Baltimore Residents Protest Dangerous Oil Trains as City Council Weighs Action

Analysis indicates 165,000 Baltimore residents live within the potential oil train blast zone
City Council urged to place a moratorium on permits for crude oil shipping terminals
BALTIMORE—Over 70 concerned citizens gathered outside City Hall and packed a hearing room on Wednesday evening to protest the growing public safety and environmental dangers of potentially explosive oil trains moving through Baltimore. The rally preceded the Baltimore City Council’s first informational public hearing on the issue, and was organized as part of the “Stop Oil Trains” week of action uniting dozens of cities across North America. This week marks the two-year anniversary of the worst oil train derailment and explosion in North America, in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec.
Oil companies are increasingly targeting Baltimore as a gateway for shipping crude oil to East Coast refineries. In recent years, the industry has used trains to move millions of gallons of highly toxic and flammable Bakken crude oil to and through Baltimore—past homes, schools, churches, hospitals, and likely the Inner Harbor—and over tracks that were never designed for this dangerous cargo.
The nonprofit organization ForestEthics calculates that 165,000 Baltimore residents—and City Hall itself—are within the potential oil train “blast zone,” the one-mile evacuation zone recommended by safety officials in the case of a derailment and fire.
“It’s clear that a crude oil train derailment in densely populated areas like Baltimore City could lead to a disastrous loss of life and property,” said Delegate Clarence Lam, MD, MPH (District 12—Howard and Baltimore Counties), who spoke at the rally and also testified before the City Council. “Communities should be informed about the potential dangers they face, and reasonable steps undertaken to reduce the risk to residents living nearby.”
To underscore those risks, rally-goers assembled a replica “oil train” marked with the dates and sites of accidents that have occurred across North America, including the tragedy in Lac-Mégantic, which killed 47 people.
Speakers called on city and state leaders to act now to protect local rail communities. Specifically, the City Council could place a moratorium on approving permits for crude oil shipping terminals until local emergency management, health and safety officials study the associated dangers. Vancouver, WA, and Albany, NY, have already enacted similar city moratoria on permits for crude oil shipping facilities.
“The City Council has taken an important first step to shed light on the risks of oil trains,” said Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “A city moratorium on permits is the sensible next step. If we want fewer code-red air days and less extreme weather, we cannot allow oil companies to use Baltimore as a gateway for extremely toxic, explosive, and climate-disrupting oil.”
During the 2015 legislative session, Delegate Lam introduced a state bill that would have required rail companies to disclose the route, frequency and volume of crude oil being transported by rail through Maryland. CSX and Norfolk Southern have sued the state to prevent the public release of this information. Neither company sent representatives to the City Council hearing.
“Oil trains put the lives of hundreds of thousands of Baltimoreans at risk, including me, my family, and my neighbors, all for the benefit of dirty energy,” said Pastor Amy Sens, a pastor at six:eight United Church of Christ who lives near train tracks in Morrell Park. “Oil trains are an equal opportunity danger, and one we ignore to our peril.”
“Baltimore does not need another environmental injustice that lets ‘Big Oil’ use our city as a throughway to East Coast refineries,” said Will Fadely, Baltimore Program Organizer at Clean Water Action. “Oil trains put our water at risk of spills of oil and other toxic chemicals, and will run right through the heart of the most vulnerable communities in the city. The environmental, community health, and safety impacts far outweigh any benefits.”
“Oil trains don’t have to explode to be dangerous,” said Trisha Sheehan, Regional Field Director at Moms Clean Air Force. “They leak toxic chemicals, endangering everyone’s lungs, especially those most vulnerable to air pollution—our children.”
Wednesday’s rally in Baltimore was organized by the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Clean Water Action, and the Maryland Environmental Health Network.
It coincided with over 80 events planned across North America during the week of July 6th to draw attention to the growing threat oil trains pose to our health, safety, and climate. Organizers of this week of action are demanding a federal ban on dangerous oil trains.
Reporting by the Baltimore Sun shows that the oil industry has used the Fairfield Peninsula in South Baltimore to unload and ship over 100 million gallons of crude oil over 2013 and 2014, up from zero gallons the previous two years. In addition to bringing significant safety dangers, oil trains threaten to worsen air quality in communities like South Baltimore, where residents already breathe in some of the dirtiest air in Maryland.
Nationally, oil train traffic has grown by 4,000 percent in the past six years, due to the rapid increase in fracking for oil in the Bakken shale fields of North Dakota and in tar sands oil extraction in Canada. The oil moving by train—which represents a small percentage of overall U.S. oil consumption—is more volatile and flammable than conventional oil. Five derailments and explosions occurred in North America in the first five months of 2015.
RESOURCES FOR JOURNALISTS:

Contact:
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

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In Grassroots Victory, Two-Year Fracking Moratorium Becomes Law in Maryland

The following news release is from the Don’t Frack Maryland coalition:

Gov. Hogan quietly allows fracking moratorium bill to become law without his signature

Annapolis, Md. – At the end of the day today, Friday May 29, a two and a half year fracking moratorium will become law in Maryland. Over Memorial Day weekend, Governor Hogan announced that he would not veto the bill (HB 449/SB409) and will allow it to pass into law without his signature. This past legislative session, the Maryland General Assembly passed the bill with veto-proof majorities (60%) in each house. The Maryland House of Delegates passed the bill 103-33 and it passed 45-2 in the Senate.
“I am relieved and delighted that Governor Hogan will allow mine and Delegate Fraser-Hidalgo’s bill for a 2 year moratorium on fracking to become law without his signature,” said Senator Karen Montgomery, the bill’s Senate sponsor. “Now we have two years to continue to compile indisputable scientific data.”
“Governor Hogan neither signed nor vetoed the bill, so it becomes law, said Delegate David Fraser-Hidalgo, the bill’s House sponsor. “We would have liked the moratorium to span 8 years according to the original bill to allot more time for public health and scientific study of the industry, but we are satisfied that no fracking will take place in Maryland before October 2017. This is a significant accomplishment for the state and one that we believe all counties and localities in Maryland will benefit.”
The Don’t Frack Maryland Campaign has worked across the state in support of this moratorium and brought together a broad coalition of Marylanders from health professionals, business owners, farmers, families and residents from across the state. Over 100 groups came together and organized to collect and deliver letters to the Governor and the Maryland General Assembly in support of the moratorium. The group backed an ad recorded by actor and Maryland native, Edward Norton, targeting the Governor to sign the bill. The Baltimore Sun also editorialized in favor of the moratorium, calling it “the kind of compromise that … Gov. Larry Hogan ought to embrace.”
“Governor Hogan is rightly following the will of the public in allowing Maryland’s first statutory moratorium on fracking to become law,” said Shilpa Joshi, Maryland campaign coordinator at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “This victory belongs to the citizens from Mountain Maryland to the Eastern Shore who have fought for years to protect our air, water, economy, and climate from the gas industry. The grassroots movement that flooded Governor Hogan’s office and the General Assembly with emails and calls this spring will only grow and get louder over the next two years to ensure our communities remain protected.”
“The movement behind this moratorium was unyielding,” said Mitch Jones, Common Resources Director for Food & Water Watch. “Passing a moratorium under a pro-fracking Governor is a testament to the effectiveness that organizing can have. As more and more scientific studies show the health and environmental problems with fracking, more and more Marylanders oppose the practice. When we are used to seeing moneyed interests rule, it is encouraging to see elected officials heed the will of the people to protect their communities.”
Rebecca Ruggles, Director of the Maryland Environmental Health Network said, “In the short time since the legislature passed this bill, we have already seen new health threats being documented. There is a new University of Maryland study published which raises questions about Maryland air pollution from fracking in other states, a new review of the risks to communities, and a study looking at impacts on vulnerable populations. We really need at least 30 months to monitor and assess this flow of health studies and analyses.”
“This moratorium will give us time to assess the constant flow of new studies about the health, economic and societal effects of fracking before it comes to our home,” said Dr. Ann Bristow, a commissioner who served on Governor O’Malley’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission. “Proactive and preventive action through community-based education and citizen engagement is necessary in policy decisions that will effect people’s health. Hitting the pause button on fracking is the most responsible and ethical way for public health and safety policy to move forward.”
“For the growing numbers of western Maryland residents and business owners who live in fear that fracking will ruin our communities, natural resources, property values and thriving tourism economy, this moratorium is a relief,” said Nadine Grabania of Citizen Shale and owner of Deep Creek Cellars. “We now have two years to explore fracking’s threats to public health and safety and potential to drive away visitors, homeowners, and businesses, who, for over a century have vacationed and invested in our mountains for reasons that a vast majority of Marylanders hold dear.”
“Clean Water Action is pleased that HB 449 and SB 409 have become law,” said Andy Galli Clean Water Action’s Maryland Program Coordinator. “However we were hoping that the Governor would affirm his commitment to protecting Maryland and its citizens from the many dangers of fracking by signing the law, which was passed by both houses with a large bi-partisan majority. Clean Water believes that in two years many more accounts of the health impacts, water pollution, environmental degradation as well as violations and legal cases, will cause the Legislature and Administration to reach the conclusion at the end of that time that the only future path regarding fracking in Maryland is the one taken by New York.”
Contact:
Shilpa Joshi, 240-396-2029, shilpa@chesapeakeclimate.org
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

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Background: More than 100 groups came together and worked tirelessly to empower Marylanders to form the Don’t Frack Maryland Campaign and fight for a long-term moratorium on fracking. This Don’t Frack Maryland campaign brought together more than 100 Western Maryland business owners and has also sent over 25,000 messages to legislators supporting a moratorium. Letters signed by more than 100 health professionals, and more than 50 restaurant owners, chefs, winemakers and farmers from across the state were also delivered to the legislature. Even actor and Maryland native Edward Norton helped the effort, providing a radio adappealing to the Governor to sign the bill. Two commissioners of the “Marcellus Shale Safe Drilling Initiative,” released a letter in January outlining the commission’s study did not incorporate a great deal of the recently-released studies exploring the health effects of fracking.

CCAN Condemns Maryland Decision to Approve Exelon-Pepco Merger

Group says Public Service Commission failed utterly by approving monopolistic deal that will harm ratepayers and the environment for years to come

BALTIMORE—The Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) today deeply harmed the interests of ratepayers and the environment by approving a widely contested merger between Chicago-based utility giant Exelon and regional utility Pepco. The Maryland regulators’ 3-2 decision to approve the deal is being denounced by environmental and consumer advocates as a major blow to the state’s ability to achieve a clean, reliable and efficient 21st century electric grid.
Click here to read the Maryland PSC order on the Exelon-Pepco Merger.
The D.C. Public Service Commission has yet to rule on the merger, and could still block the deal.
Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, a group that intervened before the PSC against the proposed merger, released the following statement in response:
“The PSC has made a grave error today in approving the Exelon-Pepco merger. This approval, with no meaningful conditions added by the commissioners, threatens to negatively affect Marylanders for decades to come. The PSC has totally failed in its responsibility to protect the ratepayers from exactly the sort of monopolistic harm that they have now ushered in. The PSC has put the profits of a Chicago-based corporation over the public interest of Marylanders, despite the overwhelming opposition of the state’s attorney general, the Office of People’s Counsel, the Maryland Energy Administration, and Maryland’s environmental community.
“This decision today by the PSC will prove to be historic – and the commissioners themselves long-remembered in the sharpest negative light – for the rate increases soon to follow and the harm to the environment and the economy. Of particular note, Commissioner Kelly Speakes-Backman – an O’Malley appointee to the commission and a staunch advocate for environmental protection through clean energy – defied expectations and cast the swing vote in the 3-2 decision, joining Chairman Kevin Hughes and Commissioner Lawrence Brenner. (Commissioners Anne Hoskins and Harold Williams dissented, voting against the merger). Speakes-Backman has simply stunned the environmental and renewable energy industry with her inexplicable support of a decision that will now make her effectively known for years for the negative consequences to come.
“As the PSC commissioners themselves noted in their decision, this nearly $7 billion merger raised unusually deep concerns across the state about risks to consumers, businesses, and the environment in Maryland. The merger could raise rates and inhibit wind and solar development, as well as reduce efficiency gains, across 85 percent of the state’s customer base for electricity. Unless D.C. PSC regulators make the right choice where Maryland went wrong, these negatives impacts are almost certain to occur with today’s flawed approval. Maryland attorney General Brian Frosh spoke for many opponents before this decision in saying ‘no amount of money or structural changes can make this deal into one that’s in Maryland’s best interest.’ Yet the PSC today, tragically, ruled otherwise.
“As the Commissioners surely know, Exelon will now become the largest utility in America and will almost certainly double down on its established business model of protecting its aging and unprofitable nuclear fleet at all costs while fighting any significant expansion of wind and solar power in Maryland. Likewise, the company will likely continue to oppose significant increases in energy efficiency gains or meaningful development of community-based energy systems and micro grids.
“Exelon’s application is still pending before the D.C. Public Service Commission. Just this week, several D.C. Council members called on the mayor to oppose the merger. Hopefully, D.C.’s Public Service Commissioners will heed the call of leaders and residents throughout the District, and reject this woefully insufficient merger proposal.”
Contact:
Mike Tidwell, 240-460-5838, mtidwell@chesapeakeclimate.org
Kelly Trout, 717-439-0346, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

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CCAN Applauds Step to Boost Va. Energy Efficiency Goals

Among states, Virginia ranks toward the bottom in efficiency; has 8th highest average electric bills

RICHMOND—Governor Terry McAuliffe today announced he is accelerating Virginia’s goal to reduce retail electricity consumption from 10 percent by 2022 to 10 percent by 2020, and establishing the Governor’s Executive Committee on Energy Efficiency to develop a state plan to ensure Virginia hits this new target.
Dawone Robinson, Virginia Policy Director at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, had the following statement in response:
“We applaud Governor McAuliffe for taking this win-win step forward for Virginia’s environment and economy. Increasing energy efficiency is our lowest-hanging fruit when it comes to reducing the carbon emissions fueling severe weather and sea-level rise. Currently, Virginia ranks toward the bottom of U.S. states in reducing energy use, which is a big reason our families pay the 8th-highest average electric bills. By investing in energy efficiency solutions, we will cut pollution while lowering the bills of low- to moderate-income homeowners and renters and putting people to work.”
Contact:
Dawone Robinson, 804-767-0372, dawone@chesapeakeclimate.org
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

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The Chesapeake Climate Action Network is the biggest and oldest grassroots organization dedicated to fighting climate change in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. We’re building a powerful movement to shift our region away from climate-harming fossil fuels and to clean energy solutions.

Groups Appeal Federal Approval of Cove Point Fracked Gas Export Facility

Lawsuit charges that regulators illegally ignored the project’s impact on fracking, climate change, and the Chesapeake Bay

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Environmental groups sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) today over its decision to approve a massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal along the Chesapeake Bay in southern Maryland without conducting a rigorous environmental review.
The lawsuit, filed in the federal appeals court for the D.C. Circuit, charges that FERC circumvented the law by failing to consider how Dominion Resources’ $3.8 billion Cove Point project would trigger expanded fracking for natural gas in the Marcellus shale region, leading to significant new amounts of air, water and climate-disrupting pollution. Additionally, the groups contend that FERC failed to adequately consider the impact of foreign ships dumping dirty wastewater into the Chesapeake Bay. Earthjustice filed the suit today on behalf of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Patuxent Riverkeeper, and Sierra Club.
“After months of delay, we will finally get our day in court to challenge the fundamentally flawed approval of Dominion’s climate- and community-wrecking project,” said Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “Time and again, FERC has shown a blatant disregard for the health and safety of people and the climate and, we believe, the law. Tragically, FERC’s foot-dragging has allowed Dominion bulldozers to start construction before Calvert County residents had legal recourse to challenge the agency’s decision.”
For nearly seven months, FERC had delayed ruling on the groups’ request for a rehearing of its September 29 decision approving the project, even as the agency approved order after order allowing Dominion to begin construction. FERC finally rejected the groups’ rehearing motion on Monday, clearing the way for today’s legal challenge.
Dominion’s construction activities have already begun to irrevocably damage the landscape and quality of life in Calvert County, Maryland. Some local residents have put their homes up for sale and moved away rather than deal with mounting pollution, noise, and large trucks and construction vehicles inundating roadways, as well as the potential for catastrophic explosions and fires if the facility becomes fully operational.
“With this order, FERC yet again has failed to fulfill its duty under federal environmental law,” said Jocelyn D’Ambrosio, senior associate attorney at Earthjustice. “Exporting nearly 1 billion cubic feet of LNG per day means more gas drilling, which wreaks havoc on both the climate and the communities scarred by wells and pipelines. We are asking the federal court to ensure that FERC evaluates the many ways that the Cove Point project will degrade the environment.”
FERC has faced escalating protests and mounting legal challenges over the past year for facilitating a massive expansion of gas export infrastructure and pipelines at the expense of the public interest. Legal challenges are also pending over the agency’s approval of LNG export facilities in Sabine Pass and Cameron, Louisiana and in Freeport, Texas.
“Exporting LNG will lead to more drilling—and more drilling means more fracking, more air and water pollution, and more climate-fueled weather disasters like record fires, droughts, and superstorms,” said Nathan Matthews, Sierra Club staff attorney. “FERC consistently fails to take the full impact of fracking into account when it considers whether to green light LNG exports, and it did so again in the case of Cove Point. For the sake of public health and our fragile climate we have no alternative but to challenge FERC’s incomplete environmental review in federal court.”
“The Dominion expansion at Cove Point has been given a green light by parties at the county, state and federal level regardless of and with little regard for the likely environmental impacts,” said Fred Tutman, Patuxent Riverkeeper. “The local environmental impacts have been dismissed even as the economic impacts have been largely distorted and inadequately explored. We now look to the courts to step in where our regulators have failed in order to safeguard our waterway and communities.”
The Dominion Cove Point project would take gas from wells across Appalachia and liquefy it along the shore of the Chesapeake Bay for export to Asia. The project would be the first LNG export facility ever built so close to so many homes and the first built in close proximity to Marcellus Shale fracking operations. According to federal data, exporting fracked gas could contribute more to global warming over the next two decades than burning coal mined in the Asian countries importing LNG.
The groups’ lawsuit centers on FERC’s unlawfully narrow Environmental Assessment. That review—challenged in over 150,000 citizen comments—omitted credible analysis of the project’s lifecycle global warming pollution, along with all the pollution associated with driving demand for upstream fracking and fracked gas infrastructure; its impact on water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and risk to the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale; and potentially catastrophic explosion and fire threat to hundreds of nearby residents.
View the petition filed today in the federal appeals court for the D.C. Circuit (Case No. 15-1127) : http://chesapeakeclimate.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Cove-Point-Petition-for-Review-as-Filed-2015-05-07.pdf
Contact:
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org
Keith Rushing, 202-797-5236, krushing@earthjustice.org

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Dominion Confronted by Protests Outside Annual Shareholder Meeting Over Company’s Dirty Energy and Dirty Politics

Protesters from Augusta Co. to Norfolk to Cove Point, Md. unite to challenge business practices wrecking communities and the climate

Glen Allen, Va.—Over 150 protesters from across Virginia and Maryland greeted Dominion Resources executives and board members arriving for the company’s annual shareholder meeting this morning, in a sign of the growing citizen backlash over the company’s dirty energy investments and dirty politics. (Click here to view photos.)
More than 50 landowners and concerned citizens from Buckingham, Nelson, and Augusta Counties—all in the path of the company’s controversial proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline—journeyed by bus. They were joined outside the entrance to Dominion’s training facility by citizens who had packed vans from Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, and other communities fighting the company’s climate-threatening plans and its anti-democratic lock on Virginia politicians.
Protesters charged that Dominion—the top corporate campaign donor and top climate polluter in Virginia—is using its vast political influence to stack the deck in favor of costly and risky investments in massive ‘fracked’ gas and nuclear projects, trample the property rights of landowners, and attack sensible solutions like the federal Clean Power Plan.
“Dominion and its shareholders need to know that we are here today because the plan to route the Atlantic Coast Pipeline through our home deeply violates so many of our personal and community values,” said Joanna Salidis, President of Friends of Nelson County. “Property owners want Dominion to respect that ‘No’ means ‘No.’ We want Dominion to uphold their claim that eminent domain is a method of last resort — not a gift from the government to maximize profit on the backs of unwilling private property owners and communities.”
To underline their point, protesters erected a “Dominion-opoly” board showcasing the sites of dirty energy projects currently proposed or under construction by the company. A 40-foot-long mock pipeline was inflated and carried by the crowd, while chants and colorful banners drew the attention of arriving attendees and passersby.
“Students from campuses across Virginia are heeding the warning of climate change and are now acting on what they have found to be the most urgent issue that we as humans have collectively faced,” said Rabib Hasan, President of the the Virginia Student Environmental Coalition. “Dominion’s plans to build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and expand fossil fuel infrastructure show the company’s negligence towards this global challenge.”
Dominion Virginia Power’s most recent 15-year energy plan would increase planet-heating carbon emissions by more than 30 percent. In the recent state legislative session, Dominion came under fire for using its vast political influence to squash significant measures to address climate change and to ram through anti-consumer legislation.
“Dominion’s dirty energy choices and political dealings with ALEC are not in the best interest of the citizens of Virginia,” said Kendyl Crawford, Conservation Program Coordinator with Virginia Sierra Club. “Dominion needs to get serious about addressing climate change. According to its own projections, Dominion’s over reliance on natural gas will increase its climate changing carbon pollution 39% by 2028.”
“We’re frustrated by Dominion’s failure to take strong action on climate change,” said Charlie Spatz, Statewide Field Organizer with Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “Dominion’s spending billions of dollars to expand ‘fracked’ gas infrastructure, yet when it comes to renewable energy the company has very little to show. In recent weeks, Dominion announced it would be indefinitely delaying its offshore wind project. That’s not the kind of leadership we need to get us on track to solve the climate crisis.”
“It’s important for people in Cove Point to stand with people in Richmond, Nelson County, Myersville and everywhere else Dominion is running roughshod over people’s lives,” said Donny Williams of the We Are Cove Point coalition. “Dominion is already more than six months behind schedule in constructing its mammoth LNG export terminal in Cove Point thanks to the people standing up for their communities to stop it. We’re here today to make it as clear as possible that we simply will not allow the company to continue putting profits before our well-being — risking many of our lives in the process.”
Organizations supporting the protest today include the Augusta County Alliance, Beyond Extreme Energy, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Chesapeake Earth First!, FANG (Fighting Against Natural Gas), Free Nelson, Friends of Buckingham County, Friends of Nelson County, Myersville Citizens for a Rural Community (Md.), Richmond Resistance, SEED (Stopping Extraction and Exports Destruction), Virginia Chapter Sierra Club, We Are Cove Point, and Wild Virginia.
CONTACT:
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

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Climate Advocates Applaud Signing of Virginia Solar Bills, Call for Bolder Solutions

CHESTER, Va.—Governor Terry McAuliffe today signed into law several pieces of clean energy legislation passed by the 2015 General Assembly. The bills signed include legislation doubling the cap on the size of solar energy systems that Virginia businesses are allowed to install to offset their own energy usage (HB 1950/ SB 1395), and legislation creating a new Virginia Solar Development Authority (HB 2267/ SB 1099).
Clean energy advocates applauded both bills as positive steps forward, while noting they are only the beginning of what’s needed to catch Virginia up to its neighbors in developing clean power and the jobs that come with it.
Dawone Robinson, Virginia Policy Director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, had the following statement in response:
“The fact that we’re celebrating Earth Day by witnessing several pieces of clean energy legislation get signed into law is proof of the growing movement in Virginia demanding solutions to climate change.
“Virginia currently has only 11 megawatts of solar installed, and that figure is embarrassingly low, especially compared to our neighbors. Virginia has as much or more solar potential than Maryland and North Carolina, yet those states have more than 200 megawatts and 950 megawatts of solar currently installed respectively thanks to much stronger state policies.
“Thanks to the leadership of key lawmakers—including Senators Dance and Stuart, and Delegates McClellan and Hugo, chief patrons of the bills signed into law today—we are beginning to take necessary steps to catch up with our neighbors in clean energy jobs and investments. We appreciate Governor McAuliffe’s signature on these bills and we look forward to passing even bolder clean energy solutions in the next legislative session.
“Hampton Roads is ground zero for climate change, as sea level rise driven by fossil fuel pollution gets progressively worse. As our citizens battle the climate crisis on a daily basis, Virginia must become a leader in advancing bold climate solutions, and an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach doesn’t cut it.”
Contact:
Dawone Robinson, 804-767-8983, dawone@chesapeakeclimate.org
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

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The Chesapeake Climate Action Network is the biggest and oldest grassroots organization dedicated to fighting climate change in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. We’re building a powerful movement to shift our region away from climate-harming fossil fuels and to clean energy solutions.

CCAN Stands With UMW Students Forcibly Removed and Arrested During Peaceful Sit-In for Fossil Fuel Divestment

FREDERICKSBURG, Va.—A 21-day, peaceful student sit-in for fossil fuel divestment at the University of Mary Washington was forcibly ended Wednesday night after university officials called in the state police to evict the students. Over 20 students with the group Divest UMW were forcibly removed from an administrative office, and two students and one community member were arrested and charged with trespassing. Video of the arrests is available from a Free Lance-Star reporter who was on the scene: https://youtu.be/RZvdvqMim88
The Divest UMW sit-in began three weeks ago after the university’s Board of Visitors rejected—without any deliberation or discussion—students’ simple proposal to establish a subcommittee to study the issue of divesting their endowment from fossil fuels. Today, the university’s Board of Visitors will formally meet on campus for the first time since the student sit-in began, and students are holding a march and “Rally for Student Voice” in response starting at 3:00 p.m.
As reported by the Free Lance-Star, board members appeared divided on the issue during a meeting held on campus yesterday to discuss approval of minutes from the March meeting in which Rector Holly Cuellar dismissed the students’ proposal. Member Carlos del Toro reportedly said, “I, as one member of this board, think additional recommendations should be made considering divestment. I believe there needs to be further discussion. I believe I am not alone in this opinion.”
Drew Gallagher, Campus Organizer at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, had the following statement in response to the forcible eviction and arrest of students:
“We’re disappointed that University of Mary Washington officials resorted to calling in the state police to end a 21-day, peaceful sit-in for fossil fuel divestment. These students have shown remarkable leadership in their fight to remove morally unacceptable investments in the fossil fuel industry from their university’s endowment. We need this same leadership from school officials and the Board of Visitors. Restricting free speech and assembly will not solve the climate crisis. We urge UMW officials to drop the charges against their students, and work with them for climate solutions.
“Students from across the country understand the severity of the climate crisis, and are leading the way in demanding solutions. So far, over 20 colleges and universities across the country have stood with students and pledged to divest from the fossil fuel companies wrecking their future. University of Mary Washington administrators are facing growing protests because, like those at Harvard, Tulane, the University of Colorado, Yale, and Swarthmore, they have so far stood on the wrong side of history. By ignoring the voices of their students on fossil fuel divestment, University of Mary Washington officials are failing to heed the warnings of scientists—including those on their own campus.”
Contact:
Drew Gallagher, 804-896-2654, drew@chesapeakeclimate.org
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

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Maryland General Assembly Passes Fracking Moratorium Bill on to Governor Hogan

ANNAPOLIS—The Maryland House of Delegates voted 102-34 on Friday afternoon to give final approval to a bill (HB 449) that would prohibit fracking for natural gas in the state through October 1, 2017. The bill now heads to the desk of Governor Larry Hogan.
Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, had the following statement in response:
“Thousands of people from every corner of Maryland have called on their legislators to protect our state from dangerous fracking. Lawmakers have now followed the will of state voters by sending a fracking moratorium bill to the governor’s desk. The bill will guarantee that no gas company can drill into Maryland soil for at least two and a half years. It will give legislators important time to evaluate mounting evidence that fracking would pose unacceptable risks to our health, environment, and tourism economy.
“It’s now up to Governor Hogan to sign the moratorium bill into law, and it should be an easy choice. The General Assembly passed this bill with overwhelming, bipartisan support, and polling shows that a clear majority of Marylanders oppose fracking.
“Ultimately, the General Assembly’s landmark passage of fracking moratorium legislation is a testament to a strong and growing grassroots movement in Maryland. For five years, Marylanders have been fighting to protect our beautiful state from potentially irreversible harm at the hands of the gas industry. A fracking moratorium bill now sits on Governor Hogan’s desk. This much is certain: our movement will keep growing and not let up until Maryland communities are fully protected from the serious risks of fracking.”
Contact:
Shilpa Joshi, 503-998-8630, shilpa@chesapeakeclimate.org
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

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The Chesapeake Climate Action Network is the biggest and oldest grassroots organization dedicated to fighting climate change in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. We’re building a powerful movement to shift our region away from climate-harming fossil fuels and to clean energy solutions.

Landowners, Environmental Advocates Deliver 5,000+ Messages Challenging Gov. McAuliffe Over Controversial Dominion Pipeline

Activists bring a 40-foot ‘pipeline’ to the governor’s offices in Richmond to dramatize the risks Dominion is forcing on Virginia communities

RICHMOND—Citizens in the path of Dominion Resources’ proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline joined with environmental advocates in Richmond today to deliver over 5,000 messages to Governor Terry McAuliffe demanding that he rescind his support for the massive fracked gas project. Activists brought their own 40-foot inflatable “pipeline” prop emblazoned with the words “No New Pipelines!” to the Patrick Henry Building for a noon press conference, and then hand-delivered the petitions.
View photos from the press conference, including the pipeline prop, at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chesapeakeclimate/sets/72157651811591031/
Speaking ahead of the delivery, landowners called on Gov. McAuliffe to stand with them in defending the safety, natural resources, and economic security of Virginia communities—instead of paving the way for Dominion’s private gain. Environmental advocates stressed further that the proposed pipeline flies in the face of the governor’s commitment to tackling climate change, given studies showing gas extracted through the controversial practice of fracking disrupts the climate on par with coal.
“Our homes, farms and rural lifestyle should not be taken from us against our will to build an ‘energy superhighway’ for Dominion,” said Joanna Salidis, president, Friends of Nelson County. “Our confidence that the regulatory process, or our government itself, will protect the public, has been severely eroded, especially as we see how Dominion controls energy policy in Virginia. The interdependence between our government, at every level, and the fossil fuel industry is seriously compromising our rights to safety, health, and due process.”
Today’s petition delivery follows the March launch of pipeline opponents’ “All Pain, No Gain” advertising and online campaign, which refutes Dominion’s claims about the project’s benefits.
“For the people in western Virginia, this proposed pipeline has no up side,” said Nancy Sorrells, co-chair of the Augusta County Alliance. “Our property rights are ignored, our precious water resources are threatened, our public safety is compromised, our environmental and historic resources ravaged, and our farm and properties devalued. In return we get nothing! Are the precious headwaters of the James and Shenandoah Rivers worth the gamble? For those who depend on clean drinking water in the Shenandoah Valley, Washington, D.C., and Richmond, the answer should be no.”
“Why would our Governor support a project that threatens Virginia residents with eminent domain, property seizures, a decline in property values, known risks to human health and a complete disruption to our quality of life in Buckingham County?,” said Heather Nolen, chair of Friends of Buckingham County, where Dominion has proposed siting a gas compressor station along the pipeline route. “Buckingham citizens continue to operate in a vacuum of information, even as our research shows compressor stations are heavily polluting. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has enabled Dominion’s campaign of silence and furthered a process that continues to overlook one of the most impacted communities along the pipeline route. Who will stand up for our interests?”
The Augusta County Alliance, Friends of Nelson and Friends of Buckingham partnered with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Sierra Club, Virginia Chapter, and Environmental Action to gather and deliver the petitions.
“Governor McAuliffe can’t be a leader on climate while supporting Dominion’s multi-billion dollar investments in dirty and dangerous fracked gas,” said Lauren Goldman, Virginia Campaign Coordinator at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “Largely thanks to Dominion, Virginia ranks near the bottom regionally for energy efficiency and solar power, while having some of the highest average electric bills. Why endanger our farms, homes and natural resources with new gas pipelines when we could see greater economic gains, more stable prices, and less pollution through efficiency measures, solar and wind power?”
“Significant environmental damage would occur as a result of construction of the pipeline in karst topography, over mountainous terrain and through sensitive environmental areas including the George Washington and Monongahela National Forests, the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Appalachian Trail,” said Kirk Bowers, Pipeline Organizer, Virginia Sierra Club. “The Sierra Club is submitting petitions to the Secretariat of Natural Resources expressing our request for consideration of the serious environmental consequences of constructing large diameter pipelines in Virginia.”
“Environmental Action stands with Virginia property owners and concerned citizens from the shipyards of Norfolk to the mountains of Blacksburg,” said Anthony Rogers-Wright, Policy and Organizing Director, Environmental Action. “This is not a liberal or a conservative issue, it’s a case of right and wrong for our people and the planet we all depend on. Dominion primarily wants to maximize its profit, while we in Virginia get stuck with the contaminated drinking water, leaking pipelines, and inevitable damage.”
BACKGROUND:
In September, Governor Terry McAuliffe stood with Dominion CEO Thomas Farrell to endorse the company’s proposal to build a $5 billion, 550-mile, 42-inch high pressure pipeline to carry fracked natural gas from West Virginia, across central Virginia, to North Carolina. The project is one of three proposed pipelines to carry fracked natural gas across the state. While Gov. McAuliffe recently asserted he’s in “constant communication” with Dominion, he has yet to meet directly with Virginians concerned about the potential harm the pipeline and associated compressor stations could cause to local property values, human health, agricultural, cultural and water resources, and public lands that sustain local economies.
Landowners, farmers, business owners, students, environmentalists and other concerned residents have mobilized a strong and growing grassroots resistance to oppose pipeline construction. Concerned residents packed recent scoping meetings held by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. To counteract inflated claims about the project’s benefits, Friends of Nelson, the Augusta County Alliance, and Friends of Buckingham have also commissioned an independent impact study of the economic losses that the project could inflict.
CONTACT:
Nancy Sorrells, Augusta County Alliance, 540-292-4170, lotswife@comcast.net
Joanna Salidis, Friends of Nelson, 434-242-5859, josalidis@gmail.com
Monique Sullivan, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, 202-440-4318, monique@chesapeakeclimate.org

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