ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Coming just days after Maryland committed to a regional wind-energy partnership, a group of environmental advocates is urging Gov. Larry Hogan and the state's Board of Public Works to reject a key permit for a proposed gas pipeline project.

They say Maryland officials need to be aware that the Eastern Shore pipeline will run through mostly minority, disenfranchised communities from Delaware to Salisbury, Maryland - according to a new study.

Anthony Field, Maryland campaign coordinator with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, pointed out that it's well-known that fracking poses serious health risks to nearby communities.

He said officials need to know Black and Brown residents continually sacrifice well-being for infrastructure projects such as pipelines and landfills that other communities can fight against.

"It is counter to Maryland's climate commitments to continue building out gas," said Field. "But to also kind of just brush aside the issue that this pipeline brings to the local community is an insult and an injustice to those communities. You know, this isn't just a climate concern but it's a justice concern."

Supporters of the pipeline say it will bring gas heat to an area, including the historically Black University of Maryland Eastern Shore, for the first time ever. The Board of Public Works is expected to announce its decision on construction in wetlands at its November 18 meeting.

Field said the pipeline will impact 1,200 square feet of streams and more than 30,000 square feet of wetlands.

Just as important, the kind of drilling used to place pipes can impact residents by what's known as involuntary blowback. That's when sludge, mud and sediment back up into houses.

"There was a home in New Jersey that was nearby where horizontal directional drilling was being used to lay a pipeline," said Field. "And it actually caused a small tremor, cracking the foundation in the basement of the home and causing sludge and mud and floodwater to flood up to the first floor of the house. And the house was actually condemned."

The pipeline already is under construction in Delaware by the Chesapeake Utilities Corporation. Maryland's Department of the Environment recommended approval for the wetlands permit in October but still is assessing the project's impact on wetlands.


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Nearly 100 probationary workers for the Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago have had their jobs cut and then reinstated in the last month. They have also been ordered to close all environmental justice offices in the agency, affecting another 30 employees in the region.

The latest threat is the possible closure of the EPA's Office of Research and Development, which could mean firing more than 1,000 scientists and support staff.

Nicole Cantello, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 704, which represents workers in the six Great Lakes area states, said the changes have put public safety and the environment at risk.

"There really is a connection between EPA and saving lives," Cantello pointed out. "No one knows what we do until we stop doing it, and then they feel the effects. But there are EPA employees here in Chicago that are protecting you every single day."

Issues they cover include dangerous pollution in air and drinking water, and the environmental aftermath of disasters like train derailments or oil spills. The EPA is calling Tuesday a National Day of Action, with demonstrations planned in at least eight cities across the country.

Cantello noted the agency uses the rules set by its scientific research teams to monitor for air quality and water quality problems and alert the public.

"When the Trump administration takes away the scientists, they take away EPA's ability to address emerging environmental problems that haven't yet been studied but we use our scientists to tell us how to address," Cantello explained.

Cantello added proposed cuts could also affect the BEACH Act, which for more than two decades has covered EPA monitoring of coastal recreation waters. She stressed it would put the Great Lakes at risk.

"If we don't implement the BEACH Act anymore, then we won't be able to tell whether or not our beaches are safe," Cantello emphasized. "Especially from things like E. coli, which, lots of times, there's beaches shut down because of that."

The Trump administration called the cuts necessary to curb government waste and spending.


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Michigan environmental groups are pushing back as Enbridge's Line 5 tunnel faces "emergency" review, potentially bypassing full scrutiny and public input.

The move comes after President Donald Trump's executive order declared a national energy emergency to fast-track infrastructure projects. Environmental groups warn a Line 5 tunnel leak threatens the Great Lakes.

Sean McBrearty, campaign coordinator for the advocacy group Oil and Water Don't Mix, believes public outcry over the past week, led the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to remove 600 emergency-designated projects, including Line 5, from its website.

"Now we don't know whether they've changed the status of those projects or the proposed status of those projects," McBrearty pointed out. "Or whether they're still doing the same thing and just attempting to hide it from the public."

The tunnel would replace lake bed pipelines beneath the Straits of Mackinac with a concrete-lined enclosure for Line 5. In a recent statement Enbridge said, in part, Michigan approved environmental permits and tunnel placement for Line 5, but after nearly five years, the project still awaits a U.S. Army Corps decision on its environmental impact.

Meanwhile, the Michigan Court of Appeals recently upheld state permits for the tunnel, allowing Enbridge to move forward. McBrearty argued Enbridge lacks tunnel-building experience, calling them "ditch diggers" and labeling Line 5 a high-risk, low-reward venture.

"This tunnel would be actually the highest pressurized tunnel in the world, if it's built," McBrearty noted. "Pressure down there is measured at seventeen atmospheres - five atmospheres is enough to kill somebody. That shouldn't be rushed through as an emergency under any circumstances."

Enbridge maintains the Line 5 tunnel enhances pipeline safety, ensures energy reliability, supports jobs, and has 70% of Michiganders' support.

The Trump administration has begun to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency's office dealing with reducing environmental harms to minority and low-income communities who have faced the brunt of climate change and pollution.

More than 160 staffers in the EPA's Office of Environmental Justice and Civil Rights were put on paid administrative leave last week. Combined with two other offices in 2022, more than 200 staffers work for the office.

Adrienne Hollis, vice president of environmental justice, health and community resilience and revitalization for the National Wildlife Federation, said the office has an important role in making sure environmental health efforts are distributed equitably.

"The Office of Environmental Justice and Civil Rights focuses on issues that affect communities and groups of people that are disproportionately impacted by environmental issues, or disproportionately impacted when rules and regulations are not followed," Hollis explained. "Or even when there are issues around site cleanup."

The office was first created by former President George H.W. Bush in 1992. Since 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency has conducted more than 300 reviews of civil rights compliance, including eight in the Commonwealth.

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order working to disband environmental justice offices across the federal government. The administration has taken down a decades-old tool to track environmental burdens across the country.

Hollis noted some of the Commonwealth's most vulnerable communities will be the most negatively affected by these major rollbacks - and potential shutterings.

"It's going to affect the ability of communities and advocates and activists to really focus on these specific environmental outcomes that are related to systemic racism," Hollis emphasized. "They're place-based, they're based on race, and they're exacerbated by climate change."

The administration has begun to break up the Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division. The cuts are part of the government cuts Trump promised during his campaign.