Activists Line Annapolis Sidewalks in Chalk, Show 20 Feet of Sea Level Rise

floodannapolisCoalition members got to Annapolis early Monday morning to draw a line along the streets of Annapolis showing how twenty feet of sea level rise would affect the city. There was a good showing of press, with 3 TV cameras and a couple of photographers. People walking across the line on the sidewalk would read the paper explaining what the line represented. At one point a family walking by said “It is great what you are doing, STOP GLOBAL WARMING!”

Click here to watch a video from Monday’s demonstration>>

This is part of our ramped-up efforts to get the Global Warming Solutions Bill passed in the Senate and the House. Monday afternoon the Senate passed the bill with an amendment that would greatly weaken the power of the Maryland Department of the Environment to regulate global warming emissions.

Cindy Schwartz of MD LCV told the press, “Maryland elected officials have an enormous opportunity

Dominion Dollars for Football, Food and Killing

Dominion Power gave Governor Kaine $552 to attend the NCAA Final Four. Senator Saslaw got $373 to see the Redskins. Delagate Kilgore got $350 for ‘personal calculators.’ Senator Stolle took a $1,700 trip to Georgia on Dominion’s dime. Senator Norment took a $1,700 hunting trip. Senator Wagner took a $1,200 trip. Former Senator Martin Williams took over $6,000 in Dominion donations to feed his need to hunt and kill things — so did Senator Wampler!

I can’t make this up. You can find it yourself at www.vpap.org. It is unreal how many of our elected officials not only receive official financing from Dominion, but Dominion also makes a point of giving out tens of thousands of dollars worth of dinners, Redskins tickets, hunting trips, and calculators. I know that corporate lobbying is normally done using carrots like these, but the major problem I have is that Dominion is, in effect, a state owned company in Virginia that should not be wasting ratepayer money on these kinds of things. As soon as we re-regulated Dominion in 2006, the state took control over certain aspects of their business — like determining profits.

Right now, we are squabbling over whether Dominion will get 13.75% or 12.12% profit on their proposed coal plant in Wise County — a plant that much of Virginia doesn’t want. If they get the ‘low-end’ of the profit, they will only make $218 million in profits off the new facility… money I am sure that they will invest wisely…

Coal Costs Rise. Will Your Power Bill Skyrocket Next?

by: TheGreenMiles

Cross-posted from Raising Kaine on Thu Mar 20, 2008 at 11:00:16 AM EDT

From the front page of this morning’s Washington Post, Coal Can’t Fill World’s Burning Appetite:

Big swings in the prices of coal and other commodities are common. But while the price of coal has slipped slightly in recent weeks, many analysts and companies are wondering whether high prices are here to stay. […] If high prices last, that would raise the cost of U.S. electricity, half of which is generated by coal-fired powered plants.

Expensive or not, coal is almost always dirtier to burn than are other fossil fuels. Although its use accounts for a quarter of world energy consumption, it generates 39 percent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. Climate change concerns could lead to legislation in many countries imposing higher costs on those who burn coal, forcing utilities and factories to become more efficient and curtail its use. Climatologists warn that without technology to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions, burning more coal would be disastrous.

The more you learn about coal, the more you realize Virginia is some sort of Coal Bizarro World. Everywhere else it’s dirty, but here it’s clean! Everywhere else it’s scarce and getting more expensive, but here it’s cheap and abundant! Everywhere else they’re anticipating carbon cap legislation with plans for clean energy, but here we act like greenhouse gas pollution will be free forever.

And everywhere else, our governor is seen as doing the bidding of his energy donors, but here we know there’s still time for Gov. Tim Kaine to prove them wrong. If you haven’t done so yet, take a minute right now to tell Gov. Kaine to do the right thing.

Bad amendment pushes GWSA vote back

A bad amendment was introduced and passed by Sen. Exum today that would make the Maryland Department of Environment get approval from the legislature when we start trying to implement measures that reduce our global warming pollution under GWSA. This is one of three amendments that we knew that was coming, and which we have to fight to make GWSA as strong as it needs to be.

This is the usual back and forth that we see on the floor, so we’re not worried. Continue reading

A Widening Gulf?

Army Corps climate efforts in New Orleans may not be enough

By Mike Tidwell
Published in Grist 20 Mar 2008


No one wants to see this again — but can post-Katrina protection efforts keep the Big Easy safe?
Photo: NOAA

Here’s the good news: The Army Corps of Engineers is “racing” to complete a comprehensive levee system for metropolitan New Orleans by 2011 that actually takes into account global warming, at least in terms of sea-level rise.

Here’s the bad news: the levee system under development is wildly insufficient to the growing climate problem, according to many informed critics.

That’s because the vast and flat Louisiana coastal area — sometimes called the “Bangladesh of America” because it could disappear due to sea-level rise alone — cannot be saved just by building levees. It’s the one area of America which, to survive the rising water and bigger hurricanes of a warming world, must develop human-made barrier islands and coastal marshes as an additional emergency defense. These landforms, which can be crafted using the voluminous sediments of the Mississippi River itself, would create a vital buffer that complements the levees, according to a wide range of engineers.

“It all comes down to this: You simply can’t build the levees high enough under any scenario in Louisiana,” said Clifford Smith, a member of the prestigious Mississippi River Commission, a seven-member panel created by Congress to advise the corps on works projects. “That the corps still doesn’t act on this fact, doesn’t commit to building wetlands and barrier islands immediately, leaves me so depressed you can’t imagine it. I’m in depression over this.” Continue reading

I heart SB 309!

The Global Warming Solutions Act (SB 309) was voted out of committee and on to the senate floor, but got put off until tomorrow for votes on amendments and the bill. We’re going to be headed back again tomorrow, and are biting our nails until they pass it!

Over 40 volunteers showed up to help us greet senators and give them crunch bars that said “Help End the Job Crunch: Clean energy Industries Create Jobs.” I went with 5 other volunteers to haunt the tunnels under the capital, and was able to catch some senators and delegates on their way to the capital. It was great to see that several of the senators we met had their crunch bars displayed on their desks throughout the meeting.

It’s a real testament to the success of our efforts to educate the citizens of this area that nothing was mentioned about the reality or proof of global warming. A few years ago, when the Healthy Air Act was under debate, opponents tried to argue that global warming might not be man-made, that it’s a natural cycle

Marylanders! Senate to vote on GWSA tomorrow. WE NEED YOUR BODIES!

The Senate will vote on the Global Warming Solutions Act TOMORROW and need your help to get our message out that the Global Warming Solutions Act will create jobs in Maryland.

FREE CRUNCH BARS!

We’re going to fight the bad guys by being sweet, so we’re going to be passing out crunch bars to get the attention of legislators. If you think you can make it to Annapolis, meet us a Lawyer’s Mall PROMPTLY at 9 am. We’ll be wearing blue t-shirts–so should you!

Stay tuned to this blog tomorrow for LIVE UPDATES on the bill. We’ll let you know what happens as soon as it happens.

Opponents still believe that the bill will be bad for Marylanders. In a recent email, they say that it “is impossible

Reducing Carbon Emissions Could Help, Not Harm, US Economy

On March 10, Yale’s School of Forestry & Environmental Studies posted a website looking at the economic impacts of reducing US carbon emissions. While opponents to mandatory climate legislation claim that the costs of adopting the leading proposals would be ruinous to the US economy, Yale says the world’s leading economists who have studied the issue disagree. The website synthesizes the results of thousands of policy simulations from 25 economic models being used to predict the economic impacts of reducing US carbon emissions. The website identifies the seven key assumptions accounting for most of the differences in the models’ predictions. It shows that even under the most pessimistic assumptions, US Gross Domestic Product would still grow by 2.4 percent per year even if emissions are reduced by 40 percent below projected business-as-usual trends by 2030. Under more favorable assumptions, the economy would even grow more rapidly if emissions are reduced than if they are allowed to continue to increase as in the past.

Click on the following links for more information:
http://environment.yale.edu/news/5624-reducing-carbon-emissions-could-help-not/
http://www.climate.yale.edu/seeforyourself/index.php