Category: Blog

Thanks to the tireless work of our strong, growing, statewide grassroots movement, we are closer than ever to passing legislation to put a moratorium on fracking in Maryland: On Monday night, senators voted overwhelmingly to pass an amended moratorium bill that would guarantee this dangerous form of gas drilling stays out of Maryland through at least October 1, 2017.
This marked the first time that a fracking moratorium bill has gotten a vote — let alone passed — on the Senate floor in the history of our five-year campaign. This is undeniably because of the constant grassroots pressure you’ve put on our state senators. As WBAL reported on Friday, “opponents of fracking seem to have out-demonstrated, out-lobbied and outdone those who support the controversial process.”
Where are we headed next? The Senate-passed bill, SB 409, was amended (see the full update below), and differs from the moratorium bill passed two weeks ago by the House. The bill now heads back to the House for final approval before it can move on to Governor Hogan’s desk.
Here’s the next step you can take: Click here to email Governor Hogan. Tell him that Marylanders deserve protections against fracking — and we need a moratorium now!
Even if Gov. Hogan signs a fracking moratorium into law, we know our fight is far from over. While the Senate moratorium bill guarantees that no fracking permits can be issued in Maryland for two and a half years, it was changed in ways we don’t like. A provision establishing a new panel to review health and economic studies was cut. The bill also now requires draft regulations currently under review by the Hogan administration to be completed by October 2016, giving legislators a year to review them while the moratorium remains in effect. We know that there is no peer-reviewed evidence that fracking can be effectively regulated. This moratorium would give us two and a half years to make that case to the General Assembly.
Know this above all: Your action has created a tipping point. Legislators are moving the fracking moratorium bill forward now because of the tidal wave of grassroots pressure we’ve brought to Annapolis from all corners of Maryland.
If we push this bill over the finish line and on to Gov. Hogan’s desk, we will have passed legislation that guarantees NO gas company can drill into our soil for two and a half years.
As Nadine Grabania, co-owner of Deep Creek Cellars in Western Maryland, put it:

This moratorium would mean two more years of my loved ones not being on the road with thousands of those trucks. It’s two more years of being able to operate my tourism-sector business. Two more years of being able breathe our mountain air without having to go to the doctor with worsening asthma.

It’s also guaranteed time in which we WILL organize and educate an even bigger, bolder grassroots movement.
Take action now by emailing Gov. Hogan: Tell him that Marylanders deserve protections against fracking — and we need a moratorium now!
We are closer than ever to achieving something we’ve never had before in Maryland: Legislation that puts an explicit, binding moratorium on the gas industry and their efforts to frack in Maryland.
And, with your help, we’ll keep pushing — over these final few days of the 2015 General Assembly and until our communities are fully protected from the many harms of fracking!

Huge news out of Annapolis: This morning, the Maryland House of Delegates voted by an overwhelming, veto-proof margin — 93 to 45 — to pass a three-year moratorium on fracking in our state!
This is a major step forward — and it’s thanks to your tireless emails, calls, visits to Annapolis, and actions in the streets. But we still have major hurdles ahead.
The Protect Our Health and Communities Act (HB 449) will now need to pass through the Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs (EHEA) Committee* before it can be considered for a full Senate floor vote.
If your state senator is a member of this critical committee, tell them to vote “YES” on the fracking moratorium bill (HB 449), and pass it onto the Senate floor.
If your state senator does NOT sit on this critical committee,  you can help spread the good news — and keep the momentum going — by lighting up Facebook feeds across Maryland with visible support for the bill. Click here to share our House victory graphic on Facebook. (And make sure you follow CCAN on Facebook for all the latest updates.)
It was no small feat convincing 93 delegates — including Democrats and Republicans — to stand up to the gas industry and vote in favor of putting a hold on dangerous fracking for natural gas in Maryland. During a long floor debate last night, delegates voted down eight different amendments that would have weakened the bill. This is the first time in four years that a fracking moratorium bill has passed out of the Maryland House of Delegates.
Now our momentum hinges on the Senate EHEA committee. Help put pressure on the committee to act by sending an email to your Senator, and spreading the word on social media.
This swell of grassroots action against fracking is unlike anything we’ve seen before in our state. With the fate of drilling currently in Governor Hogan’s hands, a moratorium is urgently needed now to protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the natural resources that are the foundation of so many Maryland livelihoods.
The support of every single delegate and senator matters — and every single action you take matters. We’ve made major progress, but we have major hurdles yet ahead, and we appreciate you pushing with us every step of the way. Click here to spread the news about our House fracking victory, and get ready to take action in the Senate in coming days.
*You can find information on the members of the Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs (EHEA) Committee here.

For the third time in less than two years, I met yesterday with the Chair of FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. I was not alone. With me from the “good guys” side were Tracey Eno, leader of Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community in Cove Point, MD, Jocelyn D’Ambrosio of Earthjustice and, via phone because her plane arrived late, Sandra Steingraber from We Are Seneca Lake.
On the “power” side were FERC Chair Cheryl LaFleur and literally eight other FERC staff from various parts of their bureaucracy.
My first time meeting with the then-FERC Chair Jon Wellinghoff was in May of 2013. The second time was last June with Cheryl LaFleur. In both cases, as was true of this one also, the meetings happened after I and others had gone to one of FERC’s monthly Commissioners’ meetings and made our presence felt.
A month ago, after going to FERC with representatives of Green America for a meeting they had set up with Commissioner Phillip Moeller, I was “banned,” the security guard’s word, from the FERC building, escorted out of the meeting room on the 11th floor we had been taken to just as the meeting was about to start. However, several hours later, after contacting someone I knew in the press, I got a call from the Executive Director of FERC apologizing and telling me I was not banned.
The meeting yesterday was requested just before my temporary banishment. It was requested on behalf of Beyond Extreme Energy, which has been ratcheting up the pressure and putting a public spotlight on the many serious problems with the way FERC works. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called it “a rogue agency.”
What was our hope in requesting the meeting? Our hope, slim as we knew it to be, was that perhaps in the context of a “civilized” sit-down in this way, we could see some signs that the campaign that has been building over the last couple of years to make FERC work for the people and not the fossil fuel industry has had some impact.
There was little sign of that yesterday. After we raised (for me, for the third time) our well-reasoned criticisms of FERC, their rubber-stamping of proposed gas infrastructure expansion projects, their minimal efforts to prioritize wind and solar technologies, they didn’t have much to say. After we pushed it, LaFleur did reference some rule changes they had made to make it easier for those technologies to become part of the electrical grid, and another person did want to know more of our thinking about what they should be doing in the area of renewables. But as Sandra said afterwards, LaFleur’s main response was to say, in effect, “we’re trying to take it in, we are listening,” little more.
The one exception to this was in the area of FERC’s processes: their website, the meetings they set up, how they deal with administrative appeals after granting a permit for gas infrastructure expansion. There was a bit more, not much, back and forth with FERC staff in these areas. Perhaps, over time, we will see some modifications; time will tell.
The meeting made crystal clear that we need to seize the time and ratchet up the pressure. Fortunately, Beyond Extreme Energy is doing so, moving forward with its week-plus of action at FERC from May 21-29. That’s when our growing movement can show OUR power, speak the truth in powerful ways to those using theirs wrongly. Our children and grandchildren are calling upon us to step it up right now!

On Tuesday, March 3rd, dozens of anti-fracking activists gathered in Annapolis from across the state to say NO to fracking in Maryland.
Folks traveled from as far away as Garrett County to have their voices heard in support of the Protect Our Health and Communities Act (SB 409/HB 449), which would put a long-term moratorium on fracking.

On February 23rd, the Virginia legislature passed HB1950 and SB1395, raising the non-residential net metering project cap from 500 kw to 1MW- a concrete step to grow Virginia’s clean energy economy!
Here are the details of the bill:

• Doubles Virginia’s Cap to 1MW. The bill raised the non-residential project cap for solar net metering customers from 500 kilowatts to 1 megawatts.

Thanks to the bills sponsors, Senator Rosalyn Dance and Delegate Jennifer McClellan for leading the way and carrying this critical legislation, and thank you to CCAN’s volunteers across the state who called in and emailed the legislature to help make this bill a reality.
Virginia is now comparable in terms of its non-residential solar cap with neighboring North Carolina (also 1MW cap). This legislation means that businesses across the state can now increase their solar usage!
Another victory came from HB 2267, introduced by Del. Tim Hugo, that will establish a Solar Development Authority for Virginia. The authority will smooth the way for the solar industry to expand in Virginia. Most importantly, the authority is tasked to bring online at least 400 megawatts of solar by 2020 — enough to power at least 100,000 homes!
We have more work to do to continue to expand the use of solar in Virginia!  Reach out to Lauren, Virginia’s solar campaign coordinator at lauren@chesapeakeclimate.org,  to help in the effort to amplify this good work and to join CCAN’s 2015 solar campaign.
Take Action: Click here to thank state senators and delegates who led the way on solar energy legislation in 2015.
Learn more: Fact Sheet – Non-residential Net Metering Project Cap HB1950/SB1395 (PDF)
 

On Monday, Dominion employees got some unexpected exercise on their way to work. Protesters opposing Dominion’s proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline blockaded the access road into Dominion’s Tredegar Campus in downtown Richmond, Virginia. A menagerie of singing protesters, stilt walkers, giant puppets, and banners stood in the path of Dominion employees as they walked, rather than drove the final half mile to their workplace. But just before reaching their campus, a final surprise loomed above: two activists suspended themselves from a pedestrian bridge with a banner reading “Stop Selling Our Futures.”
Activists chose to escalate their protest to non-violent direct action on Monday as Dominion steadfastly continues their plans to construct the 550-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline. With its proposed 42” diameter, the pipeline would have the daily capacity to transport 1.5 billion cubic feet of “fracked” natural gas from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina. This has climate activists up in arms for its potential to increase the rate at which greenhouse gases are released into our atmosphere. Landowners, too, are upset at the prospect of a massive pipeline running through their backyards. Many have refused to let survey crews access their property, which has led Dominion to respond by filing lawsuits against these families.

Over the past week, an impressive array of business, faith, labor, civil rights, city council, and grassroots voices have spoken out passionately and persuasively on the need to raise Maryland’s clean electricity standard in the 2015 General Assembly.
The bill, the Clean Energy Advancement Act (HB 377/SB 373), was amended in recent House and Senate hearings to set a requirement of 25% clean electricity by 2020, a compromise from the bill’s original target of 40% clean power by 2025. The state’s Climate Action Plan calls for raising our Renewable Portfolio Standard to 25% by 2020 as the single biggest step Maryland can take to reduce emissions of climate-disrupting pollution.
As Delegate Frick, lead House sponsor of the legislation, emphasized ahead of his committee hearing last Friday, this bill is “smart economic policy, smart environmental policy, and smart politics.”
Here’s a round up of the growing momentum behind the Clean Energy Advancement Act, following hearings in the House Economic Matters and Senate Finance committees:

• Business leaders say clean energy puts people to work: Last Friday, business leaders and workers in Maryland’s growing solar and clean technology industries held a press conference and testified before the House committee in support of the bill. Testimony emphasized that Maryland’s existing “Renewable Portfolio Standard” law is the main driver of clean energy job growth in Maryland now, and must be raised to expand on this prosperity. See the press release here.
• Activists rally for clean energy despite bitter cold: On Monday, over 120 grassroots activists braved near-single digit temperatures to rally on Lawyers’ Mall in support of the bill, capping off a lobby night. You can see photos here. Chants of “clean energy now” echoed into the State House as legislators convened for their evening session.
• 230+ Maryland faith leaders—including 7 bishops and senior ecumenical leaders—call on the General Assembly to act: In an unprecedented show of religious leadership on a state environmental issue, seven Maryland bishops and senior ecumenical leaders joined over 230 faith leaders in delivering a letter to lawmakers on Tuesday, making a moral case for shifting the state to cleaner energy. Bishop Wolfgang Herz-Lane also personally testified at the Senate hearing. See the letter here.
• NAACP report calls for expanding Maryland’s Renewable Portfolio Standard: In releasing the Maryland 2015 Just Energy Policies report, the NAACP called for expanding Maryland’s clean electricity standard, ideally to 40% by 2025. As the report underscores, poor communities and communities of color pay the highest price for our current reliance on fossil fuels.
• Baltimore City Council and Mayor endorse the Clean Energy Advancement Act: Noting that, “Maryland has the worst air quality on the east coast, and Baltimore has the highest emissions related mortality rate in the state,” the Baltimore City Council unanimously passed a resolution Monday night calling on the General Assembly to pass, and the Governor to sign, the Clean Energy Advancement Act. Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake also wrote testimony in support of the legislation.
• Capital Gazette op-ed: “Acting on climate empowers us to grow and protect our economy.” This Capital Gazette op-ed from Feb. 24 outlines how Maryland will incentivize significant new growth in good-paying, skilled, and diverse construction, installation, and manufacturing jobs by setting a region-leading clean energy standard.
• Experts testify to modest ratepayer impact: As wind and solar prices continue to plummet, a study conducted by the independent firm Sustainable Energy Advantage predicts that the impact of increasing Maryland’s RPS to 25% by 2020 will likely be $0.52 per month per residential ratepayer (in 2014 dollars) in 2020. The impact of increasing the RPS to 40% would likely be $1.94/month for residential ratepayers in 2025. See the full study here (and find the 25% estimate on p. 10, figure 6).

In summary, the Clean Energy Advancement Act is gaining such broad support because it would bring so many far-reaching benefits to Maryland. Raising our Renewable Portfolio Standard is the top way that Maryland can reduce emissions of planet-heating pollution. It would make Maryland a regional leader in creating new jobs and economic investment in rapidly growing 21st-century industries. It would save lives and save billions in healthcare costs by cleaning up our air and water.
Click here for more information and resources on the legislation and its benefits.