Commentary | Mike Tidwell
It’s high noon in Annapolis. Lawmakers must pick between two starkly different economic visions.
Adams Morgan Climate Graffiti
The buzz around the Capitol Climate Action is hot! The action has over 60 endorsing organizations and over 1500 people are registered and willing to risk arrest. It’s taken on a life of its own
We've made it big! Hollywood star lends support to the Capitol Climate Action
The support for the Capitol Climate Action on March 2 is growing. With over 1500 people signed up, this will be the largest act of civil disobedience on global warming ever to tell Congress to solve the climate crisis now. And now, Academy Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon has lent her voice in our support.
She joins our list of endorsers, including country singer Kathy Mattea, who will be singing at our March 1st event with Wendell Berry.
Check out this video with Sarandon, encouraging people to join us on March 2. She evokes the sacrifices of Ghandi and Martin Luther King in calling on Americans to join us as we demand a more equitable and peaceful future free from climate chaos.
Learn more at www.capitolclimateaction.org!
Energy Policy and You
In MD, we have passed some great legislation on energy policy – things like the Healthy Air Act, which mandated that we join RGGI, and EmPOWER MD, which called for a reduction of energy use across the state
Country singer Kathy Mattea lends her voice to CCAN event!
Exciting news! Country singer Kathy Mattea joins the list of guests who will be attending the March 1 reception at GW’s Lisner Auditorium. Others speaking include Terry Tempest Williams, Janisse Ray, Bill McKibben, Gus Speth and the great environmental poet, Wendell Berry.
Mattea is not a stranger to our issues. Last year, she released an album entitled Coal after she was moved by the Sago Mine disaster. Growing up in West Virginia, the granddaughter of coal miners, Mattea has a deep connection to the human cost of coal and the way of life in coal-country. She is a welcome addition to our list of authors and artists who will be speaking that night and she will also join us on March 2 as we demand that congress solve the climate crisis now.
From All Music Guide:
Coal is a heartfelt examination of the hard, often dangerous life of coal miners, and includes classic mining songs by the likes of Merle Travis, Hazel Dickens, and Jean Ritchie all arranged in a delicate, muted acoustic style by Mattea and her producer this time out, Marty Stuart. Mattea grew up in West Virginia, and while her father escaped the mines, both her grandfathers were miners, so when the 2006 Sago Mine disaster hit, which left 12 good men dead, she made up her mind to record this sparse, striking album. It won’t land her on the new country stations, but it’s a beautiful testament to a difficult way of life, and working on an independent label, she’s been given the freedom to make an album that has more to do with the heart than the ring of distant cash registers.
Kathy Mattea – “Coal Tattoo”
Earlier this week, we had to move the location to GW’s Lisner because we had already maxed capacity at Foundry Methodist Church, so take action quickly. Buy your tickets now!
Kate Rooth talks about "clean coal" and civil disobedience
Host Mike Tidwell talks to Kate Rooth about the civil disobedience planned at the Capitol Coal plant on March 2.
Students Lobby Annapolis
So this post is a little overdue, I organized a couple of lobby meetings with Delegate Michael Vaughn, and after many attempts to reach him, State Senator Nathaniel Exum. The meeting with Delegate Vaughn went well, we talked with him about the Greenhouse Gas Reductions Act which he hadn’t seen yet, gave him a copy, and told him what was different about the bill this year, and how we thought he could help sheppard it through the Economic Matters Committee. In the end, he ended up becoming a co-sponsor.
The meeting with State Senator Exum was not successful, although we did talk with him for about 45 minutes about the bill, and the issues surrounding it. Exum’s main issue was that Maryland Dept. of Env. had taken longer than it should have to get him a permit for his business, and he felt that they were too incompetent to administer a greenhouse gas reductions plan. The one thing we did learn that was useful was that he planned to introduce an amendment similar to the one he introduced last year, where MDE has to report its plan and proposed programs back to the legislature every year. He said he might “compromise” on 2 years. Obviously this wasn’t acceptable to us, and we do not see eye to eye with Exum. Despite our differences, he was very respectful, and we’re thankful he was kind enough to sit down with us for so long considering we weren’t his constituents and his relationship with the environmental community hasn’t been all flowers and sunshine.
Pictures below
Another Happy Update on MD Carbon Legislation
It’s time for another MD state update from your friendly Annapolis correspondant. Woo! And I know what you’re thinking: another upbeat and perky blog from Holly. Mostly, you’re right. (as a sidenote, that’s the only thing that makes me jealous of the VA team – they get way more opportunities to post snarky blog posts)
Yesterday, there were two fun and exciting developments on the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act.
First, Mike and I went to lunch at the Governor’s Mansion. It was very fancy inside.
More importantly for this part of the day was the press conference of support for the bill, featuring Gov O’Malley himself, along with our amazing bill sponsors, Senator Paul Pinsky and Delegate Kumar Barve and Jim Strong of United Steel Workers. Here’s our press release.
I was fully expecting some singing of folks songs in a circle, but I guess that that would be a little bit too much for me to ask of all the serious folks who were there.
Environmentalism: Why's the green so white?
This is cross posted from: Continue reading
Virginia is for…. Missed Opportunities?
$268,656,969,377
Looks like a lot of money, right? Again, that’s two hundred and sixty-eight billion, six hundred and fifty-six million, nine hundred and sixty-nine thousand, three hundred and seventy-seven dollars. No one in their right mind would walk away from the table and leave that much behind, right?
Actually, it represents the money that the U.S. economy has lost by not adopting smart energy policies suggested by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) in 2001 as of 1pm last Thursday.
Given the state of Virginia’s economy — with our potential $4 billion deficit — you’d think our leaders would jump at the chance to save Virginia taxpayers money through smart energy policies. Think again.
Last night, the Virginia General Assembly missed an extraordinary opportunity by voting to kill the only mandatory efficiency bill in the GA this year – Senate Bill 1447.
We all know that investments in energy efficiency are the quickest, cleanest and most cost effective way to meet our rising energy demands here in Virginia. An independent study done by the ACEEE found that with a little help from our leaders in Richmond, the Commonwealth had the potential to stabilize its rising energy demands, avoid the need for costly new generation and provide thousands of jobs. Investments in efficiency cost 3 cents per kilowatt hour versus the 12 cents per kilowatt hour required to build a coal-fired power plant. I may not be good at math but upon first inspection 3 is less than 12. This bill could have saved Virginians approximately $15 billion on electricity bills by 2025.
SB 1447 was the only bill that would definitively put Virginia on the path towards a clean energy economy. It was the strongest piece of efficiency legislation before the committee, and it would have made the Commonwealth an efficiency leader both among our neighboring states and across the country.
Senator McEachin’s strong bill died in committee last night — by one vote. ONE VOTE?!?!?! Guess who voted to skip this amazing opportunity?
Senator Saslaw.
State Senator Dick Saslaw (D-35), the Senate Majority leader and Chair of the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee, cast the deciding vote against the bill. In fact, he was the only Democratic on the committee to vote to kill the bill.
This man represents parts of Fairfax County, a district that overwhelmingly voted for change when they elected President Barack Obama by almost 70 percent in some areas. So why, one might ask, is this man voting against policies that would usher in real change for Virginia?
I can think of 85,000 reasons.
Dominion Virginia Power donated $85,000 to Senator Saslaw’s campaign between 2004 and 2009. Dominion, the largest utility in Virginia and one of the largest in the U.S., is profiting hand over fist from Virginia’s long-term addiction to coal. This is an addiction that Senator Saslaw helped solidify into state law, and an addiction that can only be defined as self destructive. So destructive, in fact, that instead of jump-starting our economy as investments in efficiency would, investing in coal actually shrinks the economy. By the state’s own estimates, building Dominion’s proposed coal-fired power plant in Wise County will actually contract Virginia’s economy by 1500 jobs.
As consumers are getting hit with ballooning electricity bills and the economic crisis continues to slam Virginia hard, Senator McEachin’s bill would have made electricity bills go down while also ensuring that Virginia could meet its growing energy demands without constructing any new costly power plants.
Isn’t it time our elected leaders start representing their constituents and stop representing the interests of Dominion Virginia Power? What do you think Virginia?
Want to tell Sen. Saslaw how you feel? Here’s his number: 804-698-7535.
