Category: Blog

Today, the Board of Visitors of the University of Mary Washington voted unanimously to divest 98% of its endowment from the ‘Carbon 200’ of fossil fuel companies. The vote comes after years of hard-fought campaigning, including a peaceful sit in at the President’s office that lasted for three weeks, resulting in three arrests. The University of Mary Washington has now become the first university in Virginia, and the first public university in the South to move forward on fossil fuel divestment. 

The student activists of DivestUMW worked tirelessly to secure the direct support of over 25% of the student body, the President’s Council on Sustainability, and dozens of faculty members. Last year, the Board of Visitors voted down divestment after a recommendation from the President’s Council on Sustainability. Today’s vote to divest falls on the one year anniversary of the arrest of two students and one community member as the university chose to forcibly end the students’ three-week sit in.

 
The divestment movement has sprung up on college campuses and municipalities around the globe, as a vehicle to move investment strategy in line with the moral case for combating climate change. The students from the University of Mary Washington have worked tirelessly to make this case — attending conferences, trainings, and workshops to enhance their knowledge and efficacy of their campaign. They networked with universities and activists around the globe to build their strongest possible case.
 
Following the vote to divest, UMW first-year student Drew Shannon said:

“The decision to divest from fossil fuels represents a rejection of the immoral activities of the industry. Companies such as Dominion Power have an unethical hold over our politics in Virginia, exploit our natural resources, and damage our environment. The University of Mary Washington’s rejection of these practices is a crucial first step in the fight towards a just transition away from this irresponsible and damaging industry.”

Sophomore Sarah Kinzer remarked:

“This decision is the result of the collective work of hundreds of students over several years. As the first Virginia university to divest, Mary Washington can now proudly call itself an ethical place to learn – one that values the lives of those affected by climate change and acts on those values.”

This decision marks a clear turning point for the Virginia climate movement, and the campus divestment movement across the south. This decision highlights the fact that public institutions are taking the threat of climate change seriously, and willing to prioritize moral obligations over short-term, harmful profits from a destructive industry.

This is a guest blog post from Darien Pusey, Maryland fracking fellow. You can reach him at DarienP@chesapeakeclimate.org.
WE WON!
Today, I had the pleasure of watching the Prince George’s County Council vote UNANIMOUSLY to ban fracking in my home county.
Councilwoman Mary Lehman introduced Council Bill 3-2016 on February 2nd. The bill amends the Prince George’s County zoning ordinance to prohibit fracking. The County Council’s Planning, Zoning and Economic Development Committee voted unanimously to pass the bill February 17th, and the full County Council followed suit today.
This was a historic moment in the fight against fracking in Maryland – a sign that the movement against fracking in Maryland is growing. Today’s unanimous vote makes Prince George’s the first county to adopt a ban on fracking since CCAN and our allies won a two-year legislative moratorium on the practice last year. (Remember that?! A hard won, true grassroots victory.) Before the moratorium was in place, one other county, Montgomery County, quietly adopted a change to their zoning laws that basically prohibits fracking in the county.
I could not have felt more thankful sitting in that room this morning – thank you to Councilwoman Mary Lehman for her vision and leadership in introducing this bill, thank you to the PZED committee for voting unanimously to pass it, thank you to Council members Turner, Glaros, Patterson, Franklin and Tavares for sponsoring it, and thank you to Chairman Davis and the whole council for holding this hearing and vote today.
And I could not have felt more proud – proud of CCAN and our allies at Food & Water Watch, the Sierra Club and the Greenbelt Climate Action Network for quickly spreading the word about this previously unknown threat to Prince George’s County’s air, water, and property values, not to mention the global climate, and proud of the more than one thousand concerned residents like you who stood up to say no to fracking in our county.
Like the hard won victory that was the moratorium, this ban in Prince George’s wouldn’t have happened without the citizen movement behind it. Dozens of you turned out for community meetings to learn more about what fracking would mean to our county. You called, you emailed, you met with your county council members. You met with business owners and church leaders. You testified at county council hearings. You petitioned on college campuses and in your communities. All of that work culminated in this morning’s victory. Congratulations!
As Councilwoman Lehman said in voting for the bill this morning, “Our action here today will lay the groundwork for a statewide ban in Maryland.”
Now that Maryland’s two most populous counties, who combined represent more than a third of the state’s population, have said no to fracking, it’s time for the General Assembly to follow suit.
I’m confident that in the coming year, the growing citizen movement that secured today’s victory will push our leaders in Annapolis to follow the lead of these two forward thinking counties and pass a permanent statewide ban on fracking before the moratorium expires in October 2017.
And I think I speak for everyone here at CCAN when I say that we can’t wait to work alongside you to win that final grassroots victory against fracking in Maryland!
 

I’m writing today above all to thank you. Why? Because, if you’ve taken action with CCAN or our allies in the Power DC coalition over the past year and a half, then you’ve been part of one of the fiercest and most effective grassroots fights against a utility merger in U.S. history.
It’s true: The D.C. Public Service Commission handed down a stunning 2-1 decision on March 23rd to greenlight Chicago-based utility Exelon’s takeover of Pepco. This decision defied the indisputable facts that Exelon’s business model relies on raising our rates and suppressing the growth of affordable clean energy. This decision defied popular will. In fact, thanks in part to your action, Exelon’s deal had lost the support of every other major party from the Mayor to the People’s Counsel.
But this is also true: Together, the Power DC coalition — including two dozen citizens’ organizations, hundreds of ordinary citizens like you, and dozens of ANC allies spanning every ward of the District — put the largest utility merger ever proposed on the ropes for two years.
Practically everyone thought this merger was a slam dunk from the outset. But our grassroots movement made it anything but. Squaring off against a volunteer-powered coalition on a shoestring budget, Exelon and Pepco were forced to spend millions to secure a final result, including conditions they would have never offered otherwise.
You can bet that legal challenges to the Public Service Commission’s decision in D.C. are coming, just as CCAN continues to partner with the Sierra Club and Earthjustice to appeal Maryland’s merger approval.
Whatever the final outcome in the courts, we will not stand down in the face of Exelon. Our grassroots coalition has many more fights to win together.
We are working with our allies to set an ambitious climate agenda in the days and weeks ahead — an agenda that will likely include a major legislative expansion of the District’s clean electricity mandate, followed by a progressive carbon fee on all fossil fuels.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to move past this merger by supporting some of the nation’s most aggressive, home-grown clean energy and climate policies.
We are bigger than Exelon. And I can’t wait to see what we will achieve together next.

District residents can’t be blamed for feeling a bit of déjà vu. As of this morning, Exelon and Pepco have affirmed that they continue to hold negotiations behind closed doors with D.C. officials to revive their now thrice-dead merger deal.
As this divisive, expensive, and scandal-marred chapter for the District drags on, District residents deserve clear answers about whose interests are truly being served. In fact, documents recently released to the Chesapeake Climate Action Network under the Freedom of Information Act — after lots of foot-dragging by D.C. officials — leave us asking these key questions:

• Why did the Mayor apparently mislead the public about who negotiated her settlement deal last fall?
• Why was key settlement information sent by Exelon to the Mayor’s office the day after Pepco inked its $25 million “Soccergate” deal?
• What is happening behind closed doors right now, and will shady politics win the day again?

Documents finally released by the Office of the City Administrator — albeit with lots of suspect redactions — indicate that Mayor Muriel Bowser misled the public about who negotiated her settlement deal last fall and give more indication of a quid pro quo.
FOIA documents suggest that Exelon and Pepco’s main points of contact were actually Deputy Director of the Mayor’s Office of Legal Counsel, Ronald Ross, and his boss, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Legal Counsel, Mark Tuohey — not City Administrator Rashad Young or Tommy Wells, head of the Department of Energy and Environment, as the mayor’s office has claimed. No emails surrendered by the City Administrator’s office show Young initiating or otherwise leading settlement communications.
In fact, Ross and Tuohey are the DC officials who receive “financial information” for settlement purposes at 10:55 p.m. on Saturday, September 19th — the day after Mayor Bowser and Pepco announced their highly unusual $25 million naming rights deal. That deal paved the way for Mayor Bowser’s prized soccer stadium project. Did it also pave the way for Mayor Bowser to settle with Exelon and ink the deal rejected last Friday as not in the public interest? The released emails suggest a correlation.
Why would the Mayor’s office not reveal the real negotiators? Notably, Ross is tied to Pepco through his former boss, Kevin Fitzgerald, who was also involved in settlement negotiations. Both worked together at the law firm Troutman Sanders. Furthermore, Ross and Tuohey served together on the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, the infamous body that got D.C. taxpayers to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to build a baseball stadium. Did they play a role in the Mayor’s “soccergate” deal, too?
In response to this new information, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network filed a second FOIA request last week. We’re asking for all correspondence between Ross, Tuohey, Exelon and Pepco related to both the merger and naming rights deals.
Of course, Mayor Bowser has a clear path out of this divisive, expensive, and scandal-ridden mess. As D.C. community leaders and Councilmembers told a cheering crowd of activists on Wednesday, Mayor Bowser can simply end talks with Exelon once and for all and move on to real solutions for affordable, reliable, clean energy.
Three times Exelon has failed to take over Pepco. In each deal, D.C. residents would have gotten the short end of the stick. As Public Service Commission Chairman Betty Ann Kane said in her February 26 dissent, any deal will ultimately be a “whack-a-mole” approach. The fundamental conflict will remain between Exelon’s business model and the affordable, clean energy that D.C. needs.
As Mayor Bowser, the Office of People’s Counsel, Attorney General Karl Racine, and DC Water rightly say “no” to the latest bad deal, they should also say “no” to any new deals.

It’s bad enough that Dominion wants to crisscross Virginia with a massive new gas pipeline and undermine federal clean power rules. But flagrantly contaminate our rivers with millions of gallons of toxic coal ash wastewater?
It’s true. News broke last week that, in May 2015, Dominion Power dumped 33.7 million gallons of untreated wastewater from its Possum Point coal plant into Quantico Creek, a tributary of the Potomac River.¹
This happened eight months before Dominion received two highly controversial state permits that actually do allow the company to dump that much — plus half a billion more gallons — of coal ash wastewater into the Potomac and James Rivers.
This much is clear: Neither Dominion nor regulators at the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) are doing their job to protect our waters. Coal ash is a toxic byproduct of burning coal that contains arsenic, mercury, lead and other heavy metals — the last things we need in our rivers.
Last month, despite an outpouring of public opposition, DEQ and the State Water Control Board signed off on permits allowing Dominion to dump 215 million gallons of coal ash wastewater into Quantico Creek and 350 million gallons into the James River. Those permits have raised so many alarm bells that our neighboring state of Maryland, led by Republican Governor Larry Hogan, is planning a legal challenge.²
Meanwhile, for months, Dominion and the director of DEQ, David Paylor, had denied that any waste had already been drained into Quantico Creek. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the Potomac Riverkeeper Network, the truth is finally coming to light. Dominion and DEQ are now admitting that water was dumped last spring. Now they’re just saying it was all legal.³
Our friends at Potomac Riverkeeper aren’t buying it. They’ve asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to launch a criminal investigation. Concerned Virginians aren’t buying it either — over 500 of us marched this weekend to “#DumpDominion,” from Dominion’s Richmond headquarters to the General Assembly building.
It’s time for Governor McAuliffe to step in. Especially on the heels of the disaster we’ve seen unfolding in Flint, Michigan, our Governor needs to do everything within his power to protect our access to clean, safe drinking water. As a testament to the threat this coal ash poses, the Virginia Tech professor credited with uncovering the disaster in Flint has agreed to help monitor potential coal ash leakage near another one of Dominion’s coal-burning power plants, in Dutch Gap.⁴
Pending an EPA investigation, potential legal challenges, and so many unanswered questions, Dominion has no business dumping more coal ash waste into the rivers Virginians rely on for our drinking water, recreation, and livelihoods.
Governor McAuliffe is responsible for protecting Virginians. Let’s make sure we remind him.
Sources:
1. InsideNova: “EXCLUSIVE: Dominion released millions of gallons of coal-ash water.” Feb. 8, 2016.
2. Washington Post: “Maryland to fight utility’s plan to release treated waste into Va. creek.” Feb. 15, 2016.
3. Think Progress: “Utility dumps over 30 million gallons of coal waste water into Va. creek.” Feb. 12, 2016.
4. Chesterfield Observer: “Local group taps renowned professor in coal ash fight.” Feb. 17, 2016.
If you want more information, here’s what we know happened at Quantico Creek so far:
On June 18th, 2015, the Potomac Riverkeepers Network conducted a flyover of Dominion’s Possum Point Power Plant coal ash ponds to find one completely drained, with a “pumping mechanism, pipes, and lighting [presumably to do their dumping at night],” adjacent to the empty pond. The group immediately contacted DEQ to alert them to the issue. A day later, DEQ Director David Paylor responded: “No water from Pond E was discharged into state waters,” said Director Paylor.
In October 2015, Dominion submitted additional information to DEQ regarding the ponds. Contained within this information was a document from GAI Consulting, a Dominion subcontractor, which indicated that “water stored in Pond E [the drained storage pond] was discharged into Quantico Creek in May of 2015.”
At a State Water Control Board meeting in January of 2016 — the same meeting at which Dominion received controversial permits to drain ponds at Possum Point and another facility — the Potomac Riverkeepers Network again asked DEQ to go on record about the issue, and to acknowledge whether the agency knew about the draining of the pond. The Riverkeepers didn’t get a response, and the chairman of the Water Board did not demand an answer.
But on February 8th, InsideNOVA published an exclusive story confirming the rumors, reporting that a representative for the utility had confirmed that the dump happened last May. DEQ and Dominion are now claiming that the discharge, which was supposed to have never happened, was in fact legal.

This morning, the Prince George’s County Council’s Planning, Zoning and Economic Development (PZED) Committee voted UNANIMOUSLY to pass bill 3-2016, a defacto ban on fracking in the county.
We are one step closer to keeping fracking out of Prince George’s! The full council will take the bill up in early March.

The bill, introduced by Councilwoman Mary Lehman on February 2^nd, and co-sponsored by Councilwoman Dannielle Glaros, Councilman Mel Franklin, Councilwoman Deni Tavares, and Councilman Todd Turner, would amend the county’s zoning ordinance to prohibit fracking. Montgomery County moved to do this last year.
As she introduced the bill at today’s hearing, Councilwoman Lehman referenced a heart wrenching conversation she’d had with Pennsylvania resident and fracking victim Craig Stevens just before walking in. Craig’s takeaway from years of living with the health effects of fracking in his own backyard? “If Pennsylvania, after 12 years, still can’t safely regulate fracking, there’s no way Maryland can. It can’t be done.”
CCAN and our allies at Food & Water Watch, the Sierra Club and GCAN first began talks with Councilwoman Lehman shortly after helping Maryland pass the first legislative moratorium on fracking in the country last spring. It became clear to us that when this moratorium expires, in October 2017, Prince George’s would be at risk. The southern 30% of Prince George’s sits on top of the Taylorsville gas basin, a basin that runs from Virginia, through Prince George’s, and ends in Anne Arundel County. More than 85,000 acres on the Virginia side of the Taylorsville have already been leased to a Texas-based company.
This fall, we worked with Councilwoman Lehman’s office to hold an educational briefing on this previously unknown threat to the county, and our coalition began working with our volunteers across the county to educate residents about this critical issue – including petitioning on campuses, speaking at community events, meeting with business owners and church leaders, and hosting screenings of the powerful fracking documentary Groundswell Rising.
Much of that work culminated in this morning’s committee hearing.

As Darien Pusey, CCAN’s Fracking Fellow and a Prince George’s County resident, testified to the climate impacts of fracking and the overwhelming support from the county for keeping this industry out, he slid a stack of over 800 petitions signed by county residents across the table to Chairwoman Andrea Harrison.
As Food & Water Watch’s Emily Wurth, also a Prince George’s County resident, testified to what other states have experienced at the hands of fracking, she delivered a letter of support signed by over 25 county organizations and businesses. Sierra Club’s Martha Ainsworth spoke to the potential impact of fracking on well water in the county. Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment’s Katie Huffling spoke to the dangerous health effects of fracking, in particular, in her role as a certified nurse-midwife, on pregnant women and their unborn children. And Maryland realtor Lili Sheeline spoke to the potential impacts of fracking on property values across the county, citing a recent Duke University study showing a sharp decline in home values, and noting that many studies indicate that impacts on home values may be permanent. This expert testimony was delivered to a packed room that stayed for two hours to express their support.
Councilman Franklin, whose district covers nearly the entirety of the area above the basin, spoke in favor of the bill, noting that he hasn’t heard from a single constituent in his district who wanted fracking.
The industry – in the form of the Maryland Petroleum Council – did send a lengthy power point to the council in advance of the hearing, but failed to show up to make their case.
And after the vote, Councilwoman Lehman joined Councilwoman Glaros, whose district includes the University of Maryland at College Park, for a group photo with the half a dozen UMD students who drove out to testify and show their support this morning.
We expect a vote before the full council in early March.
CCAN would like to thank Councilwoman Lehman for her vision and leadership, and thank every member of the PZED committee – Chairwoman Harrison, Vice Chair Glaros, Councilwoman Tavares, Councilman Franklin and Councilwoman Karen Toles – for supporting this important bill this morning and putting us one step closer to keeping fracking out of Prince George’s County.
Congratulations to everyone who has helped get this campaign this far – onward to early March and beyond!
 

The seas are rising, and we are rising to the challenge.
That is the simple message that lies at the heart of what we do here at CCAN. That was the message of over 200 Marylanders this summer who attended and testified before the Maryland Commission on Climate Change calling for deep and science-based cuts in climate-warming emissions. That was the message of over 85 Maryland congregations that rose up climate justice from the pulpit last fall.
And now, finally, Maryland leaders have heard our call and have put forward a bill to meet the scale of the climate crisis. The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act of 2016 (SB 323/HB 610), sponsored by Delegate Kumar Barve and Senator Paul Pinsky, would renew Maryland’s statewide commitment of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020, and extend that goal to achieve a 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
The legislation follows up on the historic bi-partisan vote last fall by the Maryland Commission on Climate Change – made up of union leaders, businesses, environmental groups, and six Republican cabinet secretaries from the Hogan administration. That Commission voted unanimously to endorse the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act to slash Maryland’s greenhouse gas emissions 40% by the year 2030.
Under a Republican Governor, Maryland is showing that climate change is not a political issue. It’s a scientific fact. And by choosing to acknowledge reality, and seize the very real economic growth opportunities that accompany climate action, Maryland can lead the way towards ending the partisan gridlock that too often stalls progress in Washington and other state capitals.
In order to achieve this significant new reduction goal, Maryland will have to revise and expand its 2013 Climate Action Plan, which contains strong goals and over 150 programs aimed at strengthening Maryland’s clean energy economy, improving our health, reducing waste, and protecting our climate. Key elements and benefits of that Plan include:

• Reducing Maryland’s greenhouse gas emissions by 55 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent annually.
• Raising the state’s renewable energy goals, requiring that 25 percent of Maryland’s electricity comes from renewable sources by 2020.
• Reducing waste by “reusing, recycling, composting and saving our way to Zero Waste, including an 85 percent reduction in generation of solid waste by 2030.”
• Boosting Maryland’s economy by creating $1.6 billion in economic benefits and 37,000 new jobs through smart, sustainable investments.
• Improving Marylanders’ health by reducing emissions of toxic air pollution and other harmful chemicals.

By passing the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act of 2016, Maryland will join other climate leaders like California and New York, who have also set goals to reduce emissions by 40 percent by 2030. This Act will put Maryland on a path to achieving the 80-90% greenhouse gas reductions by the middle of this century, which scientists say will be necessary to prevent the very worst impacts of climate change.
We’ll keep you posted on the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act’s progress and other climate-related bills as they make their way through the legislative process in Annapolis.