyn D’Ambrosio, senior associate attorney at Earthjustice. “Exporting nearly 1 billion cubic feet of LNG per day means more gas drilling, which wreaks havoc on both the climate and the communities scarred by wells and pipelines. We are asking the federal court to ensure that FERC evaluates the many ways that the Cove Point project will degrade the environment.”
FERC has faced escalating protests and mounting legal challenges over the past year for facilitating a massive expansion of gas export infrastructure and pipelines at the expense of the public interest. Legal challenges are also pending over the agency’s approval of LNG export facilities in Sabine Pass and Cameron, Louisiana and in Freeport, Texas.
“Exporting LNG will lead to more drilling—and more drilling means more fracking, more air and water pollution, and more climate-fueled weather disasters like record fires, droughts, and superstorms,” said Nathan Matthews, Sierra Club staff attorney. “FERC consistently fails to take the full impact of fracking into account when it considers whether to green light LNG exports, and it did so again in the case of Cove Point. For the sake of public health and our fragile climate we have no alternative but to challenge FERC’s incomplete environmental review in federal court.”
“The Dominion expansion at Cove Point has been given a green light by parties at the county, state and federal level regardless of and with little regard for the likely environmental impacts,” said Fred Tutman, Patuxent Riverkeeper. “The local environmental impacts have been dismissed even as the economic impacts have been largely distorted and inadequately explored. We now look to the courts to step in where our regulators have failed in order to safeguard our waterway and communities.”
The Dominion Cove Point project would take gas from wells across Appalachia and liquefy it along the shore of the Chesapeake Bay for export to Asia. The project would be the first LNG export facility ever built so close to so many homes and the first built in close proximity to Marcellus Shale fracking operations. According to federal data, exporting fracked gas could contribute more to global warming over the next two decades than burning coal mined in the Asian countries importing LNG.
The groups’ lawsuit centers on FERC’s unlawfully narrow Environmental Assessment. That review—challenged in over 150,000 citizen comments—omitted credible analysis of the project’s lifecycle global warming pollution, along with all the pollution associated with driving demand for upstream fracking and fracked gas infrastructure; its impact on water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and risk to the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale; and potentially catastrophic explosion and fire threat to hundreds of nearby residents.
View the petition filed today in the federal appeals court for the D.C. Circuit (Case No. 15-1127) : http://chesapeakeclimate.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Cove-Point-Petition-for-Review-as-Filed-2015-05-07.pdf
Contact:
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org
Keith Rushing, 202-797-5236, krushing@earthjustice.org

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Dominion Confronted by Protests Outside Annual Shareholder Meeting Over Company’s Dirty Energy and Dirty Politics

Protesters from Augusta Co. to Norfolk to Cove Point, Md. unite to challenge business practices wrecking communities and the climate

Glen Allen, Va.—Over 150 protesters from across Virginia and Maryland greeted Dominion Resources executives and board members arriving for the company’s annual shareholder meeting this morning, in a sign of the growing citizen backlash over the company’s dirty energy investments and dirty politics. (Click here to view photos.)
More than 50 landowners and concerned citizens from Buckingham, Nelson, and Augusta Counties—all in the path of the company’s controversial proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline—journeyed by bus. They were joined outside the entrance to Dominion’s training facility by citizens who had packed vans from Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, and other communities fighting the company’s climate-threatening plans and its anti-democratic lock on Virginia politicians.
Protesters charged that Dominion—the top corporate campaign donor and top climate polluter in Virginia—is using its vast political influence to stack the deck in favor of costly and risky investments in massive ‘fracked’ gas and nuclear projects, trample the property rights of landowners, and attack sensible solutions like the federal Clean Power Plan.
“Dominion and its shareholders need to know that we are here today because the plan to route the Atlantic Coast Pipeline through our home deeply violates so many of our personal and community values,” said Joanna Salidis, President of Friends of Nelson County. “Property owners want Dominion to respect that ‘No’ means ‘No.’ We want Dominion to uphold their claim that eminent domain is a method of last resort — not a gift from the government to maximize profit on the backs of unwilling private property owners and communities.”
To underline their point, protesters erected a “Dominion-opoly” board showcasing the sites of dirty energy projects currently proposed or under construction by the company. A 40-foot-long mock pipeline was inflated and carried by the crowd, while chants and colorful banners drew the attention of arriving attendees and passersby.
“Students from campuses across Virginia are heeding the warning of climate change and are now acting on what they have found to be the most urgent issue that we as humans have collectively faced,” said Rabib Hasan, President of the the Virginia Student Environmental Coalition. “Dominion’s plans to build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and expand fossil fuel infrastructure show the company’s negligence towards this global challenge.”
Dominion Virginia Power’s most recent 15-year energy plan would increase planet-heating carbon emissions by more than 30 percent. In the recent state legislative session, Dominion came under fire for using its vast political influence to squash significant measures to address climate change and to ram through anti-consumer legislation.
“Dominion’s dirty energy choices and political dealings with ALEC are not in the best interest of the citizens of Virginia,” said Kendyl Crawford, Conservation Program Coordinator with Virginia Sierra Club. “Dominion needs to get serious about addressing climate change. According to its own projections, Dominion’s over reliance on natural gas will increase its climate changing carbon pollution 39% by 2028.”
“We’re frustrated by Dominion’s failure to take strong action on climate change,” said Charlie Spatz, Statewide Field Organizer with Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “Dominion’s spending billions of dollars to expand ‘fracked’ gas infrastructure, yet when it comes to renewable energy the company has very little to show. In recent weeks, Dominion announced it would be indefinitely delaying its offshore wind project. That’s not the kind of leadership we need to get us on track to solve the climate crisis.”
“It’s important for people in Cove Point to stand with people in Richmond, Nelson County, Myersville and everywhere else Dominion is running roughshod over people’s lives,” said Donny Williams of the We Are Cove Point coalition. “Dominion is already more than six months behind schedule in constructing its mammoth LNG export terminal in Cove Point thanks to the people standing up for their communities to stop it. We’re here today to make it as clear as possible that we simply will not allow the company to continue putting profits before our well-being — risking many of our lives in the process.”
Organizations supporting the protest today include the Augusta County Alliance, Beyond Extreme Energy, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Chesapeake Earth First!, FANG (Fighting Against Natural Gas), Free Nelson, Friends of Buckingham County, Friends of Nelson County, Myersville Citizens for a Rural Community (Md.), Richmond Resistance, SEED (Stopping Extraction and Exports Destruction), Virginia Chapter Sierra Club, We Are Cove Point, and Wild Virginia.
CONTACT:
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

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Climate Advocates Applaud Signing of Virginia Solar Bills, Call for Bolder Solutions

CHESTER, Va.—Governor Terry McAuliffe today signed into law several pieces of clean energy legislation passed by the 2015 General Assembly. The bills signed include legislation doubling the cap on the size of solar energy systems that Virginia businesses are allowed to install to offset their own energy usage (HB 1950/ SB 1395), and legislation creating a new Virginia Solar Development Authority (HB 2267/ SB 1099).
Clean energy advocates applauded both bills as positive steps forward, while noting they are only the beginning of what’s needed to catch Virginia up to its neighbors in developing clean power and the jobs that come with it.
Dawone Robinson, Virginia Policy Director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, had the following statement in response:
“The fact that we’re celebrating Earth Day by witnessing several pieces of clean energy legislation get signed into law is proof of the growing movement in Virginia demanding solutions to climate change.
“Virginia currently has only 11 megawatts of solar installed, and that figure is embarrassingly low, especially compared to our neighbors. Virginia has as much or more solar potential than Maryland and North Carolina, yet those states have more than 200 megawatts and 950 megawatts of solar currently installed respectively thanks to much stronger state policies.
“Thanks to the leadership of key lawmakers—including Senators Dance and Stuart, and Delegates McClellan and Hugo, chief patrons of the bills signed into law today—we are beginning to take necessary steps to catch up with our neighbors in clean energy jobs and investments. We appreciate Governor McAuliffe’s signature on these bills and we look forward to passing even bolder clean energy solutions in the next legislative session.
“Hampton Roads is ground zero for climate change, as sea level rise driven by fossil fuel pollution gets progressively worse. As our citizens battle the climate crisis on a daily basis, Virginia must become a leader in advancing bold climate solutions, and an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach doesn’t cut it.”
Contact:
Dawone Robinson, 804-767-8983, dawone@chesapeakeclimate.org
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

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The Chesapeake Climate Action Network is the biggest and oldest grassroots organization dedicated to fighting climate change in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. We’re building a powerful movement to shift our region away from climate-harming fossil fuels and to clean energy solutions.