From September 21-25, 200 bicyclists will pedal 300 miles from New York City to Washington, DC for the 5th annual Climate Ride. CCAN national campaigns coordinator Ted Glick is on the road with them, raising awareness of climate change and raising funds for CCAN’s critical advocacy work.
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By Tim Wheeler
A broad coalition of environmental and other groups urged Gov. Martin O’Malley Tuesday to oppose development of a natural gas export terminal on the Chesapeake Bay, calling it an unacceptable environmental and safety threat.
Members of the coalition, which includes more than 120 local, statewide and national groups, gathered outside the Maryland Public Service Commission offices just before noon to outline their concerns over the proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility at Cove Point in Calvert County. They contended it would pollute the air and bay, undermine state efforts to combat climate change and expose nearby residents to the risks of a catastrophic explosion, either by accident or from a terrorist attack.
By Robert McCartney
Dominion Virginia Power drew a lot of favorable publicity this month by leasing a patch of the Atlantic Ocean off Virginia Beach to construct an offshore wind farm hailed as a clean-energy milestone for the state.
Too bad there’s good reason to believe Dominion will never build it.
Even as Dominion executives publicly stressed wind power’s potential, their statements and company documents showed they have no intention of building anything larger than a small, two-turbine offshore test project unless the costs come down.
As the Virginia Campus Organizer with CCAN, I get to work across Virginia with students who are eager to get involved with climate activism (how lucky am I, right??). For those of you who have been to Virginia- or outside of NOVA at least- you know just how big the state is. With well over two dozen colleges and universities spread across the state, it’s not easy to cover all the ground I’d like to over the course of a year. And although we’re active on fifteen campuses right now, I’m always looking to engage more VA students in our campaigns and support the awesome work they’re doing on their own campuses.
Eight years ago today, Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans, flooding the city and leaving a wake of irreversible damage in its path. The stage had been set for a storm of this magnitude, as coastal Louisiana residents watched the seas rise and their land sink in prior years.
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That sounds all too familiar when we look at the coastal conditions of Hampton Roads. This week, CCAN climate activists took to the Virginia Beach oceanfront to call attention to the parallels between pre-Katrina New Orleans and present day Hampton Roads. Without strong action on climate change, a child born today could live to see a future of their coastal community devastated by climate-induced rising seas and more extreme storms.
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When it comes to fighting climate change, people power is our greatest weapon. This is the message I took with me from CCAN’s screening of the documentary Chasing Ice in Richmond. Last Thursday night at the Camel, I was able to see what comes of weeks of planning, stress, and seemingly endless phone calls and emails. The result was a room full of people who were motivated and ready to take action against climate change.
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By Marlena Chertock
About 500 residents, politicians and activists showed support for climate-change policies at an Organizing For Action town hall last week at the Silver Spring Civic Center.
“Cleaner air leads to healthier families,” said Neeta Datt, the county director of OFA.
The nearly four-hour meeting was the first in a month of action for OFA, a nonprofit that supports President Barack Obama’s agenda.
Speakers focused on the president’s plan, but also encouraged action on an individual level.
By Robert McCabe
Environmental groups on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit challenging the U.S. government’s backing of a loan that facilitates the export of some Appalachian coal through the ports of Hampton Roads and Baltimore.
The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco, alleges that the U.S. Export-Import Bank broke federal law by approving a $90 million loan guarantee in support of Latrobe, Pa.-based coal broker Xcoal Energy & Resources LLC without first preparing an “environmental impact statement.”
The taxpayer-backed financing, approved on May 24, 2012, will help leverage $1 billion in coal exports from Appalachia to markets in Japan, South Korea, China and Italy through coal terminals in Hampton Roads and Baltimore, the groups said.
By Tamara Dietrich
As a registered nurse at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital for more than 20 years, Lorraine Ortega has noticed more and more serious asthma patients who need treatment.
“I was alarmed by the increased number of acute asthmatics in our area, as well as people actually being diagnosed with lung cancer when they’re non-smokers,” Ortega said.
One of those acute asthmatics happens to be Ortega’s daughter, who’s wound up several times in the emergency room. Ortega says she’s also had her own share of “really, really bad lung congestion” and pulmonary issues, even though she, too, is a non-smoker. She didn’t have such problems before moving from Brooklyn to Chesapeake in 1991.
She believes the culprit is coal.
By Matthew Bieniek
CUMBERLAND — At the same time the coal industry is fighting against what industry leaders say is a war on coal, several environmental groups have filed a lawsuit to fight multimillion dollar loan guarantees to export U.S. coal to foreign nations including Japan, South Korea, China and Italy.
Much of that coal leaves the country through the Port of Baltimore.
