SILVER SPRING, Maryland – This morning, Heather Mizeur, Democratic candidate for Governor, announced her opposition to the Dominion Resources liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility at Cove Point in Calvert County. She also called on Dominion Resources to create jobs by investing in clean energy industries, including wind and solar, as an alternative to natural gas exportation.
“Governing is about making tough choices for the best interests of our future,” said Mizeur. “No leader in Maryland can in good faith claim to be serious about protecting the Bay, its communities and economy, or combating climate change without opposing the Cove Point facility. The costs of this project are simply too high.”
Dominion Resources, a Virginia-based energy company, is pursuing the construction of a $3.8 billion facility to serve as a collection point for fracked natural gas from throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, where cargo tankers would then ship it throughout the world.
But the Cove Point facility would release 3.3 million tons of carbon dioxide and other harmful greenhouse gases into the air annually, making it a serious setback to achieving the state’s goals on fighting climate change, including a plan for a 25% reduction of greenhouse gases by 2020.
“This facility would be the state’s largest life cycle emitter of carbon dioxide ever, putting more CO2 into the air than all of our state’s coal-fired power plants combined. If we are serious about fighting climate change, the Cove Point export facility must be stopped.”
The facility in Cove Point would also create an increase in tanker traffic by 540% above current levels, bringing new risk for volatile and environmentally harmful fuel spills in the Chesapeake Bay. Increases in pipeline and other oil and gas infrastructure construction throughout Maryland as LNG is brought to the terminal would also bring increased risk for spills and ruptures in communities across Maryland.
Mizeur also called on Dominion Resources to invest $3.8 billion—the construction cost of the proposed facility—in the state’s renewable energy sector. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, clean energy investments create more permanent jobs than exporting fracked gas.
To read Mizeur’s full position paper on the Cove Point facility, visit www.heathermizeur.com/covepoint.
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