MD Student State Summit! 4/25-4/27

The Maryland Student Climate Coalition (MSCC) is hosting a State Summit! With the momentum of their recent victory in making the University System of Maryland to go carbon neutral the MSCC is gathering to plan their next big campaign.

Our movement is growing and the MSCC is expanding to include ALL SCHOOLS in MD!

Here is a message from Erica Stout, Co-Coordinator of the MSCC:

Come be a climate leader for the state of Maryland!!

A lot has happened this year around global warming in MD, from
PowerShift in our own state, to our fight for the Global Warming
Solutions act, to the Maryland Student Climate Coalition’s victory in
getting 13 Universities in MD to pledge climate neutrality!!!!

There are HUGE opportunities to make MD a leader in the fight against global
warming and we are building immense momentum at all of our schools.
Now it is time for us all to come together and plan what steps we can take,
to use our power to make change in our state!! Come celebrate the end of Earth Week

with us and culminate your work for the year at the Maryland Student Climate Coalition Summit!!!

STATE SUMMIT, @ UMD April 25-27

Join dozens of other climate leaders from across MD at a

STATE SUMMIT April 25-27 where we will plan our next
campaign, get trained, and begin to build our momentum to hit the ground

running next semester!


Click here to register for the summit!

SUMMIT LOGISTICS:

WHEN: Friday April 25- Sunday April 27!!! We will begin Friday evening and finish Sunday, early afternoon.
WHERE: University of Maryland, College Park.

Sleeping Arrangements: We will be buddying up people from other schools to stay with UMD students. Mark in the registration form (Register Here!!) if you will need a place to stay in College Park.

Logistics: We hope to cover a majority of the meals (vegetarian, with
vegan options) with a contribution from our hosts from Clean Energy for UMD through the MD
Co-Op. Yum! Breakfast may be on your own.

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO NOW:
1. Register for the summit!!!!
2. Tell your friends and your group!!! Pass around a sign up sheet at your next meeting, then register them through the same form.
3. Help us make this a success! Email me at ericastout@gmail.com or Andrew at anazdin@gmail.com if you would like to help out. Email Liz at lizlacoco@gmail.com to join the recruitment working group, or Hanna at hpoffenb@umd.edu to help with the agenda

Email me if you have any questions, thoughts, suggestions or concerns!!!

Erica Stout

(301) 787-2059

Co-Coordinator

Maryland Student Climate Coalition

Ask James Hansen a personal question.

“What we have found is that the target we have all been aiming for is a disaster – a guaranteed disaster,” Hansen recently told the Guardian Newspaper in London.

Hansen will give his first major public address since announcing that governments and climate researchers have grossly underestimated the severity of the effects of carbon dioxide emissions next Tuesday at CCAN’s Super Rally.

Since Hansen is coming to DC to talk to us, I figure we have to get him to answer at least one personal question. I kinda want to know what climate catastrophe keeps him up at night, but I’m a little scared to know what that would be. Ideas? Post your questions for Hansen in the comments

Pres. Bush attempts to stay relevant and trot out lip service on climate change

President Bush will lay out his “principles” on climate change at a press conference today. Many are saying that he is finally trying to make an attempt to stay relevant when the movement in congress heading toward legislation regulating carbon emissions. But neither the president nor congress are making the steps that James Hansen says are necessary to avert catastrophic climate change. With James Hansen setting the goal at 350 ppm, the movement in the federal government is more of a budge than a step.

Coal is the number one target. Coal generates approximately 40% of the world’s electricity

Kansas Notices Virginia Coal Fight

The Kansas City Star Newspaper has picked up on Virginia’s fight to stop Dominion power’s controversial coal plant proposed for Wise County. The artcile compares the struggle in Virginia to the notable struggle in Kansas

  • …what’s not good for Kansas also may not be good for Virginia. More dependence on coal, that is. [But,]Kansans have a strong governor, Kathleen Sebelius, who vetoed legislation that would have lifted all control of future coal-fired plants from state regulators.

What a notable difference leadership makes! Over and over again all we hear from Governor Kaine is that his hands are tied and that new coal generation is necessary.

Maybe Governor Kaine can learn something from Governor Sebelius, and be the clean energy leader that we all would like for him to be. I will happily embrace him as the environmentalist he claims to be the day he stands up for our mountains and our climate.

Want to stop the coal plant, click here to help!

Last Chance for Global Warming Solutions Act

Today MD House Economic Matters Committee is considering the Global Warming Solutions Act. If passed out of committee, the House and Senate are expected to pass the bill quickly before session ends at midnight tonight. For a good overview of the narrative of events, check out the Baltimore Sun’s Blog.

The debate over this bill, I think, is going to be indicative of the struggle ahead for two reasons:
1. Separation of green jobs opportunities and job losses
2. Strong leadership support

Green jobs have the potential to create an entire new industry in Maryland. By encouraging development of a green jobs sector now, before the mad rush begins, Maryland gets ahead in building the infrastructure, knowledge, and expertise in the industry. Jobs may be lost in some industries, but those workers could be provided with a just transition to this new, lucrative, green economy. Opposition has pitted job losses against the bill without making the connection to green jobs opportunities. Specifically, MD’s United Steelworkers have come out to oppose the bill because of potential losses at Sparrows Point steel mill. Despite the opportunities that green jobs would create for these workers and despite the support of the national arm of United Steelworkers for a transition to green jobs, the local group has launched a concentrated attack on this bill.

The other important element of this fight is the presence of overwhelming leadership support. Governor O’Malley’s “strong, strong support” of this bill has been a cornerstone of this campaign. The environmental community has come together and formed one of the strongest coalitions in Maryland to date. The Alliance for Global Warming Solutions has brought together over 100 partners in support of this bill. For a list of all the organizations, go to the Alliance website here:http://www.alliancemd.org/plan.htm.

We have yet to see whether the house and senate leadership can come together today. Stay tuned for more updates!

Bristol Herald Courier reports intimidation calls

The Bristol Herald Courier is reporting that Larry Bush, a leader with Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, one of CCAN’s coalition partners on the fight against the controversial Wise County coal plant, has been receiving threatening phone calls from supporters of the plant.

CCAN would like to send its sympathy out to Larry and his family for being targeted with threats and intimidation by plant supporters. We hope that supporters of the plant will oppose the use of this kind of tactic and engage in democratic debate instead. Read the article after the jump. Continue reading

USW Statement on Maryland Initiative

Throughout our history, the United Steelworkers has fought to enhance the security and health of our members and their families through better wages and benefits, and more efficient, clean and safe workplaces. Today’s global economy demands a new strategy. Continue reading

The Big Lump Gets Thumped

King Coal’s year of rejection by banks, judges, and a whole lotta other folks

The Earth Policy Institute just released this revelatory chronology of really sad, horrible, and depressing events in the life of the coal industry since February 2007. What’s next — will Santa be switching to lumps of dirt?

Additional commentary can be found at http://www.earthpolicy.org/Updates/2008/Update70_timeline.htm

26 February 2007 – James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and a leading climate scientist, calls for a moratorium on the construction of coal-fired power plants that do not sequester carbon, saying that it makes no sense to build these plants when we will have to “bulldoze” them in a few years.

26 February 2007 – Under mounting pressure from environmental groups, TXU Corporation, a Dallas-based energy company, abandons plans for 8 of 11 proposed coal-fired power plants, catalyzing the shift from coal-based to renewable energy development in Texas.

2 April 2007 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the authority to regulate carbon dioxide and that EPA’s current rationale for not regulating this gas is inadequate.

3 May 2007 – Washington Governor Christine Gregoire signs a bill that prevents new power plants from exceeding 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per megawatt hour of electricity generated, creating a de facto moratorium on building new coal-fired power plants in the state.

30 May 2007 – Progress Energy, an energy company serving approximately 3.1 million customers in the Southeast, announces a two-year moratorium on the construction of new coal-fired power plants.

2 July 2007 – The Florida Public Service Commission denies Florida Power & Light the permits needed to move forward with the massive 1,960-megawatt coal-fired Glades Power Park, citing uncertainty surrounding future carbon costs.

13 July 2007 – Florida Governor Charlie Crist signs an Executive Order establishing “maximum allowable emission levels of greenhouse gases for electric utilities.” Under the emissions cap, building new coal-fired power plants in the state seems unlikely.

18 July 2007 – Citigroup downgrades the stocks of Peabody Energy Corp., Arch Coal Inc., and Foundation Coal Holdings Inc., prominent U.S. coal companies. The decision reflects the growing uncertainty surrounding coal’s future in the United States. Continue reading

Labor supports MD action on global warming

In a statement released yesterday, representatives from Maryland chapters of the SEIU, Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA), and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), as well as the MD Department of Labor and the Department of Economics at the University of Maryland, came out in support of the Maryland Global Warming Solutions Act. That’s quite an impressive coalition right there – and the timing couldn’t be better, with other unions getting louder and louder in voicing their opposition. Some excerpts from the statement:

America is making a transition to cleaner and more efficient energy use. The real question is will Maryland be part of the solution or simply buy its solutions from somewhere else. The Global Warming Solutions Act (SB 309/HB 712) puts the state on a competitive path through investment in our future. Investments in sectors that deal with energy efficiency and renewable energy are parts of a new and long lasting economy that cannot be outsourced.

In addition, there are incredible opportunities to foster the development of all new “green collar” jobs. These jobs will include installing high-performance appliances and machinery, retrofitting buildings that are leaking energy, building wastewater reclamation, and reusing materials, to name a few.

Maryland stands to create an entirely new arm to its economy and infrastructure. As the transition to clean energy occurs, we want to be part of creating it and profiting from the opportunity. The entire world is looking for solutions that Maryland can play a big role in providing.

When Governor O’Malley testified before the U.S. Senate on global warming, he said, “Economic progress at the cost of environmental sustainability is not progress at all. When given a choice between progress and regression, the people of Maryland always choose progress. Tomorrow can be better than today and each of us has a personal and moral responsibility to make it so.” The Global Warming Solutions Act encompasses that commitment to action, progress and economic development. Maryland deserves no less.