Opponents of a plan to construct a multi-billion dollar liquefaction unit at a Lusby gas plant staged a protest in Baltimore late last week. The “Stop Cove Point” rally was held Thursday, Feb. 20 as the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) was conducting hearings on the project, which would give Dominion Cove Point Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Plant the capability to export natural gas to other countries.
The liquefaction facility would take three years to build and cost $3.8 billion. Project opponents were claiming last week that their rally was the “largest environmental protest in Baltimore history.” A press release from the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) called the event a “nearly 1,000-strong demonstration.”
Dominion spokespersons and city officials have indicated the crowd was not even close to the 1,000 mark. According to information attributed to the Baltimore City Police Department, the crowd was estimated at 350.
Prior to carrying a 100-foot-long pipeline prop from War Memorial Plaza to PSC headquarters the gathering heard speakers make their cases for halting the project. “Dominion bombards our community daily with high-priced ads but refuses to answer basic questions about safety,” said Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community spokeswoman Tracey Eno. “The small town of Lusby can’t take on a corporation as wealthy and powerful as Dominion alone, which is why I am so grateful to see people from all across the state standing with us today.”
Eno called on Maryland’s two U.S. Senators—Democrats Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski—to demand the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) require Dominion to submit an environmental impact statement (EIS) regarding the liquefaction project. “We know it will take a movement to go up against the deep pockets of Dominion and that movement is here today, representing people from across Maryland and the region who know the major impacts of this projects in their local communities,” stated Maryland Sierra Club Director Josh Tulkin.
“The climate crisis is our lunch counter moment of the 21st century,” Hip Hop Caucus CEO the Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. stated. “If we don’t win this one, we all lose. We will organize, we will mobilize, we will fight in every peaceful way possible to ensure clean solar panels and wind turbines crisscross our region—not your planet-wrecking vision of new fracking wells, pipelines and compressors.”
Delegate Heather Mizeur, a Democratic candidate for governor, called on Gov. Martin O’Malley [D] to “take a stand with us today to reject Cove Point. You cannot leave a legacy on addressing climate change and be silent on Cove Point.” A press release from the candidate’s office stated a liquefaction facility would release “3.3 million tons of carbon dioxide and other harmful greenhouse gases into the air annually.”
However, last week Dominion’s chief environmental
