Cove Point in Southern Maryland has become the latest flash point in the fight between the fossil fuels industry and its longtime foes in the environmental movement.
Citing a unique Carter-era agreement, the Sierra Club says it will veto plans by energy giant Dominion to build the first natural gas liquefaction and export facility on the East Coast, a site that would handle booming supplies from the Marcellus Shale and other vast deposits for shipment to Asia and elsewhere.
The 1970s legal settlement, the Sierra Club argues, gives it the authority to halt any project that would “change the footprint” at Cove Point, which currently hosts a little-used natural gas import facility and includes sites designated as Maryland natural heritage areas.
Dominion maintains that the project, which could export about 750 million cubic feet of gas per day and would create thousands of jobs, satisfies the agreement, and the firm has all intentions of moving forward, whether environmentalists like it or not.
