Activists from Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and other areas gathered at Baltimore City Hall for a Chesapeake Climate Action Network rally and march to protest against the Dominion proposal to export liquid natural gas through the Cove Point Terminal on Chesapeake Bay.
The Rally was held while Dominion's request for an air permit for the facility was being heard by the Public Service Commission meeting nearby in Baltimore. Among others, Maryland senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin sit on the Commission and are major figures in Maryland politics. Gov. Martin O'Malley also holds major strength with the decisions of the Commission.
Export of LNG through the Cove Point Terminal on Chesapeake Bay would drive up demand for natural gas obtained by utilizing controversial hydraulic fracturing in the region.
Maryland has a self-imposed moratorium on the drilling method, while landscapes in neighboring Pennsylvania and West Virginia have been transformed by drilling pads, pipelines and waste water storage ponds.