Welcome back to the Weekly Climate Insider!
In Maryland, fracking and the results of the Environment America study posted in last week’s Climate Insider are still making headlines. As a recap, the report found that our water supply is put at risk by the billions of gallons of dirty wastewater produced by fracking. See the coverage from Capital News Service.

This week, we’re profiling two Maryland businesses that are environmentally newsworthy.
A Maryland construction company called Hobbitat builds small houses made out of reclaimed materials. The 250 square foot houses, called “hobs,” are made almost exclusively from from salvaged or repurposed materials, nearly eliminating the adverse effects of new construction. In energy terms, “The hobs’ square footage is about 11 percent of the median U.S. house size, so much less energy is required to heat and cool them.” Check out some photos of these gorgeous little hobs!


Konterra Realty in Laurel made news when it became the first Maryland company to install a solar microgrid that will allow it to retain power during an outage. The installation is composed of a 402 kilowatt (kW), 1,368-panel solar array and a 300 kilowatt hour (kWh) grid-interactive. Konterra’s director of sustainability initiatives, Melissa Gould, says “As one of the nation’s first commercial microgrids, this project can truly be a game changer for PV [photovoltaics]. Not only does it provide backup power to Konterra, it also supports grid integrity and allows for participation in ancillary markets for electricity.” Governor O’Malley also lauded the development.

A repeal of Virginia’s unfair hybrid tax is in the works and gaining bipartisan support. CCAN has been working with Delegate Scott Surovell of Fairfax and Senator Adam Ebbin of Alexandria to introduce legislation to repeal the $64-a-year tax on hybrid owners in the 2014 session of the General Assembly. This week, the repeal gained bipartisan momentum when newly appointed Republican chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Delegate Tom Rust, came out in favor of repeal. CCAN strongly supports the repeal of this tax, which unfairly punishes people trying to do their part to reduce their carbon footprint, and simply doesn’t make sense — certain non-hybrid car models use less gas than certain hybrids. 

Nationally, this has been a busy week in climate news.
The EPA’s power plant and factory emissions regulations will be reviewed by the Supreme Court. In 2007, the Court ruled that the EPA can regulate vehicle emissions under the Clean Air Act, and this upcoming ruling will pertain to emissions from other sources. The case is being brought by industry groups and Republican states.

In the international arena, fracking is undermining U.S. credibility as a climate leader.
As a result of the widespread use of hydraulic fracturing for gas, America is forging to the front of the pack in crude oil and natural gas production.
Susan Brantley, geosciences professor and director of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute at Pennsylvania State University, recaps, “As we produce more, we burn more, and we send more CO2 per person into the atmosphere than almost any other country. We are blanketing our world with greenhouse gas, warming the planet.”
Unless the US makes the transition to non-carbon fuels, other countries, many of which are making greater strides toward renewables, are even less inclined to think the U.S. has any business telling them to change their behavior. The U.S. needs to start leading by example if we hope to bring about international change.

To end on a positive note, there are thousands of student activists travelling to Pittsburgh this weekend for Power Shift 2013. As this New York Times article highlights, the young leaders of the climate movement are not only focused on shifting power from fossil fuels to clean energy, but also on shifting power within the environmental movement.  A diverse crowd will converge in Pittsburgh, and sessions will focus on the links and intersections between the climate movement and struggles for racial, class, LGBT and immigrant justice. Follow #powershift and @ccan on Twitter for our team’s updates from throughout the weekend.