Let’s be honest. It’s easy to get discouraged if you’re fighting global warming in America. I’ve been a full-time climate activist since 2001 and I can’t remember ever fighting so many defensive campaigns all at once. We’re fighting Keystone XL and coal exports. We’re fighting fracking everywhere and the Cove Point export plant in Maryland and the Atlantic Coast pipeline in Virginia. And now, as if that weren’t enough, we’re fighting a proposed anti-environmental merger between electric utilities Pepco and Exelon in Maryland and DC.
So it’s easy to get discouraged. Unless, of course, you realize that all of this defensive action might mean we’re actually gaining ground! I’m serious. I believe the reason climate activists have never been busier is because the entire 20th century energy system is spinning out of control before our eyes. The old energy paradigm is shaking and shuddering on its way to the grave.
Think about it. All the easy oil and gas has run out, so the industry is moving toward the extreme extraction and transport of fracked oil and gas. That’s sparked a backlash. Meanwhile, our society has turned increasingly against coal, prompting companies to try to export it overseas to stay in business. More backlash. And wind and solar prices have simultaneously fallen so dramatically that – in concert with unconventional gas – they are putting nuclear energy on the ropes. Which is why Exelon – owner of the biggest nuclear fleet in America – wants to merge with Pepco in the DC area and increase the number of ratepayers who can prop up its aging nuclear plants. More backlash.
But again all of this is proof that the old energy system is on the way out – much quicker than we thought – while a new energy system is rushing in.
You can see all of this in the extraordinary array of campaigns CCAN is engaged in right now. We’re working with Virginia farmers and landowners and students to fight back against Dominion’s ridiculous proposal to build a 550-mile fracked-gas pipeline in Virginia (a.k.a the Atlantic Coast pipeline). And we’re fighting for an outright moratorium on fracking in Maryland while we also work to stop plans to ship North Dakota crude oil out of Baltimore.
But, because the energy paradigm is changing rapidly, we’re also making dramatic new progress on OFFENSE in both Virginia and Maryland. Our Virginia Coastal Protection Act – with bipartisan support – fell just one vote short of getting out of a Senate committee. The bill would implement a statewide cap on carbon pollution from power plants and use hundreds of millions of dollars in proceeds to protect coastal Virginians from the increasing flooding from sea level rise. We’ll be back next year to pass this bill.
In Maryland, we’re making great progress with a bill that would double the state’s commitment to wind and solar power. Specifically, the bill would require that a whopping 40% of the state’s electricity come from renewable sources. We’re building an incredible coalition to pass this legislation through both houses, and then we’ll demand that the governor sign it.
So here we are in February 2015, fighting defensive battles left and right but making more progress on big carbon-reduction bills in our state capitols than we thought possible just a year ago.
The paradigm is shaking. The times are changing. We’re building up the good as we push out the bad. Stay involved and help us go even further.
Onward!
Mike Tidwell
