Microplastics range from 5 mm down to micron sizes

From an Article by Emmie Halter, Cavalier Daily, Univ. of Virginia, November 28, 2021

Microplastic waste has become a serious threat to the ecosystem — plastic pollution in particular has grown exponentially in the past decade within Virginia, leading to disruption of the Chesapeake Bay and other large bodies of water. University researchers explain the significant harm that microplastics can have on the environment, particularly in the Chesapeake Bay, and discuss plans of action to combat this detrimental effect.

Microplastics are categorized as plastic particles less than 5 millimeters in size. These often enter the ocean through sewage systems and infiltrate soil and the air we breathe. Initially, researchers only knew of microplastics as the microscopic particles formed by larger plastic waste that was broken down by the sun. However, new findings have confirmed that microplastics come from the synthetic fibers in clothing and microbeads from cosmetic products, such as face exfoliants.

Research on microplastics is minimal, and as a result, researchers do not know the specific effects microplastics have on the environment. For other environmental issues such as landfill waste, pollution and the lack of fossil fuels, researchers have come up with timelines and proposed action plans — this has not yet been developed for microplastics, however.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce has voiced concerns about the lack of a large-scale and long-term collective database that contains visual survey information of microplastics along coasts and in the open ocean in order to support microplastic research. As a solution, the NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information created the Marine Microplastic Database this year, a publicly accessible and regularly updated collection of global microplastic data from researchers around the world.

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed Executive Order 77 in March, which outlines a plan to phase out single-use plastics and reduce solid waste at state agencies. In response to the order, the University created a single-use plastic reduction policy, which began with eliminating plastic waste in dining halls and replacing single-use plastic with sustainable and reusable takeaway containers and compostable silverware. The University is also looking into expanding their composting facilities and minimizing plastic bag use under this initiative.

Similar initiatives have been implemented throughout the nation, and environmental concerns based on plastic pollution have pushed retailers to provide more sustainable bag options, pilot the trend of reusable containers and make plastic straws a rarity. Environmentally-conscious consumers have even boycotted stores that utilize single-use plastics.

Large plastics make their way into the ocean frequently and are easier to remove from the water compared to microplastics, which must be either filtered out of the ocean or entirely prevented from entering the ocean. The existence of plastics in large bodies of water results in a multitude of issues — notably, the disruption of the ecosystem when animals ingest plastics and release toxic gas and foods containing tiny plastics.

Asst. Engineering Prof. Lindsay Ivey-Burden has conducted research in environmental engineering — specifically engineering for a more sustainable future. Ivey-Burden explained further how these unsustainable materials end up in our environment. “When anything with synthetic fibers and polyester goes in the washer, the fibers sort of come out and they form very small micro [and] nano-plastics,” Ivey-Burden said. “And so then that goes into the wastewater system and back into the environment.”

Another way microplastics enter our oceans is through cosmetic products, especially those labeled as exfoliants. Exfoliants contain microbeads, which produce an abrasion towards the skin that removes dead skin cells from the surface of the face. These microbeads easily pass through household water filter systems and travel to large bodies of water.

In Virginia specifically, this affects the coast and its marine life. One of the most common ways microplastics damage the coastal system is through the oysters in the Chesapeake Bay. “Microplastics in the water make it much harder for [the oysters] to filter the water — which they’re supposed to do because they’re trying to eat all the algae — and they end up eating a bunch of plastic instead of algae,” Ivey-Burden said.

This leads the oysters to be put under an immense amount of stress. In order to fulfill their nutritional needs, they must filter through much more water in order to consume enough algae due to the alarming algae-plastic ratio present in the bay.

Certain areas of the Chesapeake Bay also serve as hot spots for microplastics, acting as breeding grounds for chemicals and diseases that are picked up by microplastics and transported into the bay. Shorelines and underwater grass beds are the most common hot spots because it is easy for microplastics to settle in these areas. The black sea bass — a local fish commonly served at restaurants in coastal Virginia — is just one of the marine animals that feed near these hotspots and ingest the microplastics.

While studies show that most microplastics do not move to the muscle tissue of fish — the part consumed by humans — scientists are still concerned with the effect of microplastics on human health. It is difficult to determine the individual impacts of these plastics on consumers as we are constantly in contact with microplastics, from bottled and tap water to clothing. Additionally, researchers know very little about the levels of toxicity that can hurt humans as well as how food chain processes may affect the toxicity of plastics.

Environmental and material scientists have been researching the toxicity of plastic materials and the solutions needed to decrease this toxicity to people and the environment. Researchers have explored solutions to microplastic waste, but some of these solutions are costly and may cause further destruction to the environment. Water filtration systems, for example, are one of the most discussed solutions. Filtration systems utilizing magnets, tiny nets and vacuums have all been tested by different researchers, but it is nearly impossible to filter out such small pieces of plastic without filtering out very crucial marine organisms as well.

Robert Hale, microplastic expert and head researcher at the Virginia Institute for Marine Science, explained that implementing a filtration system is not realistic. “There are not just microplastics in the ocean, there are other organisms — especially floating organisms — that will get weeded out too,” Hale said. “There is just no way for these filters to sort effectively.”

Other solutions, such as creating more sustainable clothing, eliminating single-use plastics and establishing filtration systems in washing machines are all viable and would have a large impact on microplastic waste. However, from a cost standpoint, the likelihood that the general public will react favorably to increased taxes as a way to fund initiatives that stop plastic waste is very low. “The cost efficiency of plastic ends up feeding the monster and makes it very difficult for big corporations to increase production costs in order to be more environmentally friendly,” Hale said.

In order to eliminate microplastics, scientists agree that toxic additives that are in plastic waste must first be removed. Assoc. Engineering Prof. David Green has been studying plastic waste for much of his career, specifically plastic as a material and the microscopic properties associated with it. “By trying to remove certain additives that have proven to be toxic — things like car plasticizers, stabilizers and pigments — and making this plastic particle, but trying to design it so that when it gets wet and it gets into the landfill, that it doesn’t degrade off,” Green said.

Green also agreed that general reduction of plastics would help to eliminate microplastics. The elimination of single-use plastics at the University is a plan that, if modeled at other universities across the country, could make a big difference.

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See Also: Chesapeake Quarterly : Volume 19, Number 2 : Rona Kobell, Hazards, Large and Small, Dec. 2020

Scientists are looking closely at these tiny microplastic hazards and trying to assess their harm and reduce their numbers. Neither is an easy task. In this issue, we explore these dangers invisible to most of us. We’ll also talk about how Maryland Sea Grant is working with high school teachers to help them identify microplastics in labs with their students.

Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Terminal at Cove Point on Chesapeake Bay

Extracted from an Extensive Article by Kevin Rector, Baltimore Sun, March 20, 2019

In a quiet pocket of Southern Maryland where beach bungalows line dirt roads to the Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s booming natural gas industry has established an unlikely multibillion-dollar foothold.

For a year now, natural gas pulled from ancient shale formations deep below the surface of Pennsylvania and other states has been piped across Maryland to a new $4.4 billion gas export terminal in the woods beyond Cove Point Beach in Calvert County.

From there, the gas is cooled through a complex industrial process to minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit, which liquefies it and makes it easier to transport. It is then piped through a tunnel to a platform a mile offshore and loaded onto massive tankers for shipment overseas — to Japan and India, the Middle East and Europe, and countries across Central and South America.

Lea Callahan says the increase in tanker ships in the waters beyond her beachfront home, about 65 miles south of Baltimore, has been shocking. “All of a sudden, it was like boom,” she said. “They come in at all hours, so you wake up in the morning and you see another ship.”

The new activity makes Maryland a global gateway for natural gas extracted from the ground through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, even though the state has banned the controversial process within its own borders. It also puts Maryland at the vanguard of a growing global trade in liquefied natural gas, or LNG, that U.S. government leaders and energy executives are feverishly working to support by building similar facilities across the country.

Global demand for natural gas is on the rise, particularly in China and other growing Asian markets. The United States is expected to account for 40 percent of the new production needed to meet that demand through 2025, according to the International Energy Agency.

The Cove Point terminal began operations in early 2018 as just the second large LNG export facility in the continental U.S.; Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana began exporting in 2016. But more than a dozen others are in the works — each of them eager to replicate Cove Point’s success.

“This is the golden age of gas,” said Nobuo Tanaka, former executive director of the International Energy Agency. He lives and works in Tokyo, where much of the Cove Point gas is heading.

The Maryland terminal, owned by the Virginia-based utility Dominion Energy, used to import gas — from countries like Norway and Trinidad and Tobago. But that business largely dried up with the rise of fracking and other drilling techniques in the United States, and the resulting surge in domestic shale gas production.

In response, Dominion decided to convert the Cove Point facility to exports, initiating what officials called the most expensive private sector project in state history. Construction to convert the terminal, completed last year, employed 4,500 people at its peak and used 800 miles of wire and fiber, 80 miles of piping and 20,000 tons of steel.

The result has been a boon to business and to county coffers. The revamped facility now handles about 770 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, enough to power millions of overseas homes. That business generated more than $500 million in export revenue for Dominion last year. And Calvert County will get more than $50 million in taxes and other payments from the company this year — a massive influx for a jurisdiction with a general fund of less than $300 million.

“Frankly, I think we are the envy of many counties who would like to have such an economic driver,” said Evan Slaughenhoupt Jr., former president of the Calvert County Board of Commissioners.

But environmental activists and some local residents say the terminal is a giant, glaring contradiction — making Maryland the only state in the country that has both a ban on fracking and an export terminal for sending fracked gas to international markets.

Natural gas is used in cooking, heating and electricity production. It also is used in industrial production of plastics and other chemical products. It generally burns cleaner than coal and other fossil fuels, but critics say the industry that produces it is far from environmentally friendly.

Kim Grosso displays a jar of water from her farm’s well in Dimock, Pa. Grosso says the well was contaminated by Cabot Oil and Gas, which was fracking for natural gas beneath her property.

In particular, environmental advocates say fracking — which blasts water, sand and chemicals into rock formations to release trapped gas — is associated with groundwater contamination, increased risk of earthquakes and emissions of potent greenhouse gases.

And they say the Cove Point terminal provides incentive for fracking in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, undermining and reducing the impact of the Maryland ban that Gov. Larry Hogan signed into law in 2017.

They and some local residents also believe the facility represents a more immediate threat to the communities around it, though Dominion and federal regulators say it is safe.

Callahan, 62, who inherited her Cove Point home from her mother, said she fears an industrial accident could spew out fire, chemicals or toxic pollutants. And she complains the changeover of the terminal to exports has turned her quiet waterfront enclave into a heavily patrolled security zone, where sheriff’s deputies paid by Dominion harass residents as they go about their daily lives.

“It used to be so nice. All of us used to walk over there with our dogs. … I’d bring the kayak right up, look at the marsh, look for blue herons and all that stuff,” Callahan said.

“I wanted to retire down here. And now I’m not doing it. I refuse to live near a potential bomb.”

She and other homeowners have joined environmentalists to protest the facility, both in Cove Point and in Annapolis, accusing state and federal regulators of conducting inadequate threat assessments. But they say their efforts have been ignored by both sides of the political aisle.

The new export terminal was pushed through regulatory and permitting processes during the administrations of President Barack Obama and Gov. Martin O’Malley, both Democrats, and has continued to enjoy support under their Republican successors.

Hogan said it “is delivering economic benefits to Maryland and the nation, and creating jobs right here in our state.” U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, appointed by President Donald Trump, called Cove Point’s expansion into exporting “an exciting and remarkable new chapter in America’s history.”

Maryland officials agree with federal regulators that the facility is safe, and say it is in line with both the Trump administration’s goal of reducing trade deficits and the state’s goal of improving the environment. They contend natural gas is an important bridge fuel between dirtier coal and cleaner renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

“One of the few things that President Obama and President Trump have agreed on is the benefit to the country of exporting clean energy — natural gas — to other parts of the world,” said Benjamin Wu, Hogan’s deputy commerce secretary. “It’s a trade priority for us.”

Others argue the economic benefits to the state and county, dwarfed by Dominion’s own windfall, do not justify the threats the project poses to the public and the environment. In Pennsylvania and elsewhere, they say, other small towns are being overrun by the industry as it churns out gas for distant mega-cities like Tokyo.

These critics see only downsides — and danger.

‘It has a lovely marsh’!!! At least since the 1930s, Cove Point Beach had been an escape.

Far from the bustle of Baltimore and Washington but near enough for weekend getaways, the spit of beach drew residents from both cities. They built bungalows as vacation homes through the 1960s, and many eventually moved in for good, creating a community mixed with year-round and seasonal residents.

By the early 1970s, Cove Point was prized as one of the Chesapeake Bay’s few beaches. So when the park plans were scrapped in favor of building the import terminal, the decision caused a dust up echoed today. Many residents and environmental groups were furious.

“The bay at that point [is] relatively pristine. It is a beautiful site. It has one of the last remaining beaches on the bay. It has a lovely marsh,” said Ronald J. Wilson, then an attorney for the environmental groups.

But faced with a lengthy and unpredictable legal battle, opponents in 1972 agreed to a deal that allowed Columbia to build the terminal. The company made concessions.

It agreed to build a tunnel out to its loading platform rather than a pier. It put a majority of the 1,100-acre property not used for the termina.

Josh Tulkin, Maryland director for the Sierra Club, said the group was concerned that construction of the export terminal would be harmful to the surrounding environment. But it also argued the operations would contribute to global warming by supporting the fracking industry.

“There is no climate model that suggests we can be burning gas, to the extent that this facility requires, 30 years from now — or this planet is baked,” Tulkin said.

The Sierra Club made similar arguments in an unsuccessful legal effort to block the Cheniere facility in Louisiana. In Maryland, the Sierra Club took Dominion to court, and again lost. But about 800 acres of the property still had to remain wooded under the original easement.

The trees are part of why the nearby town of Lusby retains a rural feel, and why Cove Point Beach remains quaint. They also help to obscure 130 acres of dense industrial activity — activity some residents say has led to disturbing changes in their community, and to the bay it sits on.

Living with a refinery!!! What’s behind the trees and a 60-foot sound wall is a high-tech refinery — a maze of piping and metal and massive white storage tanks, where raw gas is purified and cooled into a liquid. That is critical, because the liquid occupies just 1/600th of the space raw gas would take up, making LNG much easier to transport.

There are combustion turbines and gas compressors. The cooling and refrigeration process relies on something called a cryogenic heat exchanger, and on a mixture of chemicals that are stored on site. The process is not easy, and not exactly clean. But the facility is designed to capture as much emissions as possible.

All told, the operation was responsible for more than 1 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2018 — three times more than before exports began, according to Maryland Department of the Environment preliminary data.

That makes the facility one of the largest stationary sources of such emissions in the state. But the output fell well within the 2 million metric tons it is permitted to release into the atmosphere each year, state officials say.

Mike Frederick, Dominion’s vice president of LNG operations during the project’s construction, said the company regularly monitors some 270,000 different valves, pipes and other industrial components at any given time, especially for any leaks of greenhouse gases like methane.

For all that, some residents say they pay little mind to the facility. The construction that converted it for exports was annoying, and caused traffic, but that’s over now. It also provided some 10,000 people with temporary work, about 30 percent of whom were from Calvert and nearby Charles and St. Mary’s counties.

And it doubled the permanent jobs on site to nearly 200. Besides jobs, the company provides funding for a local park and local charities. Plenty of people see Dominion as a good neighbor — something Frederick says the company works hard at and prides itself on.

Others, however, believe Dominion’s good deeds are simply its way of buying goodwill not otherwise earned. Rather than being a good neighbor, they say Dominion looms over the community like an illegitimate landlord.

Linda Morin lived about a mile from the terminal for nearly 30 years, but moved 20 minutes north to Prince Frederick last year because of the shift to exports. Morin said she fears the terminal’s expansion made it more dangerous. She and others worry that its densely spaced chemical and gas storage tanks might explode in a chain reaction.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which gave its approval to the project in 2014, says the plant is safe and the residents’ concerns are unfounded.

Residents have other concerns, too — from the tides of the bay to the men who patrol its shore. Some complain about an arrangement through which the Calvert County sheriff’s office patrols the area on behalf of Dominion — which pays the salaries, benefits, pension contributions and other costs for nearly a dozen deputies. It also buys equipment, including boats, for their use.

Some residents say they have been harassed by the officers, who carry Dominion identification along with their deputy badges. They flash whichever one suits their need as they confront people strolling on the beach and walking their dogs, critics say.

“It just feels really ugly and creepy,” said Leslie Garcia, who has been part of the Cove Point Beach community for four decades. “This is all collusion. Government and corporate collusion.”

Calvert County Sheriff Mike Evans dismissed that notion. He said the county has had agreements with Dominion and the U.S. Coast Guard to provide security around the terminal for more than a decade, with the goal of serving and protecting the citizens, not Dominion. “There is no collusion,” Evans said. “We are good partners in this agreement.”

“Our daily orders come from the sheriff,” said Capt. Steve Jones, who leads the team of deputies detailed to the terminal. “Dominion does not give us marching orders.”

Some residents also believe Dominion caused the tides to change around Cove Point beach — resulting in a deadly undertow — by dredging out the shipping channel to its offshore platform in 2010.

Dominion referred questions about such claims to the government. State and federal agencies told The Sun they do not have the data to confirm or deny a change in the tides or the creation of a heavier undertow.

Garcia and others said they are convinced, citing the drowning deaths of three men in two separate incidents in 2015, in the same waters where they taught their kids to swim. “I’ve kayaked for years out there. …My son and his friends would go to the point and body surf. …You could step way out there and collect sharks’ teeth and do whatever, and you just can’t do that now,” Garcia said.

Tulkin contends that no one knows the full environmental impact of the Cove Point operation because federal regulators didn’t consider the ill effects of the fracking that harvested the gas nor of the greenhouse gases emitted when it is liquified, transported and burned throughout the world.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which approved the project after studying the issue for two years, determined it was “in the public interest” and would not significantly affect the “quality of the human environment.”

The regulators required Dominion to take various steps to mitigate local environmental concerns. But they also held — and state officials and a federal appeals court affirmed — that they were not required to consider concerns associated with the fracking industry at large.

Critics argue that in supporting the facility, state and federal regulators abdicated their responsibility to people and the environment not just in Maryland, but communities hundreds of miles away. See the Comment(s) to this Article below.

David Goldwyn, the U.S. special envoy for international energy affairs from 2009 to 2011, worked to pitch U.S. shale gas to foreign investors alongside then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Now an international energy consultant, Goldwyn says Cove Point is “very well-positioned” to maintain its place in the market for many years to come given its proximity to the near-boundless Marcellus Shale.

Environmentalists should welcome that, he said, particularly given that coal-dependent developing countries are among Dominion’s customers.

Goldwyn argues the world should be moving from coal and diesel to natural gas as fast as it can — even if that means one day abandoning LNG plants like Cove Point once technological innovations make wind and solar a truly viable alternative.

“In the meantime, I will take every short-term [greenhouse gas] reduction I can get,” Goldwyn said.

Cove Point critics vehemently disagree, arguing the government should be trying to shutter the plant as a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and move immediately toward renewable energy.

“I’m very, very concerned about our future, and not just here in Cove Point,” Garcia said. “I mean, we will be extinguished before everybody else, but we are a canary in a coal mine. …

“This is not the future. This is not the way to go. Period.”

Rick Perry & Tom Farrell happy to export our natural gas to Japan and India

From an Article by DANDAN ZOU, Southern Maryland News, July 26, 2018

Dominion officially marked the opening of its newly constructed $4 billion natural gas liquefaction export facility at Cove Point on Thursday during a dedication ceremony where Energy Secretary Rick Perry cheered the completion of the first natural gas export terminal on the East Coast.

Under 20-year contracts with large Japanese company Sumitomo and Tokyo Gas as well as the India-based Gail Ltd., Dominion’s new facility has been operational since April, producing 8.3 million gallons of LNG per day.

Officials from Dominion and the Trump administration say the facility strengthens national security, reduces trade deficits, creates jobs and tax revenues for local areas and benefits the environment by cutting carbon emissions.

“This president understands the power of energy, and he is eager to unleash our bounty to the world, which is why he is so supportive of this infrastructure project right here at Cove Point,” Perry said after a brief tour of the facility Thursday morning. “We can become a reliable, competitive alternative anywhere in the world, and we will.”

Construction for the export facility started in October 2014, and the facility first began producing LNG in late January. Over the three-year period, Dominion said its construction project involved more than 10,000 craft workers and a payroll of more than $565 million.

“Everything was done first class” by a “first-class company,” Calvert County Commissioners’ President Evan Slaughenhoupt (R) said in an interview before he gave remarks at the dedication ceremony. “It was done perfectly.”

Slaughenhoupt later said in front of a crowd of more than 200 people that Dominion is the single largest taxpayer in Calvert County that contributes millions of tax dollars to the county. “We are the envy of every county in Maryland,” he said. “Calvert County is proud to be doing its part to make America great again.”

Over the years, Dominion’s project has drawn continuous pushback from some local residents over noise complaints and environmental concerns. We Are Cove Point, a Calvert grassroots organization formed in protest to Dominion’s expansion project, has led a weekly rally outside of the governor’s residence in Annapolis for more than a year, demanding Gov. Larry Hogan (R) order a safety study on Dominion’s Cove Point facility.

Most recently in February, some nearby residents complained about the noises coming out of the facility despite the company’s 60-foot-tall, 1,370-foot-long sound wall. Early Thursday morning, four protestors waved at passing cars with signs and banners on Cove Point Road.

“There have been some, but there are very few,” Dominion CEO Thomas Farrell II said, responding to a question on the protest over the facility’s impact on the local community.

Farrell noted the sound wall Dominion built to keep the noises inside and the company’s “zero discharge policy.” “All of the liquids that come out of the operations stay on this site. Nothing leaves,” he said. “All the power is self-generated on the site.”

Noting the company is “very conscientious of our neighbors’ concerns,” Farrell said the company is “very satisfied with what we’ve done” with regard to the facility’s environmental impact and handling of noises.

Perry added that there is an 800-acre buffer area around the 200-acre site. “What they are doing here is environmentally, I think, a very appropriate response to being good neighbor,” Perry said.

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Dominion Maryland Cove Point LNG facility exports first cargo | Reuters, March 2, 2018

The upgrade to an export terminal cost Dominion some $4 billion.

Important Public Hearing on Dominion’s Pollution Permit on Air Pollution at Cove Point

From Food & Water Watch, September 24, 2017

Date: Monday, October 2, 2017
Time: 6:00 PM – 12:00 AM

Location: Patuxent High School
12485 Southern Connector Blvd.
Lusby, MD 20657

When Dominion’s Cove Point LNG terminal was approved, they were given pollution limitations by the state. Now they’re trying to renegotiate to further pollute our community.  

The MARYLAND Public Service Commission is holding a hearing on Monday, October 2, to get community input on Dominion’s pollution permit. If granted, Dominion would be allowed to emit more than eight times the volatile organic compounds than currently — a major threat to public health. 

We need to stand together and show the Public Service Commission that our air and water must take priority over Dominion’s profits — and demand that they deny the permit. 

If you want to protect our air from Dominion’s pollution, we need you there on October 2.

Interested in speaking or submitting testimony at the event?

Please email Donny with We Are Cove Point,

donny@wearecovepoint.org, for more information.

From Ted Glick, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, February 5, 2014

For those of you in the Marcellus Shale region, this is an urgent request that you mark your calendar for Thursday, February 20th and make plans to get to Baltimore and bring as many people with you as you can.

Why? Because fracking fighters like you from across the Mid-Atlantic are converging on February 20th to take a stand against the biggest single gas drilling threat we face: Cove Point.

This proposed $3.8 billion export terminal would take fracked gas from throughout the Marcellus Shale, liquefy it on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, and ship it to Asia. If Cove Point gets built by mega-polluter Dominion Resources, then the increased pressure to frack throughout your state will be ENORMOUS. As will the pulse of new planet-heating pollution that wrecks our climate. Bill McKibben calls Cove Point “one of the most important fossil fuel fights in America.”

Whether you’re retired, you’re a student, or you have any flexibility at your job – you’re needed in Baltimore at noon on February 20th.

Please join us for a lunchtime rally Feb. 20th in downtown Baltimore to say “NO” to Cove Point and “NO” to fracked-gas exports from your state to Maryland and off to Asia. February 20th is a critical date to join this growing fight in Maryland, and draw a region-wide line in the sand. That’s when the state Public Service Commission, headquartered in Baltimore, will begin its official deliberations over key permits for Cove Point.

We’ll rally downtown with unforgettable speakers like Rev. Lennox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus, Mike Tidwell of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Maya van Rossum of Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Karen Feridun of Berks Gas Truth. Then, with music, drumming, and lots of noise, we’ll march to the Public Service Commission, urging them to reject Dominion’s dirty permit. Since Governor O’Malley’s Baltimore offices in are in the same building, our voices will reach him, too!

Dominion’s plan is radical: to pipe fracked gas from across the Marcellus to the Chesapeake Bay in southern Maryland, liquefy it to minus 260 F, and pour it onto tanker ships for the 6,000-mile journey to India and Japan. The “life cycle” greenhouse gas emissions make exported fracked gas worse than coal. Plus the pressure to frack in your state surges.

Please make plans to join the lunchtime rally February 20th in downtown Baltimore to say “NO” to Cove Point and “NO” to fracked-gas exports from your state to Maryland and off to Asia.  And help us forward this alert far and wide to everyone you know who’s concerned about fracking where you live.

We can stop Cove Point. But to take on Dominion — and their slick ads and political influence — we need to act fast and get big. We need a grassroots movement that reaches as far and wide as the potential fracking wells, pipelines, compressor stations and “liquefaction” plants this export project would trigger.

Hope to see you in Baltimore!

>>> Ted Glick is the national policy director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

The Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission appointed by the Governor of Pennsylvania has now reported with 96 recommendation aimed at encouraging gas companies to invest in Pennsylvania, protecting environmental resources and helping local governments manage the industry that is remaking their communities.

Key recommendations in the Report are as follows: Enact a drilling impact fee that offsets “uncompensated” costs to local governments. Double civil penalties for violations and increase bonding fees held in case a well is abandoned. Establish construction standards for private water wells and increase the distance for which a driller is presumed liable for contamination. Require the state Public Utility Commission to oversee gathering lines and increase safety standards for pipelines in low-density areas. Update state law to make the Marcellus Shale eligible for “pooling.” That process allows for mineral resources at a certain depth to be added against the owner’s wishes into a larger drilling unit.

Praise for the report has come from Range Resources, EQT Corporation, and the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association, among others. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Pennsylvania Environmental Council, the Nature Conservancy and Western Pennsylvania Conservancy gave a mixed assessment of the final report.

“We consider the report to be a meaningful first step toward improving Pennsylvania’s oversight of shale gas extraction, but additional improvements must be accomplished as the debate shifts to the General Assembly,” these latter organizations said in a joint release. Others who were not included in the process criticized the 137-page document, saying it was exactly what they feared from a panel stacked with industry executives. “From day one, we knew that the advisory commission is nothing more than a stalling tactic,” said Erika Staaf of the advocacy group PennEnvironment.

For more on this report, visit www.post-gazette.com/pipeline