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A protest in Baltimore earlier this year calling on political leaders to stop Dominion Power's Cove Point fracking facility proposal. (Photo: flickr/cc/Douglas Reyes-Ceron)
A few years ago, Tammy Manning and her family moved to Franklin Forks, Pennsylvania, 10 miles from the New York state border. Unbeknownst to her, energy companies had started ramping up natural gas drilling operations near her home. When WPX Energy opened up two fracking wells near her property, Tammy noticed that something was very wrong in her household.
Fracking requires blasting open fissures in deep shale rock formations to release the natural gas held within them. The process, formally called hydraulic fracturing, propels millions of gallons of chemically treated water and sand into rocks deep underground. As much as 75 percent of this poisoned water, along with leaked methane, returns to the surface. There, it can seep into drinking water tables.
Manning soon noticed that her granddaughter was waking up several times a week vomiting. Suspecting contamination from fracking might be the cause, she called state investigators. They found toxic heavy metals and methane in the family's drinking water and the state asked WPX to install a clean water tank on the Manning's property.
In the spring of 2013, the state concluded that "at this time," its investigation "does not indicate that natural gas drilling impacted (the family's) water supply." The Mannings, however, aren't convinced, noting that their water quality became toxic "all at once," shortly after WPX dug the nearby fracking wells.
The fracking company decided last year it wanted the tank back and obtained a court order to seize it.
"This is our water we're talking about," Tammy Manning told the organization Environment America. "This is what fracking is doing to us and our communities."
What's happening to families like the Mannings makes Dominion's plans for a new $4 billion liquefied natural gas plant and export terminal in Cove Point, Maryland terrifying.
The Cove Point facility would convert natural gas to liquid form, known as LNG. The only reason to liquefy natural gas is to prepare it for export. And if the gas industry starts to export natural gas from the mid-Atlantic region, it undoubtedly intends to increase production in places like Manning's hometown.
The federal and state governments have already approved many aspects of the Cove Point project, but a few hurdles remain. If it goes forward, the number of fracking wells in the surrounding area will skyrocket.
That would mean more chemicals in our water. More poisoned wells. More sick families.
This battle goes beyond what happens to a single community in Maryland or the well-being of large numbers of people in Pennsylvania and other nearby states who live near fracking sites. A Cove Point LNG export terminal will surely spur more fracking around the country and boost natural gas exports at other ports. And while energy companies like Dominion stand to reap big profits from such a move, the public would bear the fallout.
Plus fracking exacerbates the climate crisis. The primary component of natural gas is methane, which is a 105 times more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Cornell University researchers found in 2011 that fracking wells leak twice as much methane over their lifetimes as conventional natural gas production sites. Fracked gas even contributes more to global warming than coal, the researchers concluded.
Export terminals like Cove Point would trigger a wave of destructive new fossil-fuel infrastructure, from a web of pipelines to carry the toxic, inflammable fuel across communities to an exponential increase in tanker traffic along environmentally sensitive waterways like Maryland's Chesapeake Bay.
The Chesapeake Climate Action Network estimates that the Cove Point facility would emit more heat-trapping gases than all but three of Maryland's existing coal plants. That's in part due to the fact that liquefying and transporting natural gas would greatly increase climate emissions.
WPX ultimately relented and let the Mannings keep their water tank after activists and a group of investors led by Green Century Funds drew attention to the situation.
How many more families must experience the dangerous effects of fracking firsthand before this practice stops its meteoric rise?
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A few years ago, Tammy Manning and her family moved to Franklin Forks, Pennsylvania, 10 miles from the New York state border. Unbeknownst to her, energy companies had started ramping up natural gas drilling operations near her home. When WPX Energy opened up two fracking wells near her property, Tammy noticed that something was very wrong in her household.
Fracking requires blasting open fissures in deep shale rock formations to release the natural gas held within them. The process, formally called hydraulic fracturing, propels millions of gallons of chemically treated water and sand into rocks deep underground. As much as 75 percent of this poisoned water, along with leaked methane, returns to the surface. There, it can seep into drinking water tables.
Manning soon noticed that her granddaughter was waking up several times a week vomiting. Suspecting contamination from fracking might be the cause, she called state investigators. They found toxic heavy metals and methane in the family's drinking water and the state asked WPX to install a clean water tank on the Manning's property.
In the spring of 2013, the state concluded that "at this time," its investigation "does not indicate that natural gas drilling impacted (the family's) water supply." The Mannings, however, aren't convinced, noting that their water quality became toxic "all at once," shortly after WPX dug the nearby fracking wells.
The fracking company decided last year it wanted the tank back and obtained a court order to seize it.
"This is our water we're talking about," Tammy Manning told the organization Environment America. "This is what fracking is doing to us and our communities."
What's happening to families like the Mannings makes Dominion's plans for a new $4 billion liquefied natural gas plant and export terminal in Cove Point, Maryland terrifying.
The Cove Point facility would convert natural gas to liquid form, known as LNG. The only reason to liquefy natural gas is to prepare it for export. And if the gas industry starts to export natural gas from the mid-Atlantic region, it undoubtedly intends to increase production in places like Manning's hometown.
The federal and state governments have already approved many aspects of the Cove Point project, but a few hurdles remain. If it goes forward, the number of fracking wells in the surrounding area will skyrocket.
That would mean more chemicals in our water. More poisoned wells. More sick families.
This battle goes beyond what happens to a single community in Maryland or the well-being of large numbers of people in Pennsylvania and other nearby states who live near fracking sites. A Cove Point LNG export terminal will surely spur more fracking around the country and boost natural gas exports at other ports. And while energy companies like Dominion stand to reap big profits from such a move, the public would bear the fallout.
Plus fracking exacerbates the climate crisis. The primary component of natural gas is methane, which is a 105 times more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Cornell University researchers found in 2011 that fracking wells leak twice as much methane over their lifetimes as conventional natural gas production sites. Fracked gas even contributes more to global warming than coal, the researchers concluded.
Export terminals like Cove Point would trigger a wave of destructive new fossil-fuel infrastructure, from a web of pipelines to carry the toxic, inflammable fuel across communities to an exponential increase in tanker traffic along environmentally sensitive waterways like Maryland's Chesapeake Bay.
The Chesapeake Climate Action Network estimates that the Cove Point facility would emit more heat-trapping gases than all but three of Maryland's existing coal plants. That's in part due to the fact that liquefying and transporting natural gas would greatly increase climate emissions.
WPX ultimately relented and let the Mannings keep their water tank after activists and a group of investors led by Green Century Funds drew attention to the situation.
How many more families must experience the dangerous effects of fracking firsthand before this practice stops its meteoric rise?
A few years ago, Tammy Manning and her family moved to Franklin Forks, Pennsylvania, 10 miles from the New York state border. Unbeknownst to her, energy companies had started ramping up natural gas drilling operations near her home. When WPX Energy opened up two fracking wells near her property, Tammy noticed that something was very wrong in her household.
Fracking requires blasting open fissures in deep shale rock formations to release the natural gas held within them. The process, formally called hydraulic fracturing, propels millions of gallons of chemically treated water and sand into rocks deep underground. As much as 75 percent of this poisoned water, along with leaked methane, returns to the surface. There, it can seep into drinking water tables.
Manning soon noticed that her granddaughter was waking up several times a week vomiting. Suspecting contamination from fracking might be the cause, she called state investigators. They found toxic heavy metals and methane in the family's drinking water and the state asked WPX to install a clean water tank on the Manning's property.
In the spring of 2013, the state concluded that "at this time," its investigation "does not indicate that natural gas drilling impacted (the family's) water supply." The Mannings, however, aren't convinced, noting that their water quality became toxic "all at once," shortly after WPX dug the nearby fracking wells.
The fracking company decided last year it wanted the tank back and obtained a court order to seize it.
"This is our water we're talking about," Tammy Manning told the organization Environment America. "This is what fracking is doing to us and our communities."
What's happening to families like the Mannings makes Dominion's plans for a new $4 billion liquefied natural gas plant and export terminal in Cove Point, Maryland terrifying.
The Cove Point facility would convert natural gas to liquid form, known as LNG. The only reason to liquefy natural gas is to prepare it for export. And if the gas industry starts to export natural gas from the mid-Atlantic region, it undoubtedly intends to increase production in places like Manning's hometown.
The federal and state governments have already approved many aspects of the Cove Point project, but a few hurdles remain. If it goes forward, the number of fracking wells in the surrounding area will skyrocket.
That would mean more chemicals in our water. More poisoned wells. More sick families.
This battle goes beyond what happens to a single community in Maryland or the well-being of large numbers of people in Pennsylvania and other nearby states who live near fracking sites. A Cove Point LNG export terminal will surely spur more fracking around the country and boost natural gas exports at other ports. And while energy companies like Dominion stand to reap big profits from such a move, the public would bear the fallout.
Plus fracking exacerbates the climate crisis. The primary component of natural gas is methane, which is a 105 times more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Cornell University researchers found in 2011 that fracking wells leak twice as much methane over their lifetimes as conventional natural gas production sites. Fracked gas even contributes more to global warming than coal, the researchers concluded.
Export terminals like Cove Point would trigger a wave of destructive new fossil-fuel infrastructure, from a web of pipelines to carry the toxic, inflammable fuel across communities to an exponential increase in tanker traffic along environmentally sensitive waterways like Maryland's Chesapeake Bay.
The Chesapeake Climate Action Network estimates that the Cove Point facility would emit more heat-trapping gases than all but three of Maryland's existing coal plants. That's in part due to the fact that liquefying and transporting natural gas would greatly increase climate emissions.
WPX ultimately relented and let the Mannings keep their water tank after activists and a group of investors led by Green Century Funds drew attention to the situation.
How many more families must experience the dangerous effects of fracking firsthand before this practice stops its meteoric rise?
"There is still a chance to stop this industry before it begins, but only if governments stand up for science, equity, and precaution now," one campaigner said.
Despite growing momentum, world governments failed to agree to a moratorium on deep-sea mining as the 30th session of the International Seabed Authority wrapped up on Friday.
The authority's July meeting was the first since U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to expedite permits for deep-sea mining under U.S. authority and The Metals Company (TMC) promptly applied for U.S. permits. Governments rebuked the U.S. and TMC for their unilateral approach and did not agree on a mining code that would allow the controversial practice to move forward under international law. However, campaigners said more decisive action is needed to protect the ocean and its biodiversity.
"Governments have yet to rise to the moment," Greenpeace International campaigner Louisa Casson said in a statement. "They remain disconnected from global concerns and the pressing need for courageous leadership to protect the deep ocean."
Casson continued: "We call on the international community to rise up and defend multilateralism against rogue actors like The Metals Company. Governments must respond by establishing a moratorium and reaffirming that authority over the international seabed lies collectively with all states—for the benefit of humanity as a whole."
The International Seabed Authority (ISA) gains its authority to regulate deep-sea mining under the United Nations Law of the Sea, to which the U.S. is not party. TMC, however, could suffer consequences for bypassing the international process, as other countries and companies may decide not to do business with it.
At the most recent session, the ISA's council decided not to revoke exploratory permits it had previously granted to TMC and its subsidiaries. However, it approved an investigation on Monday into whether mining contractors such as TMC subsidiaries Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. and Tonga Offshore Mining Limited were abiding by their obligations under international law.
"TMC has been testing the limits of what it can get away with, a bit like a child seeing how far it can go with bad behavior," Matthew Gianni, cofounder of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC), told The New York Times.
"The member countries of the ISA have basically sent a shot across the bow, a warning to TMC that going rogue may well result in the loss of its ISA exploration claims," Gianna explained, adding that the investigation also served as a warning to other companies who might consider following TMC's example.
"The Trump administration's pursuit of deep-sea mining isn't about global stewardship—it's about sidestepping it."
Casson agreed: "The international community's message to The Metals Company is clear: Violating international law, ignoring scientific consensus, and disregarding human rights will have consequences. This is also a warning to any companies or governments choosing to align themselves with [TMC CEO] Gerard Barron's business model—they must be prepared to bear the reputational fallout of trying to destroy the ocean."
At the same time, a U.S. representative spoke on Thursday, doubling down on Trump's dismissal of the international process and earning instant push back from Brazil, France, and China
"As a non-party to the Law of the Sea Convention, the United States is not bound by the convention rules dealing with seabed mining through the International Seabed Authority," the U.S. statement said in part.
The statement came days after Greenpeace released a report titled Deep Deception: How the Deep-Sea Mining Industry is Manipulating Geopolitics to Profit from Ocean Destruction, which details how TMC and other deep-sea mining companies are exploiting national security concerns to lobby U.S. lawmakers to fast track deep-sea mining.
"The U.S. statement confirms what Deep Deception has already exposed: The Trump administration's pursuit of deep-sea mining isn't about global stewardship—it's about sidestepping it," Arlo Hemphill, Greenpeace USA's project lead for the Stop Deep-Sea Mining campaign, said in a statement. "By rejecting the ISA's authority while claiming environmental responsibility, the U.S. is trying to have it both ways—and in doing so is advancing a 'smash and grab' agenda that puts ocean health and international cooperation at serious risk."
Ultimately, ocean advocates agree that the only way to protect the deep sea is for governments to agree to a precautionary pause on a practice they argue would do irreparable harm to ecosystems science barely understands.
The consensus for such a pause is building, with Croatia becoming the 38th nation to support one during the latest ISA meeting.
"The ISA is paralyzed by a small group clinging to outdated extraction agendas while blocking even the most basic reforms," Simon Holmström, the deep-sea mining policy officer for Seas at Risk, said in a statement. "The firm rejection of the U.S. and The Metals Company's power grab, alongside 38 countries now calling for a moratorium or precautionary pause, shows growing resistance to sacrificing the planet's least understood ecosystem for corporate short-term profit."
"To even consider a new form of ecocide on our already ailing planet is both reckless and irrational."
Several nations spoke strongly in favor a moratorium, including Palau, Panama, and France.
"Exploiting the seabed is not a necessity—it is a choice," said His Excellency Surangel S. Whipps Jr., president of the Republic of Palau, on Tuesday. "And it is reckless. It is gambling with the future of Pacific Island children, who will inherit the dire consequences of decisions made far from their shores."
A Pacific leader from Solomon Island also defended the interests of the Pacific Ocean community: "As Pacific people, we continue to carry the trauma of what extractive industries have already done to our homes. Mining companies that came with promises, stripped our lands and waters, and left behind ecological, cultural, and spiritual scars. We cannot let that cycle repeat itself, in the ocean that connects us. That sustains us. And that defines us."
Olivier Poivre d'Arvor of France called for a pause of 10-15 years: "Our message is clear: no deep-sea mining without science, without collective legitimacy, without equity [...] France is calling for a moratorium or a precautionary pause. What for? Because we refuse to mortgage the future for a few nodules extracted in a hurry, in favor of a few."
However, campaigners argued that many governments continued to fall short of the commitments they had made at the U.N. Ocean Conference (UNOC) in Nice in early June.
"Thirty-eight states have now joined the call for a moratorium or precautionary pause, with Croatia joining the coalition during this Assembly," said DSCC campaign director Sofia Tsenikli. "But too many other states, which were bold in their ocean promises at UNOC, are not putting this into action at the ISA. Governments must meet their promises by doing what it takes to implement a moratorium before it's too late."
Farah Obaidullah, founder and director of The Ocean and Us, argued that the ocean already faces too many other threats to add the additional burden of deep-sea mining.
"The health of the high seas including the seabed is critical to our own. Yet our shared heritage faces an onslaught of threats from climate and nature collapse, escalating tensions, and failed leadership," Obaidullah said. "To even consider a new form of ecocide on our already ailing planet is both reckless and irrational. We know that deep-sea mining will devastate life in the deep ocean, wipe out species before they have been discovered, and impact ocean functions, including carbon sequestration. When it comes to the ocean we have no time to lose. We cannot colonize and conquer our shared heritage which belongs to us all. There is only one responsible way forward, and that is to secure a moratorium on deep-sea mining."
DSCC's Gianni also argued strongly for a pause: "Being on the fence or remaining silent is not a politically defensible position. We are risking severe ecological damage, and future generations will ask what we did to stop it. There is still a chance to stop this industry before it begins, but only if governments stand up for science, equity, and precaution now, and take action to prevent companies within their jurisdiction from cooperating with rogue mining operations."
Greenpeace's Hemphill concluded: "Governments must secure a moratorium that leaves no room for a desperate industry to force through a mining code. The science is not ready. The legal framework is not in place. The world must not be bullied into an irreversible mistake for the benefit of a few."
The ruling from U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin of Massachusetts found an exception to the Supreme Court's recent limit on nationwide injunctions.
For the third time since the U.S. Supreme Court used the case to limit nationwide injunctions in June, a court has blocked U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship from going into effect.
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin of Massachusetts ruled on Friday that a nationwide injunction he had granted to over 12 states still applied under an exception laid out in the Supreme Court decision.
"We are thrilled that the district court again barred President Trump's flagrantly unconstitutional birthright citizenship order from taking effect anywhere," New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin, whose state took the lead on bringing the case, said in a statement.
Trump issued an executive order in January ending birthright citizenship for children born to parents with no legal status, a move widely decried as unconstitutional. Several lawsuits followed, resulting in a nationwide injunction blocking the order from taking effect.
"American-born babies are American, just as they have been at every other time in our Nation's history."
In June, the Supreme Court weighed in by limiting the ability of lower courts to issue nationwide injunctions, but declining to comment on the constitutionality of the order itself. However, the nation's highest court did say that states could receive nationwide injunctions if it was the only way to offer full relief, which Sorokin determined Friday was indeed the case.
The states had argued that the birthright order, in addition to being unconstitutional, would put millions of dollars for citizenship-dependent health insurance assistance at risk, according to The Associated Press. Sorokin determined anything less than a nationwide ban would not provide full relief to the states, given that people often move across state lines.
"The record does not support a finding that any narrower option would feasibly and adequately protect the plaintiffs from the injuries they have shown they are likely to suffer if the unlawful policy announced in the Executive Order takes effect during the pendency of this lawsuit," Sorokin wrote in his decision.
His ruling followed two others blocking the order since the Supreme Court decision: A July 10 ruling from a federal New Hampshire judge establishing a nationwide class in a new class-action lawsuit, and a determination from a federal appeals court in San Francisco on Wednesday that the order was unconstitutional and the block could stay in effect to offer states relief.
In his decision Friday, Sorokin said the Trump administration was "entitled to pursue their interpretation of the 14th Amendment, and no doubt the Supreme Court will ultimately settle the question," adding, "But in the meantime, for purposes of this lawsuit at this juncture, the Executive Order is unconstitutional."
In response, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Newsweek, "These courts are misinterpreting the purpose and the text of the 14th Amendment," adding, "We look forward to being vindicated on appeal."
Patkin, however, celebrated the ruling: "The district court's decision, consistent with the Supreme Court's own instructions, recognizes that this illegal action cannot take effect anywhere without harming New Jersey and the other states who joined in these challenges. American-born babies are American, just as they have been at every other time in our Nation's history. The president cannot change that legal rule with the stroke of a pen."
"What is it going to take for Senate Republicans to oppose this unfit nominee? Every Republican senator who votes to confirm Bove will be complicit in undermining the rule of law and judicial independence."
After a second whistleblower came forward claiming that Emil Bove III instructed attorneys at the U.S. Department of Justice to ignore federal court orders, his critics on Friday renewed calls for the Senate to reject the DOJ official's appointment as an appellate judge.
"Evidence is growing that Emil Bove urged Department of Justice lawyers to ignore federal court orders. That alone should disqualify him from a lifetime appointment to one of the most powerful courts in our country," said Sean Eldridge, president and founder of the progressive advocacy group Stand Up America, in a statement.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced in late May that he would nominate Bove, his former personal attorney, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. Then, last month, a whistleblower complaint was filed by Erez Reuveni, who was fired from the DOJ's Office of Immigration Litigation in April after expressing concerns about the Kilmar Ábrego García case.
On Friday, as the Republican-controlled Senate was moving toward confirming Bove, the group Whistleblower Aid announced that another former Justice Department lawyer, whose name is not being disclosed, "has lawfully disclosed evidence to the DOJ's Office of the Inspector General that corroborates the thrust of the whistleblower claims" from Reuveni.
"Loyalty to one individual must never outweigh supporting and protecting the fundamental rights of those living in the United States."
"What we're seeing here is something I never thought would be possible on such a wide scale: federal prosecutors appointed by the Trump administration intentionally presenting dubious if not outright false evidence to a court of jurisdiction in cases that impact a person's fundamental rights not only under our Constitution, but their natural rights as humans," said Whistleblower Aid chief legal counsel Andrew Bakaj in a statement.
"What this means is that federal career attorneys who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution are now being pressured to abdicate that promise in favor of fealty to a single person, specifically Donald Trump. Loyalty to one individual must never outweigh supporting and protecting the fundamental rights of those living in the United States," Bakaj added. "Our client and Mr. Reuveni are true patriots—prioritizing their commitment to democracy over advancing their careers."
Bove has also faced mounting opposition—including from dozens of former judges—due to his embrace of the so-called "unitary executive theory" as well as his positions on a potential third Trump term and the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by the president's supporters.
The Senate on Thursday voted 50-48 to proceed with the consideration of Bove's nomination. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine) joined all Democrats in opposition. Responding in a statement, Demand Justice interim executive director Maggie Jo Buchanan warned that "Bove will be a stain on the judiciary if confirmed."
"Voting to confirm Trump's judicial nominees to lifetime seats on the federal bench, as he wages a war on the very idea of judicial independence, is an unacceptable choice for any senator who believes in our democracy and the importance of individual rights," said Buchanan, who also blasted the Senate's Tuesday confirmation of Joshua Divine to be a U.S. district judge for the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri.
"Trump and his MAGA allies are helping him consolidate power in the executive branch, attacking judges who dare to rule against his interests, and targeting Trump's perceived political enemies—all while seemingly unconcerned about the future this sets up for our nation," she stressed. "Every senator will have to decide where they stand when it comes to this assault on our country's values—and that choice will not be forgotten."
After news of the second whistleblower complaint broke on Friday, Stand Up America's Eldridge declared that "again and again, Bove has proven he lacks the temperament, integrity, and independence to serve on the federal bench. He's nothing more than a political foot soldier doing Trump's bidding."
"What is it going to take for Senate Republicans to oppose this unfit nominee?" he added. "Every Republican senator who votes to confirm Bove will be complicit in undermining the rule of law and judicial independence."