Despite the accelerating climate crisis and the ever-present risk of a catastrophic explosion or massive leak, the oil and gas industry is desperate to pipe fracked Pennsylvania natural gas from Delaware into Maryland's Eastern Shore. The Maryland Board of Public Works - comprising Governor Larry Hogan, Treasurer Nancy Kopp, and Comptroller Peter Franchot are considering this project. We ask you to join our letter campaign urging all three to reject it for numerous reasons including the following:

1) The Del-Mar pipeline will only make impoverished eastern shore communities even more reliant on outdated and harmful energy sources while green energy projects and the long term jobs they create go to other communities.

2) The Del-Mar pipeline threatens 1,239 square feet of streams and more than 16,000 square feet of wetlands. This impact would very likely lead to the destruction of our pristine environment.

3) Fracked gas pipelines are unsafe and unreliable. From June 2015 to June 2017 alone, there were 11 explosions of natural gas pipelines or other infrastructure. Since 2010, more than 500 people have been injured, 121 people have been killed, and $3.5 billion of damage has occurred as a result of pipeline accidents. Bringing such a risk to the Lower Shore with no real benefits offered would be cruel and put our communities at unnecessary risk.

4) Water quality on the Eastern Shore is exceptionally vulnerable to the damage that will be caused by fossil fuel extraction and transport needed for this project. Potential damages include coal ash contamination of ponds and rivers, drinking water impacts from fracking for gas in nearby states, and oil spills in our rivers from the pipeline.

5) It is long past time to move to a clean green energy future. The Eastern Shore is blessed with abundant wind and solar energy. It is to these sources, not planet-destroying fossil fuels, that the State of Maryland should turn for the power that our children and grandchildren will consume