We Are Cove Point is a campaign created by local residents from Lusby, MD and allies from across the United States to stop the construction of the first LNG (liquefied natural gas, aka fracked gas) export terminal on the East coast. It is being built by Dominion on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay.
Here are a few of the reasons why this export terminal must be stopped:
1. It sets a dangerous precedent as the first fracked gas refinery to be built in a densely populated area, literally across the street from homes and next to youth sports fields. With ten more export facilities planned in the US, we don't want other communities to be threatened like we are.
2. Not only does the risk of a catastrophic explosion or chemical spill threaten the families of Cove Point, but the facility will spew 20.4 tons of cancer and disease causing toxins as well as 3.3 million tons of Greenhouse Gases into the air each year. Dominion bought pollution credits that allow them to poison the local community.
3. The export facility will drive construction of more pipelines, compressor stations and fracking rigs from Massachusetts to North Carolina which will place more communities at risk of catastrophic events and poisoning of their air, land and water. This export terminal is to the Marcellus Shale what the Keystone XL and other pipelines are to the Alberta tar sands. Gas corporations need export terminals to send fracked gas overseas where prices are higher in order to make fracking profitable.
4. The carbon in the East coast’s Marcellus Shale, which covers 7 states, must stay in the ground. Like the Alberta Tar Sands, it is a carbon bomb that will amplify the climate crisis.