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FWW Bleats About “Sacrificing” Residents Near Cove Point LNG Plant

The odious and misnamed Food & Water Watch, a virulently anti-drilling group, is none-to-pleased with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval of the Cove Point, MD LNG export facility (see Dominion Gets Final Fed Approval to Build Cove Point LNG Plant). The wacko environmentalists at FWW (childlike, really) threw a press release temper tantrum yesterday, declaring FERC has chosen to “sacrifice” the rural residents who live a mile away from the proposed plant in favor of fat corporate profits for Dominion. So predictable…
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Dominion Gets Final Fed Approval to Build Cove Point LNG Plant

happy dance - SnoopyBlow the horns…cheer and clap and celebrate. Let’s all do a happy dance! Yesterday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a final approval to Dominion for their liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility in Cove Point, Maryland. And that’s following anti-drillers behaving badly at a recent FERC meeting (see 20 People Crash FERC Meeting, Complain about Cove Point LNG). Looks like the antics of people taking over a FERC meeting didn’t impress the commissioners. Following the FERC announcement Dominion issued their own announcement (both announcements are below) to say as soon as they review FERC’s final “order” on the plant they will seek a “Notice to Proceed” from FERC and then (very soon) construction will begin…
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20 People Crash FERC Meeting, Complain about Cove Point LNG

Some 20 citizens out of the 88,737 that live in Calvert County, Maryland–where the Dominion Cove Point LNG export facility is to be built–crashed a recent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) meeting to express their displeasure with the government’s approval of the Cove Point plant. What really ticked them off was that FERC didn’t send the top brass out to Calvert but instead used lower level reps. So 0.0002 of the population of Calvert County performed what they called “an unannounced intervention,” which is another way of saying they threw a snit fit. More behaving badly in public–like they always do. Here’s a glittering example of “how to win friends and influence people” at FERC brought to you by the anti-drilling folks of Calvert County, all 20 of them:
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MD Report on ‘Potential’ Health Impacts from Marcellus Drilling

Back in April MDN told you that Maryland anti-drillers were lobbing an opening preventative strike against a forthcoming study on potential health impacts from Marcellus drilling, should it ever happen in Maryland (see Maryland Anti-Drillers Say Fracking Health Report Will Fall Short). Anti-drillers pre-judged the study even before it was released. The study, titled “Potential Public Health Impacts of Natural Gas Development and Production in the Marcellus Shale in Western Maryland,” was released on August 18, all 203 pages of it (full copy embedded below). We predict anti-drillers may find a lot to like in this study and perhaps were a tad hasty in their knee-jerk reaction. What was the study supposed to cover, and what did it find?…
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Maryland Gov. O’Malley Spins Delay on Shale Drilling as Positive

Outgoing Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (Democrat), perhaps the worst governor vis–à–vis leadership that Maryland has had in the past two generations, attended a 6-Dem governor “discussion” at the liberal Aspen Institute in Colorado on Saturday (no doubt on Maryland taxpayers’ dime). The discussion was nominally to yak about education, a topic Dems think they own (unfortunately our kids are getting dumber year after year). Because one of the Dem governors present was John Hickenlooper, governor of Colorado (someone who supports shale drilling), the conversation inevitably turned to the topic of fracking. O’Malley made this hilarious statement:
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Dominion to Begin Cove Point LNG Construction in Next 2 Mos

Despite the best protest efforts by anti-drillers against the Cove Point, Maryland LNG export facility in Washington (see our stories from yesterday and today), Dominion waits for final approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory commission (FERC) to begin construction. Dominion previously got a green light from the Dept. of Energy last September (see Celebrate! Dominion Wins DOE Approval for MD LNG Export Facility). Dominion also got an initial green light from FERC (see FERC Final EIS: Cove Point Won’t Hurt Environment). However, Dominion needs a final approval from FERC before they can begin construction. They expect that approval very soon…
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Maryland Releases 2nd Report on Shale Drilling: “Best Practices”

Maryland finally released their “Internal Final Best Practices” (Part II) study on Friday. The behemoth 255-page study (full copy below) appears to be an exercise in how to stifle Marcellus Shale drilling in the two western Maryland counties where it’s found. This is the second of three reports being produced by a joint effort of the Maryland Dept. of the Environment (MDE) and the Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR), as required under an executive order from outgoing Gov. Martin O’Malley (see Maryland Marcellus Shale Commission to Have First Meeting This Week – One Meeting Down, Three More Years of Meetings to Go). There’s lots to like in this so-called best practices (more like “no practices”) report–if you’re anti-drilling…
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Maryland Study: Marcellus Drilling Huge Benefit for Western MD

A new study recently released by the Regional Economic Studies Institute (RESI) at Towson University says if Maryland would only allow Marcellus Shale drilling, two western MD counties would reap huge benefits. The study, “Impact Analysis of the Marcellus Shale Safe Drilling Initiative” (full copy embedded below) says Allegany and Garrett counties would benefit from thousands of new jobs and hundreds of million dollars in newfound revenue…
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Good News: Maryland Approves Dominion Cove Point LNG Plant

First the Dept. of Energy approved it (see Celebrate! Dominion Wins DOE Approval for MD LNG Export Facility), then the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see FERC Final EIS: Cove Point Won’t Hurt Environment), and now, the Maryland Public Service Commission has approved Dominion’s plan to build a ~$3.5 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Cove Point, MD. Specifically, the PSC issued a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) last Friday. The certificate is needed to allow Dominion to install two 65-megawatt steam turbine generators that produce electricity. The waste heat from two combustion turbines, which are used to drive compressors to produce LNG, will be recycled to produce steam to drive the steam turbines. The PSC’s action is yet another important milestone/hurdle passed by Dominion on their inevitable way to building and operating the plant…
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FERC Final EIS: Cove Point Won’t Hurt Environment

Last September the U.S. Dept. of Energy gave it’s blessing to the Cove Point, MD LNG export facility that Dominion wants to build (see Celebrate! Dominion Wins DOE Approval for MD LNG Export Facility). DOE approval was a major hurdle. A second major hurdle has just been spanned. Yesterday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a Final Environmental Impact Statement (copy below) and found…
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Anti-Drillers File Complaint with SEC re Cove Point LNG Facility

Even though they’ve lost, the obstinate and unreasonable (not able to be reasoned with) people at Earthjustice and the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) are once again trying to prevent the inevitable–the Cove Point, Maryland LNG export facility. Dominion is the company building the new LNG export facility at Cove Point. On the eve of Dominion’s annual shareholder meeting, Earthjustice and CCAN attempted a publicity stunt by filing a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission saying that Dominion has not provided adequate disclosure of financial and environmental risks in their plans to build the new $2 billion facility.

It’s just one more lame attempt by the same small group of virulent anti-drillers plus a ninny nanny anti-drilling investor from Trillium Asset Management (don’t ever invest money with Trillium) to stop progress…
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Maryland PSC Approves NatGas-Fired Electric General Plant

Somehow, some way, the only state even more dysfunctional than New York when it comes to the issue of natural gas drilling, the State of Maryland, has just approved a new natural gas-fired electric generating plant in Cecil County, MD. And it only took them 11 months to approve it. Wonders never cease!

The Maryland Public Service Commission on Tuesday gave final approval to the 1,000-megawatt Wildcat Point Generation Facility. Let the wailing, gnashing of teeth and (most importantly) useless protests by global-warming-nutter-anti-drillers begin! Details about the new plant to be built…
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Maryland Anti-Drillers Say Fracking Health Report Will Fall Short

If you’re an objective scientist, you formulate a hypothesis (a “best guess”) and test it. And test it again. And again. The results of science are testable, repeatable and demonstrable. If the results don’t match your original hypothesis, you throw that hypothesis out and get a new one to see if the data fits. That’s how real science works. If you’re a political huckster, you engage in scientific insanity–testing and re-testing and when the outcome doesn’t match your twisted and preconceived notions of what it should be–you tell those doing the testing they’re doing it wrong and to do it again. In other words, you’ve already determined what you want the outcome to be–and anything short of that is not acceptable. It’s not real science but smearing scientific lipstick on an ideological pig. That’s how anti-drillers in Maryland are treating a so-called health study on potential Marcellus Shale drilling in the state.

A group of ideological, anti-drilling hucksters, including the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE), Maryland Environment Health Network (MdEHN), Concerned Health Professionals of New York (CHPNY), the odious Food and Water Watch and Ann Bristow (a member of Gov. O’Malley’s fracking commission), have declared a study that’s not yet completed or released will fall short of their desired, predetermined outcome. That is, they’ve already prejudged the not-yet-finished report and found it lacking. Their erudite (and insane) solution? Delay it even more. Extend it. Test again. And again. And again. And keep testing and researching (and lying) until the report says what they want it to say–that which isn’t true: fracking has negative health impacts on “the public”…
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Chesapeake Climate Action Asks Obama to Nix Cove Point LNG Exports

The unreasonable (not able to be reasoned with) and irrational (incapable of rational thought) fossil fuel-haters of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) and other similar-minded groups sent President Obama a letter requesting that he should (surprise!) slow down/reconsider/kill exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Dominion’s planned Cove Point, MD LNG export facility (see Celebrate! Dominion Wins DOE Approval for MD LNG Export Facility). Why? Global warming, of course.

Yes boys and girls, so-called environmentalist organizations like CCAN, 350.org, the Sierra Clubers and other unheard of groups just blame it all on global warming. Drill in shale deposits? Nope–too much global warming. Encourage electric generating facilities to convert from polluting coal to cleaner-burning natgas? Nope. That’ll lead to global warming. Build new pipelines to New England to relieve sky high natgas prices for consumers? Nope–global warming. Export some of our huge abundance of natgas to places like India and Japan (U.S. allies) who desperately need it? Nope! That will increase global warming too. You see just how unreasonable and irrational they really are. Below is the press release and letter from the unreasonable and irrational who oppose Cove Point…
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MD Depts Working on Shale Drilling Slap Down Meddling State Pols

In 2011, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (Democrat) issued an executive order instructing the Maryland Department of the Environment and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to work together on figuring out how shale drilling can be done in the state without undue environmental risks. It’s been three long years and the departments, working together, are nearing the end of the process. So what do Maryland’s Democrat politicians do? They jump right in and start offering bills that would hamstring and nullify the good work being done to figure out shale drilling and get it moving.

The secretaries of both Maryland departments–Robert Summers and Joseph Gill–have penned a joint commentary running in the *Baltimore Sun* that essentially provides a verbal slap across those meddling politicians’ faces and tells them to leave well enough alone until their departments complete their work later this year. Good for them…
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Maryland Court Rules in Favor of Cove Point LNG Export Terminal

The litigating Sierra Club has lost yet another lawsuit to block Dominion from revamping an LNG import terminal in Cove Point, Maryland to become an export terminal instead–exporting Marcellus Shale gas to India and Japan. Last Friday Maryland’s second highest court, the Court of Special Appeals, gave Dominion the green light to continue with their project to covert the Cove Point facility into an export terminal. Will the Sierra Club appeal (yet again)? With the deep pockets of the eco-left in this country, it’s a pretty safe bet they will appeal…

Here’s the story of the court returning a pro-Dominion verdict:
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