In her January 19th article for Maryland Matters, Christine Condon covered the proposed natural gas-fired power plant to be built on the already burdened Perryman peninsula in Harford county.
The article discusses the current state of the community: sandwiched between the Bush River and Aberdeen Proving Grounds, and run-through with highways and trucks frequenting the nearby warehouses. Whereas the community has been fighting just to get sidewalks installed, now they are faced with the possibility of a fast-tracked, fossil-fuel burning power plant designed to reduce high energy costs but which would also put a damper on the state’s clean energy and climate goals.
Condon interviewed Gunpowder Riverkeeper Theaux Le Gardeur, who also protects Perryman’s Bush River. He said of a potential pipeline from Pennsylvania:
“The footprint of the gas plant is not the issue, the issue is how the gas plant is fed. The first thing that goes are the trees, and then the scrub wetlands go, and then we go back to, like, grass. We’re losing that idea of forest and wetlands in providing natural stormwater controls.”
It is in the 81st percentile for Environmental Justice score.
Thanks to Maryland Matters and Christine Condon for their coverage of this community’s fight for environmental equity.