Protesters Surround Maryland Governor’s Mansion over Potomac Pipeline

The following report from DC Direct Action News details a home demonstration against TransCanada’s pipeline at the home of Maryland’s Governor.

On the 15th of February, protesters opposing TransCanada’s Eastern Panhandle Extension aka the Potomac Pipeline surrounded the Maryland Governor’s Mansion in Annapolis. After a starting rally on Lawyer’s Mall in front of the statehouse, protesters fanned out to surround the mansion.

The Potomac Pipeline would be brought to you by TransCanada, the people behind the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline project. It would deliver fracked gas from the gaslands of Pennsylvania to industries that do not yet exist in West Virginia.

Maryland would get nothing from the pipeline except the risk of pipeline explosions and increased contamination of the Potomac River from more fracking upstream in Pennsylvania. Fracking itself is illegal in Maryland, so protesters were asking Governor Hogan to, “Keep your fracking promise!” Looks like TransCanada’s pipeline is about as popular as the puppy-killing ways of Huntington Life Sciences (now Envigo) would be in Maryland. Both bring protesters to the homes of those responsible. Not surprising, as water poisoned by gas fracking can be a stomach-churning proposition in your cup, and your tap water is not supposed to catch on fire.