Denial Of Essential Permit Deals Serious Blow To Potomac Pipeline

A Maryland administrative board has denied Columbia Gas a necessary permit for it to build a controversial gas pipeline across the Potomac River. By a unanimous vote, the Maryland Board of Public Works rejected a right-of-way easement for the Eastern Panhandle Expansion, commonly known as the Potomac Pipeline. Without the permit, the gas company cannot lay pipeline underneath the Maryland Rail Trail, putting the entire project in jeopardy. The Board of Public Works consists of the governor, the comptroller and the treasurer. Governor Larry Hogan, who cast one of the three no votes, said that he was surprised that the easement was even on agenda for January 2…

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Students At Two Maryland Universities Protest ICE Contracts

BALTIMORE (AP)- Students at two Maryland campuses are demanding their universities end contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.           

The Baltimore Sun reports the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, College Park are among six higher-education institutions that have ICE contracts.           

On Thursday, Johns Hopkins students conducted a teach-in and rally calling on the Baltimore school to end the contracts, arguing the federal agency violates human rights and goes against the university’s values.

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Community Victorious; Dominion Won’t Build Proposed Compressor Station

The AMP Creeks Council and greater Southern Maryland Community are Celebrating a Victory in a two-year fight against Dominion Energy Cove Point’s (DECP) efforts to build a giant fracked gas compressor station on 14 clear cut acres surrounded by fragile wetlands that often flood in the Accokeek/Bryans Road area. Emily Architzel, an AMP Creeks Board member who recently moved from Bryans Road to Accokeek and is disabled said, “Holy cow! I’m breathing a giant fracked gas-free sigh of relief. The pollution from this compressor station would have driven my family out of the area because of the potential impacts to my health.”

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50 Years Later, The Spirit Of The Catonsville Nine Lives On

It was a big moment. More than a hundred people watched as a college professor held one end of a heavy vinyl cover, helping an 88-year-old woman, pull it from the top of a tall metal sign. Together, they unveiled a familiar looking historic marker — the kind that draws attention to battlefields drenched in centuries-old blood and the birth places of famous men all over the country. This one, however, was different. It read: “On May 17, 1968, nine Catholic activists raided the selective service office in Catonsville and burned hundreds of draft files to protest the Vietnam war.” It now stands on Frederick Road in Catonsville, Maryland — about a block from the building that housed the young men’s draft files. The 88-year-old woman was Marjorie Melville — one of those nine Catholic activists and, along with George Mische, one of only two still living.

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Working Class Town Goes Green, Protect Environment, Improves Lifestyle

Straddling the northeast branch of the Anacostia River just outside of Washington, D.C., is a half-square-mile patch of green called Edmonston. It’s a tiny Maryland town where, despite its distance from the Chesapeake Bay, the residents seem to understand that what they do here affects what happens there. What started in the early 2000s as an effort to ameliorate flooding on the town’s main thoroughfare has snowballed into a series of water quality-minded projects that are sprucing up streets, filling empty lots with community gardens and reducing the amount of polluted stormwater flowing into the Anacostia River. The projects also have burnished the town’s sense of identity, setting Edmonston apart from the maze of Maryland suburbs tucked inside DC’s bustling beltway in Prince George’s County.

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Potomac Pipeline Granted Maryland Permit With ‘Special Conditions’

The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) granted Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC a wetlands and waterways permit for the Eastern Panhandle Expansion, also known as the Potomac Pipeline. Environmental organizations have already come out with statements expressing disappointment and calling the permit “a serious mistake.” The permit for the 3.3-mile gas pipeline, which would originate in Pennsylvania and pass under the Potomac River, includes “customized conditions specific to the Project and its location,” which MDE says will “establish reasonable precautions and safeguards intended to protect public health and the environment.” MDE asks the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to include similar protections in its final approval, called a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN). TransCanada Corporation acquired Columbia Gas in 2016.

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5 Mothers Arrested At Maryland Statehouse Demanding Governor Take Action On Potomac Pipeline

Five women blocked the doors of the Maryland Statehouse in Annapolis on Wednesday, demanding that Gov. Larry Hogan take immediate action to prevent construction of a gas pipeline and drilling under the Potomac River. Holding enlarged photos of their children and grandchildren, all five were arrested for trespassing after refusing to the vacate the entryway for nearly two hours. Organizers called the civil disobedience action an “escalation” of their efforts to stop TransCanada’s Potomac Pipeline, formally called the Eastern Panhandle Expansion. If built, it would originate in Fulton County, Pa., cross a small slice of Maryland, then pass under the Potomac River and link to the Mountaineer Gas Pipeline, not yet under construction, in West Virginia…

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Tractor Blockade Shuts Down Clear-Cutting At Dominion Compressor Site

A Maryland woman parked a tractor at the gate of the proposed site of a compressor station in Charles County and locked herself to the steering wheel before dawn Monday morning, preventing workers from entering. Kelly Canavan–with assistance from her sister, her son, a local resident and two environmental activists equipped with protest signs–attempted to delay clear-cutting of trees on the Dominion-owned site before a crucial permit hearing the following day. It was the fourth day of tree-felling to clear a total of 13 acres. The blockade started at 6:30 am with the tractor rumbling down the narrow road, turning around and re-positioning in the short driveway in the midst of a bucolic setting of trees, gurgling stream and pink-tinted dawn. Canavan slipped her arms into a lockbox device with tight sleeves which secured her to the tractor. At least a dozen officers and nine vehicles were dispatched from the Charles County Sheriff’s Department.

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Potomac Pipeline Fight Zeroes In On Maryland Governor

Annapolis, Md. — Those opposed to gas infrastructure in Maryland have stepped up their campaign to influence Gov. Larry Hogan, and he may be feeling the pressure. About 250 people rallied on Lawyer’s Mall in front of the Maryland Statehouse on the evening of February 15, then surrounded the Governor’s Mansion with signs, candles and light boards spelling out “Hogan, No Potomac Pipeline.” A bagpiper played and circled the mansion as protesters yelled, “No Potomac Pipeline!” Many rally speakers warned about dangers posed by TransCanada’s Eastern Panhandle Expansion–the 3.3-mile pipeline that would traverse Maryland and bore underneath the Potomac River—and the Mountaineer Gas pipeline it would connect to in West Virginia. One by one they called on Hogan to stop the project.

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Maryland Promised TransCanada Superficial Review Of Pipeline Permit

Environmental groups are questioning the good faith of a Maryland state agency tasked with the permitting of a proposed gas pipeline which would cross underneath the Potomac River, saying it made a decision to greenlight the project before the application was even submitted. Potomac Riverkeeper Network accuses the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) of misleading the public and abdicating its responsibility to scrutinize the full impacts of the Eastern Panhandle Expansion, the Potomac crossing in particular. What’s more, they believe the agency may have colluded with TransCanada, the company proposing to build the 3.3-mile pipeline, to pre-determine a positive outcome for the permit. Upper Potomac Riverkeeper Brent Walls says MDE has failed to be transparent from the start and now believes the agency may have intentionally deceived them.

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Potomac Pipeline: Hundreds Turn Out For Water Permit Hearing

A Maryland state agency will continue hearing testimony on the permitting of a TransCanada pipeline at a later date to allow dozens of people to speak who weren’t able to on December 19 because of time constraints. The Maryland Department of the Environment is weighing whether to grant oil and gas giant TransCanada Corp. a wetlands and waterways permit for the Eastern Panhandle Expansion, also known as the Potomac Pipeline. Time and place have not yet been confirmed for the continuation of the hearing, but dates in January have been considered, according to Paul Busam, MDE project manager for the permit application. The location will probably be at the MDE offices in Baltimore. Busam did not comment on whether the continuation would delay the agency’s decision on the permit, now March 15.

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S. African Poet Helping Maryland Church Protect Historic Black Cemetery

By Andrew Bossone for PBS NewsHour – Shauna Sorrells, a spokesperson for the county’s housing opportunities commission, said the county knew when it drew up design plans for the parking lot that a cemetery existed in the area, but “had no notion that there were human remains on the site.” The county passed a bill at the end of October to maintain records of burial sites for the first time. Tucked beside large commercial and residential developments, the Macedonia church barely holds a few dozen in its chapel. The church, founded in 1920, is the last reminder that an upscale neighborhood today was once a rural community of African-Americans who purchased parcels of land after slavery was abolished. As big buildings went up, church members and historians have testimony that bulldozers moved the bodies in the graveyard and covered them with what is now a gravel parking lot and tree-lined hill. “It’s just like it was a town, and a big gust of wind came and just leveled it to the ground,” said Harvey Matthews, who grew up in the community and has been a member of the church for 51 years. “Everything else was gone. Bulldozed away. You see all the industry out here, the buildings. All that came in. So that’s how they got rid of it. Kids [born after 1970] don’t know anything about a little black colony being here. But there was a black community here.”

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Law Blocks Maryland From Giving Contracts To Businesses Backing BDS

By Bill Hughes for Baltimore POst-Examiner – Larry Hogan was elected in 2014 as governor of Maryland. It was no easy task, as Republicans are a minority in the state. Bob Ehrlich, another Republican, also had served one term from 2003-2007. But before Ehrlich, you have to go back to 1967, when Spiro T. Agnew won and served from 1967-69. In his early days in office, Hogan came off as a reasonable, reflective politico. He had unusually high numbers in the polls. Hogan, despite being a Republican, even signed a bill banning fracking in the state. Voters also admired him for the way he fought back against a cancer that threatened his life. But, like Donald Trump, Hogan, is now playing fast and loose with Executive Orders. On October 23, 2017, surrounded in the State House by members of the Israel Lobby, he signed an Executive Order blocking Maryland from awarding contracts to businesses that support boycotts of Israel. Michael Brown, writing for “Popular Resistance,” on Oct. 26: “Activists in Maryland have twice beaten back efforts to pass such an anti-BDS measure through the state legislature.” Is Hogan trying to do an end run around the legislature by using the powers of his office? Keep in mind, he is acting on behalf of the interest of a foreign power – Israel – which he didn’t mention in his remarks.

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Maryland Governor Reveals “I Haven’t Been Listening”

By Staff of We Are Cove Point – For 18 weeks in a row now, We Are Cove Point has been holding rallies at the governor’s mansion in Annapolis to demand Maryland Governor Larry Hogan order a safety study for the fracked gas export terminal Dominion is building in the Cove Point neighborhood of Lusby in Southern Maryland. Each Monday at noon, we hold signs, pass out flyers and talk to passersby about the need for the governor to order this study, called a quantitative risk assessment. The governor is the only person who can order this study. This has been a continuation of a bigger campaign that’s stretched back into the administration of former Governor Martin O’Malley. Every once in a while, we catch Governor Hogan walking outside of his mansion. Yesterday was one of those days, and one member of We Are Cove Point had a very illuminating dialogue with him. We were walking around the state house during an event, handing out flyers and talking with people, when someone from We Are Cove Point spotted Governor Hogan and a few of his guards moving between the state house and the governor’s mansion.

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Marylanders And West Virginians Unite Against Pipeline

By John Zangas and Anne Meador for DC Media Group – Shepherdstown, W.Va. — Three hundred and fifty people spanned the James Rumsey bridge between Shepherdstown, W.Va., and Sharpsburg, Md. on Saturday to draw attention to TransCanada’s plan to drill under the Potomac River and lay a gas pipeline. Holding hands across the entire width of the Potomac River and symbolically connecting the shores of West Virginia and Maryland, the action was a display of unity and resolve to resist gas companies and their backers in elected office. After singing “this land is our land” and reading an indigenous people’s prayer, they threw flowers into the river below. “Hands Across the Potomac” was organized by Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Eastern Panhandle Protectors, Potomac Riverkeepers, Waterkeepers Chesapeake, Sierra Club Maryland Chapter, local farmers and concerned residents in the area. They are all urging Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to reject the project in keeping with the fracking ban legislation he signed last spring. Environmentalists have joined with local farmers in a growing regional resistance to the project which they say threatens drinking water for over six million downstream, including those in the Washington metropolitan area who depend on the Potomac.

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