Day: August 7, 2013

Climate change town hall encourages individual action

By Marlena Chertock

About 500 residents, politicians and activists showed support for climate-change policies at an Organizing For Action town hall last week at the Silver Spring Civic Center.

“Cleaner air leads to healthier families,” said Neeta Datt, the county director of OFA.

The nearly four-hour meeting was the first in a month of action for OFA, a nonprofit that supports President Barack Obama’s agenda.

Speakers focused on the president’s plan, but also encouraged action on an individual level.

climate change Maryland

Fracking moratorium comes one vote shy of passing in MD Senate committee

For Immediate Release
March 7, 2013

Contact:
Mike Tidwell, 240-460-5838, mtidwell@chesapeakeclimate.org
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org

Advocates say near-miss on victory will only deepen movement to protect state residents from impacts of high-risk drilling

ANNAPOLIS—State legislation to place a statutory moratorium on the controversial gas drilling practice known as fracking came within one vote of passing yesterday in the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs committee of the Maryland Senate. The oil and gas industry had lobbied heavily against the bill (SB 601) in the face of widespread grassroots support and polling data showing Maryland voters overwhelmingly support legislative action on the issue of fracking.

Maryland

Mill’s stance on ‘black liquor’ irks lawmakers

The Washington Post

By Steven Mufson

A month ago, the manager of Luke paper mill in western Maryland pledged in writing to remain neutral on a bill in the state legislature that would curtail renewable energy payments to mills burning a residue called “black liquor.”

This week, he changed his mind.

The flip-flop irked key Maryland lawmakers, but the Luke mill manager was just one of a parade of people from the American Forest and Paper Association, the United Steelworkers and Dominion Resources who opposed the bill in hearings in Annapolis on Tuesday and Thursday.

black liquor Maryland RPS

Annapolis legislators unveil three-point fracking moratorium plan

For Immediate Release
February 7, 2013

Contact:
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org
Mike Tidwell, 240-460-5838, mtidwell@chesapeakeclimate.org

Moratorium bill introduced in the House of Delegates on the heels of Baltimore City Council vote to freeze fracking process in Maryland

ANNAPOLIS—Maryland legislators today unveiled a new, three-point plan to establish a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – for natural gas in the state. The legislation introduced today comes in the wake of new federal studies highlighting potential harm from fracking and on the same week that the Baltimore City Council voted to endorse a fracking moratorium.

fracking Maryland