MD Governor Hogan gets home demo asking for safety study of Cove Point gas export plant
On the 24th of July, We are Cove Point and supporters showed up in Annapolis for the 5th Monday in a row of protests demanding a safety study for Dominion's fracked gas export plant at Cove Point, MD. This protest and the last few were in front of the Governor's house. The theme this week was "call the governor" and people are being asked to call Governor Hogan at 410-974-3901 to demand the safety study.
It is generally believed that any serious safety study of Dominon's fracked gas export facility under construction at Cove Point would sink the project for good. This is the only liquified natural gas (LNG) facility in the world built across the street from a residential town. Cove Point is a protruding point of land into the Chesapeake Bay, and also the town of Cove Point. Across Cove Point Road from the town is Dominion's gas plant, and just the explosion of a 400,000 gallon propane tank on the facilty would be enough to incinerate 1,800 people according to some reports. The first LNG disaster on record was a plant that exploded in the US during WWII. That one was due to faulty steel in the storage tanks. Others have blown over the years for various reasons but none of them were sandwiched between an occupied town and a nuclear power plant.
On top of all else, the only way into or out of Calvert County, MD is MD Route 4, and an accident at the gas plant could cut this road in half, especially if the nuke plant was also affected. Then the only way out of the southern half of the county is over the "long bridge" over the river to St Mary's County, which is two lanes in each direction and not in the best condition. Any honest safety study of gas export at Cove Point would lead to it being prohibited.
MD Governor Hogan has already banned fracking in the state due to public pressure. Dominion has got to be nervous, as Governor Hogan has shown that the demands of the people can outweigh corporate lobbyists and campaign cash in his decision making. If enough people act in solidarity with the beseiged residents of Cove Point, Governor Hogan might order that safety study, and Dominion's gassy dreams of profit would blow away on the wind.
Video from the 5th protest for a safety study on the Cove Point LNG terminal(28 sec)
