July, 23 2014, 12:45pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Katherine Cirullo, Food & Water Watch, 202-683-4914 (w), 860-559-1024 (c)
Tracey Eno, Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community, 443-624-8022
52 Organizations and Calvert County Residents to Governor O'Malley: Safety Assessment for Cove Point LNG Export Facility Needed
Residents ask why governor opposed Sparrows Point but supports Cove Point
Annapolis, Maryland
Residents living closest to the proposed Cove Point Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export facility joined with public interest groups for a press conference in Annapolis today, calling on Governor Martin O'Malley to step up for their families and conduct a basic safety study to reveal the risk of danger that an explosion or other catastrophe at the plant would pose to human lives. To date, no federal or state agency has conducted such a study, called a Quantitative Risk Assessment.
The Governor, as a member of the Board of Public Works, will be voting the same afternoon on whether or not to grant a wetlands license for a construction pier for the Dominion Cove Point facility, marking the first time he will preside over a permit decision for the project.
The groups pointed out how little Governor O'Malley has done to protect Maryland residents from Cove Point, in contrast to his strong opposition--due to health and safety concerns--to the AES Sparrows Point LNG import facility in Baltimore County in 2007, even stating his administration had "very serious concerns regarding the safety of the proposed project." The residents and groups questioned why the Governor is remaining silent now, especially considering the Cove Point export facility would require a greater concentration of hazardous processes and chemicals in close proximity to people's homes (there are 2,473 people in one mile radius of the facility).
Rachel Heinhorst, a mother of three and teacher from Lusby who lives in the home closest to the Cove Point site stated, "We are here today asking Governor O'Malley why he stood up to protect the people in Baltimore County from the Sparrows Point LNG facility but has failed to protect those of us in Calvert County from the dangerous Cove Point LNG export facility. We deserve better than to live in fear of an explosion, of the water we drink, of the air we breathe."
For months, members of Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community have been calling on federal, state and local officials to conduct a comprehensive risk assessment, as recommended in the most current fire safety standards (NFPA 59A: Standard for the Production, Storage, and Handling of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), 2013 Edition) for LNG. This study would assess offsite risks as a vital fire safety mitigation measure for nearby residents. A report conducted by consulting firm Ricardo-AEA found that the facility could pose "intolerable risks" to workers and residents living close to the facility.
"Governor O'Malley is the highest ranking state official responsible for the safety of Maryland residents, and we believe Lusby residents deserve nothing less than the most current safety protections," said Tracey Eno of Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community. "The Governor's reluctance to order this assessment for the export expansion at Cove Point leaves residents wondering - what is our Governor so afraid that the public will learn about this project?"
Following the press conference, Food & Water Watch delivered a letter signed from more than 52 organizations across the country calling on Governor O'Malley to step up and call for the study, citing the impacts that the facility would have on their communities from the fracking wells, pipelines, compressor stations and frac sand mining. The groups also delivered over 1,000 petitions from individuals calling for the study.
"Governor O'Malley's inaction on Cove Point is being noted by organizations across the country that are increasingly concerned about the damaging effects fracking has on their communities," said Emily Wurth, Water Program Director at Food & Water Watch. "From fracking in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania to frac sand mining in Iowa, sacrificing our communities to ship natural gas to Asia through Cove Point is a giant leap backwards."
The press conference was held prior to the 1pmBoard of Public Works meeting, where Governor O'Malley will for the first time be confronted in person by residents of Calvert County. The Governor is one of the board members voting on whether or not to grant a wetlands license to Dominion Resources for a construction pier on the Patuxent river -- bringing the company one step closer to building the Cove Point LNG export facility in Calvert County.
"Public officials and agencies are failing to protect the health and safety of the residents of Calvert County and people throughout the Chesapeake region," said Robin Broder, Board Member, Waterkeepers Chesapeake. "Upstream impacts of fracking are being ignored. Economic impacts to local economies are being ignored. Pollution impacts to the Bay, the Patuxent River and upstream rivers and drinking water supplies are being ignored. When will the governor, our federal lawmakers and state agencies begin to listen to the people instead of rubber stamping everything the oil and gas industry wants to do?"
Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people's health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.
(202) 683-2500LATEST NEWS
Congressional Progressives Unveil 'Bold' Agenda for Second Biden Term
The Congressional Progressive Caucus says its legislative blueprint for 2025 and beyond aims to "deliver equality, justice, and economic security for working people."
Apr 18, 2024
The Congressional Progressive Caucus on Thursday published a "comprehensive domestic policy legislative agenda" for U.S. President Joe Biden's possible second White House term that seeks to "deliver equality, justice, and economic security for working people."
The CPC's Progressive Proposition Agenda is a seven-point plan aimed at lowering the cost of living, boosting wages and worker power, advancing justice, combating climate change and protecting the environment, strengthening democracy, breaking the corporate stranglehold on the economy, and bolstering public education.
"Progressives are proud to have been part of the most significant Democratic legislative accomplishments of this century. We have made real progress for everyday Americans—but there's much more work to be done," Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said in a statement.
"That's why the Progressive Caucus has identified these popular, populist, and possible solutions," she added. "Democrats in Congress can meet the urgent needs people are facing; rewrite the rules to ensure majorities of this country are no longer barred from the American promise of equality, justice, and economic opportunity; and motivate people with a vision of progressive governance under Democratic majorities in the House and Senate and a Democratic White House."
Progressive lawmakers have already introduced bills for many items on the agenda, including a Green New Deal for Public Schools, expanding the Supreme Court, comprehensive voting rights protection, and legalizing marijuana.
Critics noted the conspicuous absence of Medicare for All—once a top progressive agenda item—and foreign policy issues including ending Israel's genocide, apartheid, occupation, settler colonization, and ethnic cleansing in Palestine.
Jayapal toldNBC News that the CPC is focusing its blueprint exclusively on domestic goals—especially ones it feels can be achieved.
"The way we came to this agenda is to say that we were going to put into this agenda things that were populist and possible... and affected a huge number of people," she said. "We haven't taken a position on particularly Israel and Gaza in the progressive caucus, and so that's not on here."
The CPC agenda is backed by a wide range of labor, climate, environmental, civil rights, consumer, faith-based, and other organizations.
"The Congressional Progressive Caucus is leading the way for Congress to address the major issues affecting working families, from reducing healthcare and housing costs to strengthening workers' rights to join unions, earn living wages and benefits, and have safe workplaces," Service Employees International Union president Mary Kay Henry said in a statement.
"SEIU is proud to partner with the CPC to move these priorities forward and build a more equitable economy in which corporations are held accountable for their actions," she added.
Mary Small, chief strategy officer at Indivisible, said: "House progressives were the engine at the heart of our legislative accomplishments in 2021 and 2022. They've continued that momentum to be true governing partners to the Biden administration as those laws and programs are implemented."
"That's why Indivisible is so supportive of the CPC's Proposition Agenda, a bold vision for progressive governance in 2025 and beyond. From reproductive rights to saving our democracy to economic security for all, the CPC is driving forward exactly the sort of legislative goals we want to see in our next governing moment."
That moment is far from guaranteed, with not only the White House hanging in the balance as Biden will all but certainly face former Republican President Donald Trump in November's election but also the Senate Democratic Caucus clinging to a single-seat advantage over the GOP. Republicans currently hold the House of Representatives by a five-seat margin.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'McCarthyism Is Alive and Well': Google Fires 28 for Protesting Israel Contract
"These mass, illegal firings will not stop us," said organizers. "Make no mistake, we will continue organizing until the company drops Project Nimbus and stops powering this genocide."
Apr 18, 2024
The peace coalition No Tech for Apartheid accused Google of a "flagrant act of retaliation" late Wednesday night as the Silicon Valley giant announced it had fired 28 workers over protests against its cloud services contract with the Israeli government.
The firings came after Google organizers held two 10-hour sit-ins at the company's offices in Sunnyvale, California and New York City, demanding the termination of Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract under which Google and Amazon provide cloud infrastructure and data services for Israel—without any oversight regarding whether the Israel Defense Forces uses the services in its occupation of Palestinian territories and bombardment of Gaza.
Workers have denounced Project Nimbus since it was announced in 2021, but Israel's killing of at least 33,970 Palestinians in Gaza since October and its intentional starvation of civilians led employees to escalate their protests.
No Tech for Apartheid said in a statement that Google officials called the police to both offices to arrest nine protesters—dubbed the Nimbus Nine—on Tuesday morning, before utilizing "a dragnet of in-office surveillance" to fire nearly two dozen other employees on Wednesday.
"They punished all of the workers they could associate with this action in wholesale firings," said the coalition, which includes Jewish Voice for Peace and MPower Change, a Muslim-led anti-war group.
Google accused the workers of "bullying," "harassment," defacing property, and physically impeding other employees—allegations No Tech for Apartheid rejected as it noted organizers "have yet to hear from a single executive about" their concerns over Google's collaboration with Israel.
"This excuse to avoid confronting us and our concerns directly, and attempt to justify its illegal, retaliatory firings, is a lie," said the workers. "Even the workers who were participating in a peaceful sit-in and refusing to leave did not damage property or threaten other workers. Instead they received an overwhelmingly positive response and shows of support."
The organizers staged the sit-ins on the heels of reporting in Time magazine about new negotiations between Google and the Israeli government regarding further potential tech contracts.
Kate J. Sim, a child safety policy adviser at Google who said she was among those fired this week, said the terminations show "how terrified [executives] are of worker power."
Google employees have a history of harnessing worker power to change policies at the company. In 2018, Google terminated a deal with the U.S. Defense Department to develop drone and artificial intelligence (AI) technology through a contract called Project Maven. The decision followed the resignations of several employees and the condemnation of thousands of workers.
Calling Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian "genocide profiteers," No Tech for Apartheid said Wednesday that they will not stop demonstrating against Project Nimbus until they get a similar result.
"The truth is clear: Google is terrified of us," said the group. "They are terrified of workers coming together and calling for accountability and transparency from our bosses... The corporation is trying to downplay and discredit our power.
"These mass, illegal firings will not stop us," No Tech for Apartheid added. "On the contrary, they only serve as further fuel for the growth of this movement. Make no mistake, we will continue organizing until the company drops Project Nimbus and stops powering this genocide."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Amid Spying Fight, House Passes Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act
"As FANFSA and the 702 reauthorization move to the Senate, lawmakers in that chamber need to take a stand for the rights of people in the United States," said one advocate.
Apr 17, 2024
While applauding the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan passage of a bill to ensure that "law enforcement and intelligence agencies can't do an end-run around the Constitution by buying information from data brokers" on Wednesday, privacy advocates highlighted that Congress is trying to extend and expand a long-abused government spying program.
The House voted 219-199 for Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (FANFSA), which won support from 96 Democrats and 123 Republicans, including the lead sponsor, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). Named for the constitutional amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, H.R. 4639 would close what campaigners call the data broker loophole.
"The privacy violations that flow from law enforcement entities circumventing the Fourth Amendment undermine civil liberties, free expression, and our ability to control what happens to our data," said Free Press Action policy counsel Jenna Ruddock. "These impacts affect everyone who uses digital platforms that extract our personal information any time we open a browser or visit social media and other websites—even when we go to events like demonstrations and other places with our phones revealing our locations."
"We're grateful that the House passed these vital and popular protections," she added. "The bill would prevent flagrant abuses of our privacy by government authorities in league with unscrupulous third-party data brokers. Making this legislation into law with Senate passage too would be a decisive and long-overdue action against government misuse of this clandestine business sector that traffics in our personal data for profit."
Wednesday's vote followed the House sending the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act to the Senate. H.R. 7888 would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for warrantless spying on noncitizens abroad but also sweeps up Americans' data.
The House notably included an amendment forcing a wide range of individuals and businesses to cooperate with government spying operations but rejected an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the bill, which the Senate could vote on as soon as Thursday.
Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
"As FANFSA and the 702 reauthorization move to the Senate, lawmakers in that chamber need to take a stand for the rights of people in the United States," she argued. "That means passing FANFSA and reforming Section 702 authority—and prioritizing everyone's First and Fourth Amendment rights."
Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Project on Surveillance Oversight, also praised the House's FANFSA passage on Wednesday.
"The passage of the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale underscores the extent to which reining in abusive warrantless surveillance is a bipartisan issue," Scott said. "We urge the Senate to take up this measure and close the data broker loophole."
Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU, similarly said Wednesday that "the bipartisan passage of this bill is a flashing warning sign to the government that if it wants our data, it must get a warrant."
Hamadanchy added that "we hope this vote puts a fire under the Senate to protect their constituents and rein in the government's warrantless surveillance of Americans, once and for all."
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a critic of the pending 702 bill and FANFSA's lead sponsor in the upper chamber, called the the House's Wednesday vote "a huge win for privacy" and said that "now it's time for the Senate to follow suit."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular