Cove Point Protests Go Statewide: Six Marylanders Arrested at Calvert County Courthouse Over Fracked Gas Export Plan

Peaceful sit-in led by local retired nurse and southern MD students comes less than 24 hours after federal regulators release apparent rubber-stamp review timeline
Protesters cite revelations over Dominion’s plan to build a giant vapor cloud containment wall as latest cause for a full federal environmental impact statement
PRINCE FREDERICK—Following on the heels of recent protests in Cumberland and Frederick, six Maryland residents were peacefully arrested this morning outside the Calvert County courthouse in Prince Frederick protesting Virginia-based Dominion Resources’ plan to build a liquefied natural gas export facility at Cove Point in nearby Lusby. The protesters, led by a retired nurse and former Air Force reservist from Lusby and including five students, blocked the courthouse entrance to demand justice in the federal handling of Dominion’s controversial $3.8 billion plan.
Less than 24 hours before the protest, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) formally announced it intends to release an “Environmental Assessment” on the project in May, a move strongly condemned by statewide and community leaders. The timeline ignores repeated demands made by local citizens, health, faith and environmental leaders, Maryland’s attorney general and the Baltimore Sun for a full Environmental Impact Statement—a more rigorous type of review that is customary for a polluting facility as massive as Cove Point. The plan also omits any specific commitment to public participation or hearings.
Holding signs like “Vapor Cloud Danger: We Need Answers” and “Dominion Pollutes the Truth,” the protesters in Calvert County cited recent revelations that Dominion plans to use a massive barrier wall as a means to contain potential releases of flammable vapor gas clouds as the latest reason for concern.
“Those of us who live in southern Calvert County are really concerned about our quality of life being degraded by a large industrial facility being built so close to our homes, schools and churches,” said David Hardy, a retired registered nurse and retired engineer craftsman in the Air Force Reserves who lives just three miles from the proposed facility. “Now we learn that Dominion has failed to reveal information about the serious possibility of a flammable vapor cloud reaching our homes. What else is Dominion hiding? We’re here to demand full answers from federal regulators whose first job should be protecting our safety.”

In recent a filing with FERC, Dominion publicly admitted for the first time that a six-story tall and three-quarter mile long wall—previously referred to only as a “sound abatement wall”—is part of an apparently unprecedented and untested barrier wall system that would be constructed to protect nearby residents from vapor gas clouds. Local citizens said this revelation only underscores the need for FERC to hold Dominion’s plans to the highest level of scrutiny by completing a full Environmental Impact Statement.
“Dominion’s proposal makes it quite clear that they aren’t concerned with our health or safety. What if their untested, sky-scraping concrete vapor barrier fails? Who gave them the right to put local families at risk?” said Ashok Chandwaney, a senior at St. Mary’s College. “I’m here today because I want a future with clean air and water. I want safe jobs so families can have both their health and food on the table. I want a future where St. Mary’s hasn’t been inundated by the rising sea levels that Cove Point would accelerate.”

The students arrested today included four studying at nearby St. Mary’s College and a student leader at the University of Maryland College Park. They echoed protesters from Cumberland to Frederick in drawing attention to the statewide impacts that could be triggered by the Cove Point export facility, including expanded fracking, new pipelines and compressor stations and, ultimately, significant new carbon pollution.
“How do you put a price on the future generations affected by the climate crisis that Cove Point’s greenhouse gas emissions will worsen? What is the cost of clean air and water?” said Ruth Tyson, a student at St. Mary’s College. “We’re speaking out because we can’t sit back anymore. We should be investing our resources in clean, renewable energy, which will create far more jobs, and it’s time for Dominion and our leaders to start listening.”
From Cumberland to Frederick to Calvert, the sit-ins reflect growing community opposition to Dominion’s plan that has spread across Maryland in recent months. Citing rising constituent concern, Maryland’s powerful U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski sent a letter to FERC last week calling on the agency to “go the extra mile” in engaging the public. The senators asked FERC to respond promptly to a request for public meetings on Cove Point in Garrett, Frederick, Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Montgomery Counties made by health, faith, community and environmental groups—a request ignored in FERC’s timeline announcement.
“I have spent countless hours fighting against this facility—I have petitioned, rallied, met with senators, testified in front of the Public Service Commission, and more,” said Ori Gutin, director of sustainability for the University of Maryland Student Government Association, which officially voted to oppose the Cove Point project. “And today, I physically plead with our lawmakers and regulators like FERC to stop siding with corporate profits, and to start protecting the planet and the people on it.”
RESOURCES:
See statements by the six Marylanders on why they engaged in civil disobedience over Cove Point.
View photos of today’s protest on Flickr.
Contact:
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022 (office), 717-439-0346 (cell), kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

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