On Saturday, May 31, hundreds of citizens from Calvert County and across Maryland are expected to pack the Patuxent High School auditorium in Lusby for federal officials’ first and only planned public meeting on Dominion Resources’ controversial proposal to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility at Cove Point. As part of a 30-day public comment period, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) officials will hear testimony from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on their recently released draft Environmental Assessment for the $3.8 billion project. Activists will build a mock “vapor cloud wall” to protest the project outside of the hearing.
Inside the hearing, homeowners living near the facility and citizens travelling from across Maryland are preparing to deliver heartfelt and expert testimony on why FERC’s draft analysis falls far short of the thorough and comprehensive review needed to protect public safety and the environment. Even though Dominion’s project would be the first fracked gas export facility on the East Coast and the first ever located in such close proximity to people’s homes, FERC has refused to conduct a full and customary Environmental Impact Statement, which requires a higher standard of scrutiny and response to public comments.
To highlight the safety gaps in FERC’s analysis, local community members plan to build a large simulation of Dominion’s proposed six-story-tall “vapor cloud containment wall” by the high school entrance on Saturday. In response to citizens’ concerns, Maryland’s U.S. Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin and Congressmen Steny Hoyer and Chris Van Hollen sent an official letter to FERC last Friday requesting a 30-day extension of the public comment period.
WHAT: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission public meeting on the controversial Cove Point LNG export facility
WHEN: Saturday, May 31 from 1-6 p.m.
WHERE: Patuxent High School, 12485 Southern Connector Blvd, Lusby, MD 20657
VISUALS: Inside the meeting, concerned citizens will wear red to show their opposition to Cove Point. Outside, local community members will build a large replica “vapor cloud wall.” The wall will symbolize both the safety threat of Dominion’s liquefaction facility and the wall of secrecy they face in receiving complete and credible information from FERC officials, Calvert County Commissioners and Emergency Planners, and Dominion.
BACKGROUND: The Cove Point terminal would take gas from fracking wells across Appalachia, liquefy it to 260°F below zero, and ship it to Asia via massive tankers coming in and out of the Chesapeake Bay. FERC’s draft Environmental Assessment, released on May 15, fails to consider the cumulative climate change pollution that would be triggered by the project from drilling well to final smokestack, which could be greater than all seven of Maryland’s coal-fired power plants combined. The document also denies a connection between Cove Point and increased fracking for gas, despite the commitment of a major Pennsylvania fracking company – Cabot Oil & Gas – to provide fracked gas to Cove Point for export. FERC furthermore uses outdated federal fire protection standards to reject the need for an independent, quantitative risk assessment of the danger of potential vapor cloud, fire or explosion catastrophes threatening the safety of nearby families. FERC relies largely on Dominion’s own data and points to apparently untested mitigation measures – like the six-story “vapor wall” – to dismiss local residents’ concerns.
