I was astonished by Diane Leopold's recent commentary citing a Dominion executive who downplayed the need for an environmental impact statement regarding a proposed liquid natural gas plant near Cove Point residential neighborhoods ("Dominion Transmission: Cove Point LNG project environmentally sound," Dec. 4).
Ms. Leopold blithely proclaims that Dominion will "clean the air of other smog-producing emissions by paying companies for their reduced emissions of pollution, as permitted by federal and state law." Her logic is as twisted as it is offensive to residents of Cove Point, who are going to end up on the smoggy end of this deal.
Where are all these companies that will be reducing their emissions so Dominion can pollute our air — are they even in Maryland? Dominion has no right to trade our quality of life to anyone at any price, nor do the Calvert County commissioners.
Everyone deserves clean water to drink and clean air to breathe. All children deserve to grow up in an environment as beautiful and pristine as Cove Point is today. The residents of Cove Point stand in solidarity with our friends and neighbors in places like Dimock, Pa., who have been left with decimated property values and unsafe drinking water by an unregulated fracking industry.
We stand united with our neighbors in Myersville, Md., who are fighting to keep a Dominion gas pipeline compressor station from being built perilously close to an elementary school.
An environmental impact statement is definitely needed by Cove Point residents and all our neighbors on the East Coast who will be impacted by this massive, industrial gas export project.
Sue Allison, Lusby
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