Let's Go the Distance for Clean Energy!

The Coalition for Wise Energy launched the campaign to stop the boondoggle Wise County power plant hoping to present a mile-long petition to Dominion Power at its shareholders meeting in May. That was back in November. Now it’s April and we’re close to reaching out goal! Sign the petition below and then help the opposition to this coal plant grow by clicking on ‘adopt a yard!’

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!

How did your Rep. vote on GWSA?

The Maryland Global Warming Solutions Act was voted down by the House Economic Matters Committee Tuesday night by a margin of 18-2. The bill, which would have required a 25 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020, had earlier passed the Senate.

It is important to note that the senate version had a “poison pill” amendment that would have rolled back the regulatory authority of the Maryland Department of the Environment and required multiple future votes by the General Assembly before the state agency could take any steps to reduce pollution.

Among those voting last night to kill the weakened Senate version of the bill were leading Democrats, including Del. Dereck Davis, chairman of the economic matters committee, and Del. Brian McHale of Baltimore, a strong union supporter.

Below is a list of delegates and how they voted. Since the bill had been weakened in the Senate, so much so that the Maryland League of Conservation Voters opposed the final version, it is not possible with just this information to determine whether the legislators voted against the bill because the didn’t want it at all or because they didn’t want the weakened version.

We will be compiling more information on why legislators voted they way they did but while we do that, why not ask them yourself? Below is a list of how your legislator voted, with email addresses: Continue reading

Lawmakers, Steelworkers Kill Global Warming Bill

Other environmental bills survive, with multiple victories for the climate

Maryland lawmakers killed a bill last night that would have required major cuts in carbon dioxide emissions. The bill was a victim of the crush of work and lack of time that usually plagues the last day of the session.

For environmental lobbyists, the defeat stung. The global warming bill was one of the top priorities of a coalition of environmental and conservation groups.

“The legislature really dropped the ball,” said Claire Douglass of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

Cindy Schwartz, director of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, attributed the defeat of the bill in part to fear-mongering. She said the threat of losing jobs due to the bill – even though that’s only conjecture – is a tried-and-true way to kill a bill.

“It’s very powerful to say to someone if this bill passes, they’ll lose their jobs. It’s not a new tactic,” she said in an interview with the Annapolis Capital.

Despite the defeat, there were multiple victories for the climate:

Strategic Energy Investment Program: Create funds to decrease energy demand and increase energy supply.
Energy Efficiency: Set goal of a 15% reduction in per capita electricity consumption by 2015.
Renewable Energy Portfolio: Boost to 20% portion of state energy portfolio derived from wind, solar and other renewable sources.
Energy-efficient buildings: Require new or renovated state buildings and schools to meet standards of efficiency.
Solar Energy Grant Program: Increase amounts of grants available.

For more depth on this session’s climate victories, visit the Maryland League of Conservation Voter’s 2008 Environmental Legislative wrap-up.

CCAN, the Alliance for Global Warming Solutions, and everyone else working on this bill are not giving up. The fight for comprehensive global warming legislation in Maryland goes on.

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

Yogis heart CCAN!

When you start doing yoga, it just makes you feel good. It feels like you’re body has been worked out, you’re tired, and you feel like you’ve done something good for yourself. It like when you change your first light bulb 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.