Earlier this spring, The Nation partnered with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) to call on President Obama to reject Cove Point. A proposed 3.8 billion liquid natural gas (LNG) export facility in southern Maryland, Cove Point would help keep the United States on the path to massively increased greenhouse gas emissions. While the president hasn’t addressed the project, a federal agency recently put out a call for public comments on Cove Point.

On May 15, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released an “Environmental Assessment” of Cove Point. While FERC states that the proposed plant would have no “significant” overall impacts on the environment, activists and outside scientists are vehemently disagreeing. The CCAN said that the report “defies basic facts and sweeps serious dangers under the rug” and criticized its failure to take into account the full scope of greenhouse gas emissions that would be triggered by the project or the huge incentive to expand fracking that the project represents. In its report, FERC even claimed that there is no proven and direct connection between Cove Point and fracking for gas despite the fact that a major Pennsylvania fracking company—Cabot Oil & Gas—has already signed a contract to ship billions of cubic feet of shale gas to Cove Point for export.

It is obvious that FERC has listened to the gas industry; now let’s demand that they listen to us. Send a comment to the agency imploring it to deny Dominion’s application or, at the very minimum, conduct a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement.

In March of this year, Mark Hertsgaard explained why activists fighting against Keystone XL should also rally around stopping Cove Point.

On The Daily Show, Aasif Mandvi tried to explain to a group of Pennsylvania residents the “benefits” of expanded fracking.