Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline Would Require Extensive Mountaintop Removal

New research exposes how Dominion’s proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline would decapitate 38 miles of ridgelines in Virginia and West Virginia. Evidence will show project is OPPOSITE of “environmentally friendly” and states must reject it

RICHMOND, VA — A briefing paper released today details how Dominion Resources intends to blast away, excavate, and partially remove entire mountaintops along 38 miles of Appalachian ridgelines as part of the construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Engineering and policy experts have examined documents submitted by Dominion to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and, using GIS mapping software, found that Dominion would require mountaintops to be “reduced” by 10 to 60 feet along the proposed route of the pipeline. For perspective, the height equivalent of a five-story building would be erased in places from fully forested and ancient mountains.
Furthermore, Dominion has yet to reveal how it intends to dispose of at least 247,000 dump-truck-loads of excess rock and soil—known as “overburden”—that would accumulate from the construction along just these 38 miles of ridgetops.
“In light of the discovery that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline will cause 10 to 60 feet of mountaintops to be removed from 38 miles of Appalachian ridges, there is nothing left to debate,” said Mike Tidwell, Executive Director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “Dominion’s pipeline will cause irrevocable harm to the region’s environmental resources. With Clean Water Act certifications pending in both Virginia and West Virginia, we call on Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe and West Virginia Governor Jim Justice to reject this destructive pipeline.”
Dominion has submitted a proposal to FERC to build a 42-inch diameter pipeline that would transport natural gas from West Virginia into Virginia and North Carolina. Dominion has attempted to paint the Atlantic Coast Pipeline as an “environmentally-friendly” project. However, its proposed construction method and route selection across and along steep mountains is unprecedented for the region—if not the country—and is viewed as extreme and radical by landowners, conservationists, and engineers. Similar impacts – although not yet fully inventoried – could come from the construction of a second pipeline to the south: the Mountain Valley Pipeline led by the company EQT Midstream Partners, LP.
“The Atlantic Coast Pipeline could easily prove itself deadly,” said Joyce Burton, Board Member of Friends of Nelson. “Many of the slopes along the right of way are significantly steeper than a black diamond ski slope. Both FERC and Dominion concede that constructing pipelines on these steep slopes can increase the potential for landslides, yet they still have not demonstrated how they propose to protect us from this risk. With all of this, it is clear that this pipeline is a recipe for disaster.”
The briefing paper released today was prepared by the Chesapeake Climate Action Network in coordination with the Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance, Friends of Nelson, Appalachian Mountain Advocates, and the Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition. It cites data from the Draft Environmental Impact Statement prepared by the Federal Energy Regulatory Council (FERC) as well as  information supplied to FERC by Dominion. It also compiles information from GIS (Geographic Information System) mapping software and independent reports prepared by engineers and soil scientists.
Key findings include:

  • Approximately 38 miles of mountains in West Virginia and Virginia will see 10 feet or more of their ridgetops removed in order to build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
  • This figure includes 19 miles in West Virginia and 19 miles in Virginia.
  • The majority of these mountains would be flattened by 10 to 20 feet, with some places along the route requiring the removal of 60 feet or more of ridgetop.
  • Building the ACP on top of these mountains will result in a tremendous quantity of excess material, known to those familiar with mountaintop removal as “overburden.”
  • Dominion would likely need to dispose of 2.47 million cubic yards of overburden, from just these 38 miles alone.
  • Standard-size, fully loaded dump trucks would need to take at least 247,000 trips to haul this material away from the construction site.

“It is astounding that FERC has not required Dominion to produce a plan for dealing with the millions of cubic yards of excess spoil that will result from cutting down miles of ridgetop for the pipeline,” said Ben Luckett, Staff Attorney at Appalachian Mountain Advocates. “We know from experience with mountaintop removal coal mining that the disposal of this material has devastating impacts on the headwater streams that are the lifeblood our rivers and lakes. FERC and Dominion’s complete failure to address this issue creates a significant risk that the excess material will ultimately end up in our waterways, smothering aquatic life and otherwise degrading water quality. Without an in-depth analysis of exactly how much spoil will be created and how it can be safely disposed of, the states cannot possibly certify that this pipeline project will comply with the Clean Water Act.”
“Even with Dominion’s refusal to provide the public with adequate information, the situation is clear: The proposed construction plan will have massive impacts to scenic vistas, terrestrial and aquatic habitats, and potentially to worker and resident safety,” said Dan Shaffer, Spatial Analyst with the Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition. “There is no way around it. It’s a bad route, a bad plan, and should never have been seriously considered.”
The full briefing paper is available here.
CONTACT:
Denise, 240-396-2022, denise@chesapeakeclimate.org
Anne Havemann, 240-396-1984, anne@chesapeakeclimate.org
Briefing-Paper-Mountaintop-Removal-to-Build-ACP
 

Action in Trump's America: Why I March

The following is a guest post from Elisabeth Hoffman of Howard County Climate Action.
 —
Turns out the chief benefit from Donald Trump’s election lies in the backlash.  
Progress on immigration, environmental justice, women’s rights, #BlackLivesMatter, and health care are at risk. On climate change, in particular, we have shifted from barely addressing the unfolding catastrophe to baldly denying it even exists.  
Yet Marylanders, after six years of trying and against all odds, just passed a ban on fracking. It passed with bipartisan support, along with the Republican governor’s backing, after a massive showing of grassroots resistance to this destructive drilling process. 
In Trump’s America, more long-shot victories like Maryland’s fracking ban are sure to come. Why? Because around the country, mass protests and local actions have become the norm. State attorneys general are challenging the Trump administration, and state lawmakers are passing local protections – such as funding for Planned Parenthood. Communities are not watching idly as hopes for a better future are threatened with every executive order, regressive piece of legislation, and crack-of-dawn tweet.
This resistance began in the disoriented days after No. 45 was elected. Then, the day after Trump took the oath, millions protested around the world in the Women’s March. In D.C. alone, the crowd was three times the size of that on Inauguration Day. After Trump issued his first immigration ban, thousands showed up at airports, cities and towns in protest. Voters are confronting lawmakers at town halls. So deluded and unhinged is this administration, even scientists have had to leave the lab and take to the streets to call for facts instead of alt-facts.  
The push for Maryland’s fracking ban coincided with Trump’s first flailing missteps. Stunned yet determined, a broad coalition of Maryland homeowners, tourism businesses, students, faith leaders, farmers and civic-minded residents demanded protection from an industry that violates regulations, preys on low-income communities, and buys its way out of every lawsuit. This grassroots movement of residents – from Friendsville to Lusby, Bel Air to Frederick, Baltimore to Columbia – signed petitions, mailed postcards, made calls and paid visits to state legislators. They implored town, city and county councils to endorse a ban. They spoke out in congregations and at public hearings. They marched through the streets of small towns and in Annapolis. 
I was among 13 people, mostly faith leaders and Western Marylanders, arrested on March 16 at the State House in Annapolis to proclaim that our movement would not compromise the safety of our homes, our water and our climate. We would settle for nothing less than a ban. The day after our arrests, the tide shifted: Gov. Larry Hogan threw his support to the fracking ban, and in a matter of weeks the ban was in place.
With that same moral outrage, we head for the People’s Climate March on Saturday, April 29.
People are rising up against a president who has delivered the Environmental Protection Agency to a climate-denier known mostly as a serial plaintiff against the agency. They are standing firm against a president who has handed over foreign policy to the former head of Exxon Mobil, a company being sued for misleading the public and lawmakers for decades about climate change. Virginians will attest to coastal flooding. Baltimore residents will say no to their children’s asthma and choking pollution. From Standing Rock to Lancaster, Pa., from the Gulf Coast to the Potomac, communities will rise to protect their water and land and themselves from oil and gas pipelines, from fracked-gas power plants, from fracked-gas export factories.  
We are in a race against rising seas, soaring temperatures, deadly droughts, fiercer storms, spreading diseases, forced migrations, dying oceans, and widening wealth gaps. Last week, levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere topped 410 parts per million, way beyond the levels that allowed human civilizations to take hold. In 1958, when record-keeping started at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, the level was 280 ppm.  
The hours that I spent in an Anne Arundel County jail cell, with its peeling paint and one small window in the heavy door, seem an apt metaphor for our nation’s limited and tired vision in the face of humanity’s greatest challenge. We must rush toward the world outside the cramped cell of our fossil-fueled world. That the current administration is running equally fast to slam the door spurs us to fight even harder. 
Our uprising must and will be loud and persistent. In Trump’s version of America, the measure of our relief will be the extent of our enduring resistance.  
## 

The Peoples Climate March is Red, White, and Blue

Guest post by Rick Shingles, member of Preserve Giles County
—
On April 29, I plan to travel more than 500 miles to Washington D.C. for the Peoples’ Climate Mobilization. For me, marching is about more than politics, more than ideology.
For me, the issue is deeply personal.
The fossil fuel industry threatens my community in southwest Virginia. The proposed fracked-gas Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is routed to bisect Newport which sits in the middle of the active Giles County seismic zone in the midst of the Appalachian fold belt. This 42-inch diameter pipeline would carve through steep ridges and karst valleys in some of the most pristine natural habitat and biodiversity in the world.
Our natural heritage, endangered species, aquifers (the primary source of our farm and residential water), safety from catastrophe like the 2010 San Bruno gas pipeline explosion, peace of mind, property values and property rights are all at risk.
Our town is just one casualty of a vast fracked-gas pipelines infrastructure either built or planned. There are 9,000 miles of new oil and gas pipelines proposed in the U.S. with 19 (including the MVP and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline) in Appalachia alone. And tens of thousands of homes and businesses are being sacrificed to supply the product these pipelines transport: fracked methane, an even more lethal greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Multiple perils accompany every stage of hydraulic fracturing: the toxic mix of chemicals used to induce it, the dispersal and storage of waste water which can poison drinkable water and soils, seismic activity, methane leaks at every stage of production and distribution, and the destruction of green economies.
A Roanoke Times editorial presents my county as a model for developing outdoor recreational economies. Yet our economy is imperiled by the MVP. The pipeline would cross tributaries of the New River (some multiple times). It would block access to Mountain Lake and the Cascades during the construction. And the Jefferson National Forest could become split by a 500-foot wide utility corridor.
All of this could upend fifteen years of collaboration by local businesses and county government to build a tourism economy that currently provides $26 million in annual business revenue, 16% of our sales tax, $90,000 in transient occupancy taxes and two percent of total tax revenue. That is a lot for a sparsely settled, rural county. We don’t want it trashed by an interstate pipeline ally.
Why should so many American communities be sacrifice zones to supply this fuel to other nations, a good number of which ban fracking?
That’s why I’m going to march in Washington.
I will support Americans in all communities that are being sacrificed to supply fracked gas.
And for what? For continued reliance on antiquated twentieth century energy sources that are increasingly unnecessary, less plentiful and more expensive than wind, solar, hydraulic, and tidal power?
I am going to fight for greater regulation of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that appears controlled by the very gas and oil industry it is supposed to regulate, approves any and all interstate pipeline applications, grants private companies eminent domain to take our land, and runs roughshod over state and local governments.
I am going for my children and grandchildren – to preserve a natural heritage threatened by our addiction to fossil fuels, to help stave off rising seas and coastal flooding and the fundamental alteration of inland climates that underlie many traditional industries (See Stephen Nash’s Virginia Climate Fever: How Global Warming will Transform Out Cities, Shorelines, and Forests). Climate disruption could well lead to unprecedented mass migrations and economic, social and political instability that could destabilize governments and exacerbate international conflicts.
The dire threats posed by climate disruption should not be partisan issues, red-states versus blue-states, or framed by ideologues of the left or the right.
I will journey to Washington understanding that each of us must look to ourselves first to protect our communities, preserve our natural heritage and safeguard our progeny. If we fail, I will not solely blame any particular individual or political party or politicians in general. Each citizen has the responsibility to reduce his or her own environmental footprint and to fulfill the obligation of democratic citizenship. We must act to hold our leaders accountable. We must take direct action.
I accept this responsibility.
One day, I hope to tell my grandchildren that I – with millions of others – met this singular challenge and became this nation’s greatest generation.

Rick Shingles is associate professor emeritus at Virginia Tech and coordinator of Preserve Giles County.

Federal Review of Atlantic Coast Pipeline Fails People and the Environment

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s flawed analysis of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline fails the public and the environment.
An analysis of environmental impacts for the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline is completely inadequate and falls far short of legal requirements.  This is the overwhelming consensus of thousands of comments filed this week with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).  The agency had issued on December 30 a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on the proposed 600-mile natural gas pipeline that would go from central West Virginia, through Virginia and terminate in southern North Carolina.  April 6 is the deadline for public comments.
“FERC’s inability to provide a sound analysis of this project is a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act,” said Lewis Freeman, Chair and Executive Director of the Alleghany-Blue Ridge Alliance, a coalition of 51-organizations opposing the project. “What’s more, the Commission is poised to make a decision that will reverberate for decades based on inadequate information.”
The shortcomings of the DEIS are considerable because of its failure to:

  • Assess the true market demand for natural gas in the region of the proposed pipeline;
  • Take a hard look at the effects the proposed route planned through predominantly minority and low-income neighborhoods would have on communities;
  • Consider the devastation to mountaintops construction would have across steep, forested Appalachian ridges;
  • Provide adequate environmental information. The DEIS lacks sufficient information about the ACP and its potential environmental impacts on a wide variety of resources, including water resources, wetlands, cultural resources, threatened and endangered species and climate change implications; and
  • Identify, consider, and analyze all reasonable alternatives.

“The federal government is glossing over the massive impacts this 600-mile pipeline would have on neighboring communities and climate change,” said Alison Kelly, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Greenlighting this pipeline without a sufficient review of the damage it would cause is a disservice to the people who life in its path and treasure this part of Appalachia.”
Greg Buppert, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said: “FERC is only telling one side of the story, and that story fails to answer the critical threshold question – is this project even necessary?”  Buppert points out that recent energy demand forecasts have cast serious doubt on the need for the ACP.  Furthermore, two-thirds of new generating capacity being added in the United States is based on renewable sources, not natural gas. Building the ACP would be contrary to the future growth of the electric utility industry.
“ACP refused to do the necessary impact analysis, so we have had to hire engineers to find out what will actually happen,” said Ben Luckett, a senior attorney with Appalachian Mountain Advocates. “We’ve learned the pipeline would create millions of cubic yards of excess dirt and rock for which ACP has no disposal plan and will level many of our scenic ridgetops, much like a mountaintop removal coal mine. We fear the most likely resting place for all of that construction spoil will be in our rivers, lakes, and streams. It is truly a slap in the face to hear FERC dismiss these impacts as ‘insignificant’ or, worse yet, to see that they have failed to analyze them at all.”
“The Atlantic Coast Pipeline environmental review failed to adequately address the threats it poses to our communities and our environment. This dirty and dangerous pipeline creates concern for significant risks of adverse impacts due to the nature of the terrain that the line would cross. Based on multiple unresolved environmental issues and potential hazards, and the magnitude of this project, FERC must reject the application. The stakes are very high and the risks are far too great,” said Kirk Bowers, Virginia Chapter, Sierra Club.
Anne Havemann, Senior Counsel at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said: “The Atlantic Coast Pipeline would be a disaster for the climate. It will trigger a massive new wave of fracking, bringing climate pollution equivalent to 20 new coal-fired power plants. FERC’s own former chairman Norman Bay said that the agency should reconsider how it analyzes environmental impacts of pipelines like ACP, including analyzing lifecycle climate emissions. FERC should heed his advice and revise its analysis, or reject the pipeline.”
Peter Anderson, Virginia Program Manager for Appalachian Voices, noted: “A couple of months ago, the former Chairman of FERC raised significant doubts that the agency adequately analyzes pipeline need and climate impacts. This draft environmental impact statement is no different. FERC should rescind this DEIS and start over, this time with final route proposals, completed surveys, climate analysis that accounts for the entire life cycle, and a critical analysis of market demand and alternatives.”
“We know that projects like these are invariably placed near communities of low-income, people of color, or the elderly. In usual fashion, the ACP places a heavy burden on the poor and elderly, perhaps by design. These folks may not have the energy, stamina, and resources to fight, and that’s what these companies are banking on. This is an example of outside interests that plan to use our resources and toxify our land for their own benefit. It’s an old story that continues to play out the same way, despite the best efforts of local people to change our energy landscape,” said April Pierson-Keating Mountain Lakes Preservation Alliance, Upshur County, WV.

# # #

Contacts:
Lewis Freeman, Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance, 703-298-8107, lewfreeman@gmail.com
Greg Buppert, Southern Environmental Law Center, 434-977-4090, gbuppert@selcva.org
Ben Luckett, Appalachian Mountain Advocates, 404-645-0125, bluckett@appalmad.org

Maryland Fracking Ban To Become Law, With Nationwide Implications

Senate passes bill with GOP governor support, following six years of grassroots resistance across the state of Maryland

ANNAPOLIS – With game-changing support from Republican Governor Larry Hogan, the Maryland state Senate Monday night gave final approval to a bill to forever ban the practice of fracking in Maryland. This move culminates years of protests against fracking for gas from landowners, health leaders, and environmentalists. It also sets a nationally significant precedent as other states grapple with the dangerous drilling method.

Maryland will now become the first state in America with proven gas reserves to ban fracking by legislative action. New York has banned the drilling process via executive order. Vermont has a statutory ban but the state has no frackable gas reserves at present.

The Maryland ban is sending political waves across the East Coast and the nation. From Virginia (where leaders have imposed or proposed local bans at the county and municipal level) to the state of Florida (which is looking to follow Maryland’s statewide ban), the “keep-it-in-the-ground” movement is gaining new bipartisan steam even as President Donald Trump recklessly works to approve disastrous pipelines like Keystone XL.

“Let the news go forth to Congress and the White House: fracking can never be done safely,” said Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “The Republican governor closest to DC – Larry Hogan of Maryland – has joined scientists and health leaders in agreeing that fracking must be banned. This is a win for Marylanders and for citizens nationwide as we move away from violent fossil fuels and toward sustainable wind and solar power.”

With Senate passage late Monday night, the Maryland bill will now be sent to Gov. Hogan’s desk in the next few days for signing.

The push to ban fracking in Maryland began six years ago as gas companies swarmed into western Maryland to tap the Marcellus Shale basin. This is the same pool of gas that has been widely fracked in Pennsylvania and West Virginia with negative consequences. But then-Governor Martin O’Malley (D) imposed a temporary moratorium before any drilling occurred. Over the years, the movement for a permanent ban came to include farmers, doctors, students, faith leaders, environmental groups, and others – constituting the largest statewide grassroots movement ever seen in Maryland on an energy issue. Former member of the House of Delegates Heather Mizeur was a leading figure in sparking the statewide ban effort. With time, multiple counties and cities in the state banned fracking locally and public polling consistently showed growing support for a statewide ban. Finally, earlier this month, with overwhelming support among Democratic lawmakers, even the previously pro-fracking Republican governor saw the wisdom of a ban.

The Chesapeake Climate Action Network has been honored to play a leading role in this campaign along with our friends in the Don’t Frack Maryland Coalition, including Food and Water Watch, Citizen Shale, Engage Mountain Maryland, the Sierra Club, the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, Physicians for Social Responsibility and many others.

The Maryland fracking ban bill also could not have succeeded without the extraordinary leadership of Kumar Barve (D-Montgomery County) and David Fraser-Hildago (D-Montgomery County) in the Maryland House of Delegates. The same must be said of Bobby Zirkin (D-Baltimore County) and Paul G. Pinsky (D-Prince George’s County) in the Maryland Senate. But Senator Zirkin, more than any other legislator, fought tirelessly for the fracking ban and refused to compromise on the road to this historic victory.

CONTACT: Denise Robbins; denise@chesapeakeclimate.org; 608-620-8819

Maryland just passed a fracking ban. I'm weeping.

This is it: We have officially made history.

Last night, the Senate voted 35 to 10 to ban fracking statewide in Maryland. The bill will be sent to Governor Hogan’s desk to be signed in a matter of days. We are now the third state to ban fracking and the first state with gas reserves to pass a legislative ban. This is the most environmentally significant bill that Maryland has ever passed. Period.
As I write this, I can barely see the computer screen as my eyes keep welling up with tears. This has been the most personal, grueling, and gratifying campaign that I have ever worked on.
As a Western Marylander, the stakes on this campaign were enormous. If we failed, we would have opened up my family’s land and community to the dangers of fracking — contaminating our water, risking birth defects in our children, and scarring the natural beauty of Western Maryland.
Today, we proved that grassroots power can overcome partisan politics and Big Oil and Gas if we organize and work together for a common purpose.
Today, we proved that together, we can overcome anything.
When I first began this campaign, I learned about my grandfather’s activism in Western Maryland. He led sit-ins to bring racial integration to local restaurants and community pools in Frostburg. He did this to protect his seven sons and one daughter so that they could live a life that was just and free of harm. When I began organizing in Frostburg, I carried his spirit with me.
And today, I can proudly say I carried on his legacy of protecting his family. But we could not have done it without each of you. You gave your time, your efforts, and your passion to secure a better future for my family and for all of Maryland. From the start, each of you worked to build a movement that secured this victory.
Thank you to the residents of Frostburg, where over 800 of you signed petitions and hundreds of you rallied and urged your city council to ban fracking.
Thank you to the citizens of Bel Air, who rallied in the freezing cold and told your city council all you wanted for the holidays was for them to ban fracking.
Thank you to Frederick County activists, who met with your local officials and did not relent until they supported a statewide ban.
Thanks to each of you in Friendsville and across Western Maryland, who were met with harsh criticisms and shouted down by your legislators for standing strong to keep your communities safe from fracking.
Thank you to the countless local officials who stood up against fracking in Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Charles County, College Park, Friendsville, Frederick County, Frostburg, Greenbelt, Mountain Lake Park, Montgomery County, and Prince George’s County.
Thanks to each of you who called, wrote your legislators, lobbied in Annapolis and were part of the rally where over a thousand people took to the streets in Annapolis to demand an unfractured future for generations to come.
Thank you to the “Annapolis 13” who were peacefully arrested and helped carry the message to our state Senate that we would not compromise on a ban.
And thanks to each of you who had unwavering faith that sometimes David can beat Goliath. You pushed forward the notion that grassroots organizing can truly change the world.
Because it has.

 
Please take a moment to thank each and every one of our legislators who cast a “yes” vote after YOU made your voices heard.
Thank them for representing our voices in Annapolis and making sure we have a frack-free future.

Arrests in Annapolis

Today, 13 faith leaders and western Maryland residents were arrested.
They were arrested because there is a threat looming over all our communities, as the moratorium on fracking in Maryland is set to expire this October.
They were arrested because we are at a crucial moment in Maryland history, as the Maryland House of Delegates passed a bill to ban fracking and the Maryland Senate looks to do the same.
They were arrested because this is the moment we need to stand up and send a clear message: Maryland needs a statewide fracking ban NOW.
It was immeasurably inspiring. Our activists were handcuffed, loaded into police vans, and sent to jail, where they spent hours and hours before being released. (At the time of this writing, more than 7 hours after the arrests, they haven’t been released yet).
Right now, we need to carry on the work of our friends by sending our message to the Maryland Senate. Here’s most important thing you can do right now: Call Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. Tell him to support a fracking ban.
Here’s what to say: “My name is ____ and I live in ____. I support those arrested this morning protesting fracking. Please support only a total ban on fracking in Maryland, and bring the fracking ban bill up for a vote in the Senate.”
miller-image-fracking
 
Now, here are some highlights from today’s events.
The morning started with inspiring speeches from our faith leaders. Including this one, from Unitarian Universalist Reverend Terence Ellen, who connected fracking to global warming and extolled the virtue of fighting for a fracking ban:
 

 
Then, activists moved across the street to stand on the steps of the State House, all the while chanting songs and cheers about standing strong in the fight against fracking:
 

 
Finally, as Maryland legislators began filing into the State House, it was time for the arrests. The people willing to get arrested moved to the right of the steps, to block the entrance of the statehouse. Dozens of others who joined for the action stood across the street in solidarity and support.
Food & Water Watch documented the arrests:
 
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arrest4
arrest3
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Thirteen were arrested in total. After the arrestees were taken away, the rest of the activists continued to rally and cheer for a fracking ban.
Here’s the winner for best costume (come on, you didn’t realize there was a costume contest? There’s always a costume contest).

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All of this was to send a clear message. We will not back down. We will not give up. We will keep up the fight until the Maryland General Assembly places a statewide fracking BAN and protects our public health, our water and our climate.
Now, time to keep on fighting.

Western Maryland Residents, Faith Leaders Arrested In Civil Disobedience Action In Support Of Fracking Ban

Sit-in at State House calls on MD Senate to pass a permanent, statewide ban on fracking

ANNAPOLIS, MD- A group of anti-fracking advocates — including faith leaders and western Maryland residents — barred the entrance to the Maryland State House Thursday morning in a peaceful act of civil disobedience. The protesters demanded that the Maryland Senate pass a permanent ban on the controversial gas drilling technique, and were joined by dozens of faith leaders and supporters at a rally on Lawyer’s Mall.
The activists appealed to Senate leadership, including Senate President Mike Miller, to lead the way in passing a bill for a statewide fracking ban. Last Friday, the House of Delegates passed a ban bill by a bipartisan, veto-proof-majority of 97-40. Maryland voters overwhelmingly oppose fracking according to recent polls from The Washington Post and Opinionworks.
“Last week, the House passed a bill to ban fracking because it has become resoundingly clear that Marylanders oppose the drilling practice,” said Delegate Shane Robinson (D-39). “I am proud to have stood up for my constituents in protecting their water and climate. Now, it is up to the Senate to take us over the finish line for a statewide fracking ban.”
Supporters of a ban say that fracking would threaten the drinking water for all Marylanders and greatly harm public health. Over 80 percent of the peer-reviewed scientific studies that have been published on public health – examining asthma attacks, premature births, high-risk pregnancies, and more – show risks or actual harm to people living near active fracking operations. Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility concluded that no regulations on fracking can “adequately protect public health and the environment over time.”
“As stewards of God’s creation, United Methodists are opposed to hydraulic fracturing because of the serious consequences for the environment, including damage to water and geological stability,” said Reverend Julie Wilson, Chair for the Board of Church and Society for the Baltimore Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church. “We support a ban on fracking.”
“Western Maryland would be targeted first by fracking, and western Marylanders overwhelmingly know that we can never allow it to take place,” said Ann Bristow, Garrett County resident and member of Gov. O’Malley’s Marcellus shale advisory commission. “The more we learn about fracking, the more we know we need a ban. Our water, health and climate are far more important than short term gain for the natural gas industry. Once free of worrying about fracking in Maryland, we can all turn our attention to a renewable and sustainable future.”
Fracking would also threaten the local economy of western Maryland, which relies heavily on tourism and agriculture. In Garrett County, which is likely to be the first area targeted if fracking is allowed, more than half the jobs and two-thirds of the tax base are derived from tourism-related real estate and business activity—all of which could be threatened by industrial fracking operations.
“Our mom-and-pop ecotourism business is run out of our house,” said Carol McMahon Calhoun, owner of All Earth Eco Tours. “Friendsville is a small valley community that would be destroyed by fracking. If fracking is allowed, it would pollute our water, air, and soil, because even though the Town proper has banned fracking, we cannot adequately protect ourselves from upstream pollution.”
“I am willing to be arrested in order to protect clean water, protect air quality, protect the people of Maryland, protect wildlife, and protect farms from the greed of the oil and gas industry, said western Maryland resident Carol Smith. “We must protect the earth since the earth cannot protect itself.”
 
CONTACT:
Denise Robbins; Chesapeake Climate Action Network; denise.sylvie@gmail.com; 608-620-8819
Jackie Filson; Food and Water Watch; 202-683-2538, jfilson@fwwatch.org

Senators, Local Elected Officials, Business Owners and Activists Showcase Wide Support For Fracking Ban Before Key Legislative Hearing

200+ Maryland business owners call for statewide fracking ban

ANNAPOLIS — Elected officials, business owners and dozens of activists from across the state gathered today to demand a ban on fracking in anticipation of a Senate committee hearing on the bill. The group also delivered to senators a letter from more than 200 Maryland businesses owners in support of the ban. The letter states in part, ”Fracking follows a boom-bust cycle that leaves communities burdened with health problems, damaged infrastructure, and a weaker economy in the long term.”
Additionally, more than 35,000 petitions and letters from Maryland residents in support of a fracking ban were presented to the General Assembly today. The petitions were gathered by Chesapeake Climate Action Network, CREDO Action, Food & Water Watch, Maryland Sierra Club, Maryland League of Conservation Voters, and other grassroots members of the Don’t Frack Maryland coalition.
“We need to take a zero-tolerance approach when it comes to fracking in Maryland. We have one shot to prevent the pollution, local economic disruption and public health crises associated with dangerous drilling from destroying our state,” said Sen. Bobby Zirkin (D-11). “The type of damage that fracking causes is irreversible. You can count on me to honor the wishes of Maryland residents; that’s why I introduced a fracking ban.”
“Fracking needs to be banned in Maryland so that we can protect our tourism industry in Garrett County,” said Steve Green, owner of High Mountain Sports in Oakland. “People come here to experience the outdoors and enjoy our beautiful mountains, lakes and rivers. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure fracking and tourism are not compatible.”
Senators Anthony C. Muse (D-26), Bobby Zirkin (D-11), Barbara A. Robinson (D-40) and Shirley Nathan-Pulliam (D-44) spoke at a press conference echoing support for a fracking ban and urging quick passage. About half of the entire General Assembly has already co-sponsored the fracking ban bill.
“We cannot allow fracking companies to come into our communities, poison our water, and pollute our air,” said Sen. Barbara Robinson (D-40). “We’ve seen what has happened to our neighbors in Pennsylvania, where drinking water contamination is the norm. I will stand by the people of Maryland in their overwhelming support for a ban on fracking. I strongly support the passage of Senate Bill 740 for a statewide ban.”
“I strongly support a total ban on fracking in Maryland,” stated Sen. Ron Young (D-3). “The oil and gas companies want to start fracking in October, despite the fact that fracking poses real threats to our citizens’ drinking water, environment, and health. Furthermore, fracking would jeopardize the tourism industry in Western Maryland, where the state has spent tens of millions of dollars on outdoor recreation. The risks are simply too great. To protect our public health, we should ban fracking once and for all.”
The fracking ban bill is supported by dozens of counties and municipalities, which together represent over two-thirds of Maryland’s population, that have passed local fracking bans or resolutions supporting a statewide ban.
“The Mountain Lake Park Town Council, of which I am a member, voted some three years ago to pass an ordinance banning fracking within our town limits, fearing that the practice could easily jeopardize our town’s water supply. The ordinance passed by a unanimous vote by the members of our council and our mayor, every one of whom are natives of Garrett County,” said Don Sincell, Member of Town Council, Mountain Lake, MD. “It is my great hope that the state legislature follows our lead in order to protect Maryland in general, and Garrett County in particular.”              
“The Western Maryland Delegation is doing democracy an injustice by turning a deaf ear to the growing mountain of public opposition to fracking and scientific evidence on the risks fracking poses to our communities and environment,” said Woody Getz, Frostburg Commissioner of Public Works. “Communities and businesses in Maryland deserve to be protected by their elected officials. It’s time for the General Assembly to ban fracking and heed the will of the people.”
The rally took place shortly before the Maryland Senate will begin debating two bills about the drilling practice. Attendees expressed concern that even “gold-standard” regulations would fail to adequately protect public health,the environment or the growing tourism industry in Western Maryland.
“More than 200 business owners across Maryland, including myself, have signed a letter supporting a ban on fracking because we know that fracking will never be safe,” stated Nadine Grabania, owner of Deep Creek Cellars in Garrett County. “If the General Assembly allows fracking to begin, thousands of jobs and western Maryland’s thriving tourism and agriculture industries would be jeopardized—and the value of both commercial and residential property will be threatened. Business owners know that we cannot afford the risks.
Polling shows that voters across party lines in Maryland support legislation to ban fracking by a 2-to-1 margin, according to a poll conducted by OpinionWorks. Polling from The Washington Post similarly found that 60 percent of Maryland voters oppose fracking.
Advocates from across the state in support of a fracking ban will gather for a mass mobilization in Annapolis on Thursday, March 2. The “March on Annapolis to Ban Fracking Now” is expected to draw hundreds into the streets, and will feature leaders from across the progressive movement, including Ben Jealous, former head of the NAACP, and Reverend Lennox Yearwood of Hip Hop Caucus.
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Why I'm Marching To Ban Fracking In Maryland

Guest post from Elisabeth Hoffman of HoCo Climate Change
When I march Thursday for a fracking ban, I’ll be calling on Maryland to heed the warning of the canary that is Pennsylvania. And West Virginia, Colorado, Oklahoma and the others.
No state has gotten fracking right, because fracking can’t be made safe or even safe enough.
Everywhere this industry goes, residents rise up to defend their homes and farms, their children and pets, and their forests and towns from the noise and lighting, the truck traffic and ruined roads, the polluted air and water, and even earthquakes. No regulations are sufficient to corral the fracking industry.
Other states let industry experiment on their communities. From studies in fracked areas, we know that fracking is linked to increases in asthma attacks; preterm births and high-risk pregnancies; anxiety, fatigue, migraines and sinus ailments; and hospitalizations for heart and neurological problems. New research finds a link between fracking and a form of childhood leukemia. Thanks to documents from a freedom of information request, we are also learning that Pennsylvania officials suppressed thousands of residents’ complaints about water contamination and other problems. We know too that much damage remains hidden in legal settlements: Industry pays up only after residents take a vow of silence about what happened.  
Along with the fracking come the pipelines and compressor stations and export factories that bring yet more destruction to towns, fields and forests; spikes of toxic pollution, and threats from explosions. Communities must fight not only industry but the rubber-stamping Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has cozy ties to industry and refuses to take into account the cumulative damage from these fracked-gas projects. In Pennsylvania, for example, residents are rebelling against the 350-mile Mariner East pipeline that will take fracked gas from the Marcellus Shale to export for Scotland to make plastics, of all things; the 124-mile Constitution pipeline that slashed through a sugar maple forest, before it was denied key approvals; and the nearly 200-mile-long Atlantic Sunrise pipeline, slated to cut through preserved farmland and communities in Lancaster and four other counties. Lancaster-area opponents have built The Stand, a wooden watchtower in the path of construction that will be the base for peaceful resistance should Williams Corp. show up.
My county, Howard, is one of only four in Maryland with no shale gas underground. Yet even here, fracking is elbowing its way in. Williams plans to expand and modernize a half-century-old compressor station to connect with that contentious Atlantic Sunrise project. And so we are joined quite literally to our friends fighting this pipeline. Maryland, too, must make a stand. We can’t let the fracking industry invade our state.
Of course, along with the fracking and the infrastructure comes the climate-disrupting methane, which is on the rise in fracked Pennsylvania. Fracked gas is no bridge fuel for our climate emergency.
Fracking and building pipelines is like installing more phone landlines – but with the added dangers. We need to be done with these antiquated fossil fuels, not doubling down on them.
What’s clear is that cheap fracked gas (and oil) is an oxymoron from industry’s playbook of alternate facts. Industry won’t pay for the lifetime of medical bills. Or clean up the air, soil and water. Or compensate for carved-up forests or climate chaos. Or monitor the toxic water it leaves underground.  Or cover the losses to the tourism industry and property values. These costs and much more remain off the industry’s books, instead showing up in our community and household balance sheets.
Even the prospect of fracking is discouraging investment in Western Maryland’s tourism businesses. Industry is fighting this ban too hard – with ads and in the state legislature – for us to be persuaded (as some have claimed) that it has little interest in Maryland. Perhaps industry just doesn’t want to be told what to do.
Yet that’s exactly what we must do. Maryland is where we say no to the whole fracking package. Instead, we’ll invest in renewables and efficiency. As a friend in fracked Pennsylvania says: “Good neighbors don’t ask you to put yourself in harm’s way so they can turn a profit. Good neighbors don’t engage in practices that may have long-term consequences for the health and welfare of the community. Good neighbors are neighborly. They don’t knowingly pollute the air, soil and water. They don’t ruin roads and disturb tranquility. Good neighbors are invested in the community, less interested in extracting wealth than building lasting bonds. Good neighbors leave a place better for having been there.”
Join me this Thursday in marching to ban fracking in Maryland.
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