As we said in our official statement, the vote is very disappointing. But there is also a lot to be proud of, and reason to be hopeful that we will prevail. It was clear that Governor Hogan and Peter Franchot felt enormous pressure. They made 5 changes to the proposal in an attempt to appease use. We remain steadfast in our opposition, but these concessions are a sign of the power we have built.
Instead of talking policy or NEPA details, I want to take a moment to recognize the amazing work of our transportation organizer, Lindsey Mendelson, the leadership of Brian Ditzler, Tina Slater and all of the transportation committee volunteers, as well as our many partners. The organizing in the last few months has been incredible, and there is a lot to be proud of. Our team organized your communities to educate your neighbors, wrote thousands of letters and petitions and made hundreds of phone calls. At the meeting, Comptroller Franchot noted all the messages he was receiving gave him reason to be concerned and promised he would “personal review any contract that MDOT bring forth to ensure the critical benchmarks of fiscal responsibility and environmental safeguards.”
We helped turn out hundreds of people to a town hall last month, we generated tons of great letters to the editor, and even earned a story exposing MDOT's misuse of research to justify their air pollution claims.
Your organizing helped inspire strong opposition from local government across the state. To name a few, objections and concerns were voices by the Montgomery County Council, the Prince George's County Council, members of the DC City Council, Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott, Frederick County Councilmember Kai Hagen, and the Maryland National Capital Parks and Planning Commission. Additionally, sixty members of the General Assembly expressed serious concerns, as well as leaders of the powerful Appropriations Committee.
We are still regrouping to discuss what comes next, and we know everyone wants to know that means in terms of the official BPW and NEPA process. Stand by, that is coming soon. For now, we wanted to update and honor the work we did leading up to this moment.
Josh Tulkin