Image: Clean Water Action, Protecting Maryland’s Communities from Oil Trains
The Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) and their partners have demonstrated that local environmental and neighborhood groups can protect their communities, even when people in power say proposed polluting projects are “a done deal.” Other participants in the successful effort to stop this terminal included the Maryland Environmental Health Network, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and Clean Water Action.
The State’s denial of a permit request by Targa Resources to haul Bakken crude oil by rail to South Baltimore and load it onto barges for shipment on the Chesapeake Bay was a huge win for the residents of Baltimore, sparing them the risks of derailments, fires, and explosions, as well as exposure to toxic air pollutants from the transfer and storage of the oil.
“This decision by the Maryland Department of the Environment is good news,” said Leah Kelly, attorney for the Environmental Integrity Project, in a statement Wednesday.
“Shipping crude oil through this terminal in Baltimore could have increased the risk of accidents and potentially explosions, such as have happened in Virginia, West Virginia and Canada,” she said. “Targa Terminals’ application for the crude oil permit was full of holes. MDE has said that it will not move forward with the crude oil permit unless the company provides more information about the air pollution that would be created by its operations.”
The Environmental Integrity Project is a member of the Moving Forward Network. EIP’s goals are to provide objective analyses of how the failure to enforce or implement environmental laws increases pollution and affects public health; to hold federal and state agencies, as well as individual corporations, accountable for failing to enforce or comply with environmental laws; and to help local communities obtain the protection of environmental laws.
Among the effective tools used by the EIP is rigorous scholarship and a focus on the facts. To learn more about this victory, read the news articles below. For more background, review some of EIP’s excellent work in the “Reports and Analyses” section below.
Recent News
State denies permit for Baltimore crude oil terminal, Baltimore Sun
Company Withdraws Plans for Crude Oil Terminal, EIP
EIP Reports and Analyses
Tar Sands Feeding U.S. Refinery Expansions with Dirty Fuel (2008)
BLOWBACK FROM THE SHALE BOOM: Fracking-based Surge in Industrial Construction Leads to Rise in Greenhouse Gas Pollution (2014)
EIP Comments on the Targa Permit Application (2015)