Hello, and thank you for visiting this petition. It is brought to you with the input of Georgetown University students and alumni, including myself (NHS'17), residents of Charles County, MD, members of numerous environmental activism organizations, and some of the Indigenous Piscataway people--people I met by attending the first and second Maryland Department of Environment (MDE) public comment hearings concerning a wetland permit for the Georgetown University solar project discussed below. There is widespread opposition to its current location. Below, you will see a brief outline of issues and a letter from alumni. This petition is open to all, but if you are a GU alum, please also comment with your school and graduation year. By signing, we are asking Georgetown University to stop climate injustice and environmental racism by relocating the solar project, in consultation with the Piscataway people. We ask MDE to deny Origis Energy the wetlands permit.

Georgetown University has made numerous pledges to pursue environmentally sustainable efforts, and these pledges to green practices are commendable. However, its upcoming major solar farm project, requiring the clear-cutting and disruptive development of pristine forestland (a state-designated Targeted Ecological Area) in Southern Maryland, is an ill-advised undertaking that sacrifices an irreplaceable natural resource for the capture of solar power. The way they have proceeded with this solar project is eerily similar to extractivist fossil fuel practices. Several key issues have come to light, making it clear that Georgetown University needs work with Origis Energy, the company with which the University has contracted to complete the project, to step back and listen to criticisms, rather than push forward with their consistent lack of transparency:

1. The area targeted for development sits within the ancestral homelands of the Indigenous Piscataway people. The Piscataway people, who care for the land and still regard the land as sacred for a number of reasons, were not consulted about this solar farm project, nor was the local community.
2. The area to be developed is sloped, which requires land grading, an environmentally disruptive practice used to create flat surfaces. This practice has the potential to change water runoff patterns, displace existing animal species, and pollute water sources tied to the area of development. The development site sits in a Tier II watershed, the highest water quality rating to be found in Southern Maryland. In a world already facing severe drinking water shortages, exacerbated by the effects of climate breakdown, the protection of such a clean natural water source should be of the utmost importance.
3. The forest to be cut, in question, is about half of a key block of contiguous, or unbroken/continuous, forest in Southern Maryland. This is important for the animal species that live there--forest fragmentation, or breaking up the continuity of forestland, severely disrupts animal species that need linked forest cover to travel from one portion of the forest to another. The effects of forest fragmentation are lasting, negative, and magnify over time. This forest was also referred to as the "lungs of DC" on the Kojo Nnamdi show, as it is an importance force in sequestering carbon and producing oxygen for residents of both Southern Maryland and Washington, DC.
4. Georgetown University has not been transparent about the project. At the first MDE hearing I went to, MDE said that Georgetown University promised to give them an environmental assessment completed by a third party by sometime in March, 2019. To give interested parties the time to review the environmental assessment, MDE originally scheduled the second hearing for early April, 2019. However, the hearing was delayed, and when I attended in early May, 2019, I learned that the environmental assessment had, indeed, been completed, but Georgetown University was not releasing it to the public. 

----- LETTER FROM GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY ALUMNI -----

President DeGioia:

As Georgetown alumni, we urge you to reconsider University’s proposal to purchase electricity from a new solar project that would clear-cut over 200 acres of forest in Charles County, Maryland. In its present configuration, the project falls short of the University’s core values, including its commitment to building a more just world.

Although we applaud the University’s decision to source its electricity through clean, renewable energy sources like solar, clear-cutting forests to build solar farms is the wrong way to pursue this objective. The proposed clear-cutting would fragment the largest remaining forest in Southern Maryland, which forms part of the ancestral land of the Indigenous Piscataway people and feeds the Potomac River with some of the highest quality tributary streams in Maryland. The forest is designated an Important Bird Area by the Audubon Society and a Maryland State Targeted Ecological Area.  Yet the University and project developer have not consulted the Piscataway people or shared important project documents—including a promised University environmental assessment—with alumni, students, or community stakeholders.

Converting this important natural area to a solar farm would actually generate greenhouse gas emissions that could be avoided by siting the project in another location, such as an abandoned industrial site or marginal farmland. Moreover,  the mounting controversy associated with this proposal could undermine the success of solar energy in the region and Georgetown’s reputation as a climate leader.

We urge you to stop the current project and undertake an improved, consultative, and participatory process to find another location or approach that honors Georgetown’s core values and its commitment to pursue sustainability in a manner that demonstrates “respect for nature and society.”

Signed,

Georgetown University Alumni

 

Cc

Geoffrey Chatas,

Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

 

Joseph Ferrara,

Chief of Staff to the President

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Email GUClimateInjustice@gmail.com