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.”

Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) is under high pressure and very low temperature

From an Article by Marissa Luck, Houston Chronicle, December 17, 2018

PHOTO— A Liberian-flagged tanker named the Maria Energy left Cheniere Energy’s recently completed Port of Corpus Christi facility with the first shipment of liquefied natural gas on the morning of Thursday, December 11, 2018. The shipment marked the first LNG export from Texas.

The world’s biggest buyers of liquefied natural gas will quadruple their uncontracted demand for LNG, and more buyers will be on the hunt for additional LNG soon, too, a report from Wood Mackenzie suggests.

That’s good news for Texas, which is transforming into an LNG export hub as companies tap into cheap natural gas supplies.

By 2030, the seven major LNG buyers are expected to gobble up 80 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas over and above their existing contracts, according to Wood Mackenzie.

Total demand from those buyers, including purchasing LNG on contract and off contract, will grow to 180 million metric tons, up from 150 million metric tons today, the research firm said.

“As China pushes on toward a lower-emission economy, its demand for gas and LNG has grown significantly and we expect the trend to continue in the longer term,” said Wood Mackenzie research director, Nicholas Browne in a statement.

The major seven LNG buyers are clustered in Asia, including China National Offshore Oil Corp., PetroChina, Sinopec, Tokyo Gas, Jera Co. and CPC Corp. Together they account for more than 50 percent of the global LNG market.

“Other traditional major buyers, on the other hand, are facing legacy contract expires and will be on the hunt for a mix of contracts to lower average costs and security in supply sources,” Browne added.

Next year could be a record year for new liquefied natural gas projects too – collectively suppliers could give the green light on LNG investments totaling 220 million metric tons per a year of capacity.

To put that in perspective, nearly 300 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas was traded globally last year — a jump from 100 million metric tons at the start of the century, according to an outlook from Shell.

Several projects are expected to get the green light next year, including the $27 billion Arctic LNG-2 in Russia, at least one project in Mozambique and at least three the U.S. Expansion projects in Australia and Papua New Guinea will also be in the running.

A new report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration earlier this week said the U.S. could more than double its export capacity in the next year to become the third largest LNG exporter behind Australia and Qatar.

In Texas, Cheniere Energy sent out the first LNG export tanker from the state earlier this week. Cheniere’s initial customers for the Corpus Christi facility hold long-term supply contracts from Europe, Asia and Australia.

Cheniere started exporting LNG from the U.S. in 2016, when it sent LNG from its Sabine Pass complex in Louisiana. Dominion Energy of Richmond, Va., also is exporting LNG from Cove Point in the United States, and others are expected to follow in the coming months, including two Houston firms, Kinder Morgan, which is completing an export terminal in Georgia, and Freeport LNG, which will operate a Gulf Coast terminal at Quintana Island.

Companies behind another four export projects on the Gulf Coast —Magnolia LNG, Delfin LNG, Lake Charles and Golden Pass— have federal approvals and are expected to make final investment decisions in the coming months, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Several other companies, including Sempra Energy of San Diego, NextDecade of Houston and Tellurian of Houston, are working on projects expected to start up in the coming years. This week NextDecade scored state permits for its Rio Grande LNG project in Brownsville. And the federal government just released an environmental study on another Brownsville project, Annova LNG, an important milestone in the permitting process.

Browne said 2019 will be “the biggest year ever” in terms of LNG projects advancing and receiving final investment decisions.

“Asia’s major buyers will be at the forefront in ensuring this next generation of LNG supply is brought to market,” he added.

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.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

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.

Cove Point Protest Rally

Don’t Let Cove Point Slip into the Dark Side!

Letter to Maryland Residents and Friends in the Region

On May 4th, we’re asking as many people as possible to join in resistance to the Cove Point  Terminal and call Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s office to insist that he order a public and thorough safety study for the fracked gas export terminal Dominion is building in the community of Cove Point, Maryland — and we want him to order a halt in construction while the safety study is performed!

In 2006, a detailed safety study called a quantitative risk assessment (QRA) was conducted on the then-import terminal at Cove Point. A QRA is a study that looks at what could go wrong with a facility in the event of an accident, and determines the proper emergency responses.

Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources commissioned the 2006 QRA at the behest of the nuclear plant that is three miles from Cove Point. Using pro-industry data and a pro-industry company to conduct the actual study, alarming results still came to light — including that everybody living within 0.8 miles of the mostly dormant import terminal (around 1,000 people) faced the constant risk of being consumed in a flash fire at any point. What are the risks after a $3.8 billion, three-year-long construction project that adds a full-scale power plant, a liquefaction train, some 410,000 gallons of propane stored on site, and many other dangerous factors? We don’t know.

Dominion has been allowed to get away with minimal safety testing that doesn’t look at the actual scope of the threats placed on the tens of thousands of people living around this terminal — and even that hasn’t been released publicly. Instead, information on potential peril facing this community is hidden behind non-disclosure agreements and back-room deals. Politicians who are too eager to take Dominion’s money at all costs have abandoned their constituents. It’s high time that the one person who can order a QRA safety study by simply commanding it, Governor Hogan, do so — and halt construction while the study is conducted to give it the time it needs.

Other Dominion facilities have seen fatal explosions, other fuel facilities in southern Maryland have seen fatal explosions, and this exact facility had a fatal explosion in 1979! The lives and well-being of tens of thousands of people are worth more than the money Dominion is adding to the local coffers! We need Governor Hogan to order this safety study immediately!

Call Governor Hogan’s office at: (410) 974-3901

If you haven’t yet, please sign our online petition at bit.ly/qranow. More information about the need for a safety study is there, as well.

Thank you for helping to protect our community — and, by extension, all of the other communities affected by gas infrastructure that would help bring gas to Cove Point to be exported!

May the 4th be with you!

Thank you,  ”Dont Frack Maryland” and “We Are Cove Point”

See website: “Don’t Frack Maryland”

See also this one: “We Are Cove Point”

CHESAPEAKE CLIMATE ACTION NETWORK

From Mike Tidwell, Director, CCAN — Climate Action News, April, 2015

March for Calvert County, MD to be Dominion-Free on May 30th!

Join Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community and climate activists across the region for a peaceful rally, march and community picnic. We’ll reclaim the area surrounding Dominion’s Cove Point construction site as “for the people.” Stand with residents of Lusby, Calvert County and Southern Maryland to show that the people still reject Dominion’s dangerous fracked gas export project. We need your voice, your presence and your energy on May 30th!

STUDENTS — VA Students Lead the Way to a Fossil-Free Future

The Virginia Student Environmental Coalition has had an inspiring semester of action, growth, and new possibilities. Check out everything they’ve done this spring — from flexing their political muscles in Richmond, to organizing the state’s biggest-ever student climate summit, to holding a 21-day sit-in at the University of Mary Washington (pictured to the right) demanding the school divest from fossil fuels. And, they’re ending on a bang with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline Resistance Ride in May! Read the full update here.

MARYLAND — By the Numbers: Your impact in Annapolis

The 2015 General Assembly session concluded with a big, people-powered victory: Passage of legislation prohibiting fracking for natural gas in Maryland through at least October 1, 2017. From fighting fracking to pushing for wind and solar solutions, your voices had a huge impact this year in Annapolis. Here are just a few highlights:

5,351 total emails to state delegates and senators ahead of key votes on the fracking moratorium bill.
1,510 messages — and counting — urging Gov. Hogan to sign the fracking moratorium into law.
312 phone calls and 68 lobby visits urging state lawmakers to expand Maryland’s clean electricity standard.

VIRGINIA — Pipeline Fight Heats Up: Submit your #NoACP comment to FERC!

The federal review process has now officially kicked off for both the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline — proposed to carry dirty and dangerous fracked gas across Virginia’s beautiful countryside. The opposition is only growing, and here’s how you can add your voice: 1) Click here to demand a full and fair federal review of Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline before tomorrow’s April 28th deadline. 2) Speak out at one of two upcoming federal hearings in Virginia on the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

Join Us For a Great Party. Celebrate a Growing Movement

On May 27th, join us in Norfolk for an evening reception to celebrate the growing movement to protect our coast from rising seas, and honor the elected officials and climate champions galvanizing action for solutions. Meet other passionate climate activists, hear a keynote address from Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, and enjoy delicious hors d’oeuvres, local wine and beer in a beautiful downtown Norfolk setting! Click here to see the honorees and get your tickets: $25 regular admission and $10 for students.

Check Out DomTruth.org and Pass It On

On Earth Day — when we’re always on high alert for “greenwashing” from Dominion Virginia Power — we launched a new interactive website to expose the truth:
www.domtruth.org

Explore Dominion’s dirty energy secrets and spread the word!

Rally on July 13^th at National Mall to Protest Cove Point LNG Export Terminal

RE: July 13th Cove Point Rally in Washington, DC

In just 10 days, people from across the Mid-Atlantic will be marching through the streets of Washington, DC to stop fracked gas exports at Cove Point. As my friend Bill McKibben said by video invitation,“It’s a doable, winnable fight – if we show up.”¹

With a Cove Point decision pending from President Obama’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as early as this August, we need to show up — in our biggest numbers yet.

Will you be there on July 13th? Stand with us in Washington to say NO to gas exports at Cove Point, NO to more fracking and pipelines — and a loud and proud YES to the wind and solar power that won’t leak, explode or flood our communities.

What: Rally to Stop Fracked Gas Exports at Cove Point and Beyond!

When: July 13th 12:30-3:30PM

Where: Rally begins west of the U.S. Capitol on the National Mall. Meet at the intersection of 3rd St NW and Madison Drive NW, Washington, DC 20216. March to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Transportation: Bus seats are available from Calvert County, MD, Charlottesville, VA, Richmond, VA, the Philadelphia area, and New York City. Click here for bus info and the rally ride board.

Sign up here to march with us July 13th in DC, and ensure you get updates on all the final logistics.

We’re all connected in this anti-fracking movement — upstream, downstream, and everywhere in between. Just look at who’s coming to DC:

Karen Feridun is coming from Pennsylvania because gas exports at Cove Point will mean more fracking by companies like Cabot Oil & Gas — and more communities facing spills, illnesses, and undrinkable water.

People are busing in from across Virginia, where neighbors are rising up to fight three new gas pipeline proposals that could cut across farms, parks, and even the George Washington National Forest.

Scientist Sandra Steingraber is coming from New York, where a recent court victory affirmed the rights of towns to ban fracking, because, “The only things Americans get from LNG exports are terrifying new health and safety threats, worsening climate instability, and higher heating bills — all so that the gas industry can make bigger profits from fracking us.”

Will you be there to stand with us? Sign up here to march against fracked gas exports July 13th in DC.

Forward, Mike Tidwell, Director, Chesapeake Climate Action Network

PS: Need a ride? Click here to join a bus or carpool — folks are coming from across the Mid-Atlantic.

PPS: Learn more about why we’re standing against fracked gas exports at Cove Point by clicking here.

1. Click here to watch Bill’s video invitation.

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.

DOE Approves LNG Exports from Cove Point on East Coast  

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Article by Laura Beans, EcoWatch, September 12, 2013

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The Department of Energy (DOE) announced yesterday it has conditionally authorized Dominion Cove Point LNG to export domestically produced liquefied natural gas (LNG) over seas to countries that do not have a Free Trade Agreement with the U.S.

PHOTO: Dominion’s Cove Point LNG import facility, located on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay in Lusby, Maryland.

The conditional approval from the DOE is pending environmental review and final regulatory approval, but would allow the facility to potentially export up 0.77 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day.

Dominion Cove’s authorization from the DOE to export from the Lusby, MD, terminal will essentially mean more fracking for natural gas in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia that lie above the coveted Marcellus Shale basin.

“Exporting LNG to foreign buyers will lock us into decades-long contracts, which in turn will lead to more drilling—and that means more fracking, more air and water pollution, and more climate-fueled weather disasters like record fires, , droughts, and superstorms like last year’s Sandy,” said Deb Nardone, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Natural Gas Campaign. “And all this when we know that the dangers of natural gas will only become more clear as we learn more about its effects on health and the climate.”

According to LNG Global, Dominion Cove Point owns not only the export station but the pipeline infrastructure that will be used to deliver fracked gas to the terminal. The pipeline will be fed through the interstate pipeline grid, “thereby allowing gas to be sourced broadly,” Dominion stated in their application.

“Their pipeline system provides access to the Appalachian natural gas supply (Marcellus Shale), as well as connections to supplies from the Gulf of Mexico area, the mid-continent, the Rockies and Canada,” LNG Global explained.

Dominion Cove Point is the fourth export terminal approved by the DOE. The others, Sabine Pass Liquefaction, LLC (Cheniere Energy); Freeport LNG Expansion, L.P. and FLNG Liquefaction, LLC; and Lake Charles Exports, LLC lie along the Gulf coast.

“It’s a bad deal all around: for public health, the environment and America’s working people,” continued Nardone. “The economic study the DOE itself commissioned clearly states that LNG export will transfer wealth from wage earners to fossil fuel executives. LNG export is nothing but a giveaway to the dirty fossil fuel industry, at the expense of everyday Americans.”

Visit EcoWatch’s LNG and FRACKING pages for more related news on this topic.