Here’s the bad news: This past week, the Maryland Department of the Environment held a series of hearings to inform the public about regulations they wrote to allow fracking for gas in Maryland. The regulations are vague and significantly weaker than what was proposed in 2015.
The state-wide moratorium on fracking ends in 2017. If fracking is allowed to proceed, it will contaminate our water, pollute the air, release more methane (a potent Greenhouse Gas), cause health problems and create earthquakes. Residents of Western Maryland are particularly concerned about what earthquakes would do to the 91-year-old Conowingo Dam. There is no safe way to frack, as our friends in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado and California are learning. We must not make the same mistake.
Here’s the good news: People showed up in large numbers at the hearings with the message to ban fracking! And so many people testified that the hearings lasted into the night. There is a strong movement to protect our state and our health in Maryland!
We Are Cove Point was there! Our members attended the hearings to act in solidarity with the ban fracking movement because our struggles are intimately connected. If Dominion’s gas refinery and export terminal become operational, they will drive more fracking, more pipelines and more compressor stations. This will put more communities at risk. We can’t allow that.
And the Don’t Frack Maryland movement was there for us too. Hundreds of people signed the petition telling Governor Hogan to order a safety study for Dominion’s facility at Cove Point. It’s just common sense that the local community should know how great the risk of a catastrophic event is and whether they can be protected or not. If you haven’t signed yet:
Please CLICK HERE to sign the petition
asking Governor Hogan to order a QRA.