The Power of Offshore Wind Displayed in Ocean City

Offshore Wind is Beautiful
Offshore windmills off the coast of England. Photo cc by Phault (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pjh/185488397/)

With extreme weather events, tragic disasters from the extraction of fossil fuels, and beautiful coral reefs losing their color due to extreme heat, there is no doubt that we must transition now to clean energy like offshore wind!

Last Thursday was a prime example of how Maryland is poised to continue leading on clean energy and climate solutions by pursuing offshore wind power.

On the evening of September 23rd, close to 100 citizens gathered for a town hall meeting in Ocean City to learn more about the amazing benefits offshore wind will bring Marylanders.

Citizens got to hear from three experts about how this resource could work for Maryland and to have their questions answered.

Rahall: Protecting Appalachians Is Harming National Security

This is cross-posted from AppVoices Frontporch blog

A set of so-called pro-coal Representatives have introduced HR 6113 to prove that they care more about Don Blankenship’s approval than their constituents; health. This bill asserts that Obama’s EPA threatens national security.

Continuing their march to ignore evidence, make stuff up, and push for an entirely rampant and unregulated coal industry, coal-bound legislators have introduced what they are calling the Electric Reliability Protection Act” (HR 6113). If signed into law, this bill would defund EPA’s efforts to protect Appalachian citizens from the toxic valleyfills associated with mountaintop removal. In addition, the Representatives assert that the Obama Administration’s very attempt to protect citizens from toxic drinking water is indeed a threat to national security, which we’ll go into below. This is an election season bill that has little chance of passage. However, stunts like this allow Congressmen like Nick Rahall to prove that he needs Don Blankenship’s support more than he needs his constituents to have clean water, a decent job, or an average lifespan. This legislation is as cowardly as it is nihilistic, and just as irresponsible.

Of course, one of Senator Byrd’s final messages was that a majority of Congress opposes mountaintop removal, and it certainly shows in the lack of support for HR 6113. While a good bill like the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 1310) has 172 bipartisan cosponsors, HR 6113 has just 15, nearly all of them with some vested interest in the coal industry.

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Going for gold: The challenge of building green

This is a cross-post from Diamondbackonline.com about the University of Maryland by CCAN volunteer Matt Dernoga.

I want to congratulate the university and student activists for their recent major accomplishments on the sustainability front. The 2009 Campus Carbon Footprint Report of our campus emissions recently came out and found that in 2009, the carbon dioxide emissions decreased by 26,394 metric tons, a 10.5 percent reduction from 2005. This means that the university is on pace to meet its goal of a 15 percent reduction by 2012.

When former university President Dan Mote signed the President’s Climate Commitment &- which committed this campus to the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 &- there was legitimate skepticism of how serious the administration would be in living up to their pledge. And although there have been some hiccups, since signing the commitment, the university has renovated buildings to make them more energy efficient, installed some solar panels around the campus and reduced solid waste emissions by 70 percent.

Just the other day, The Diamondback reported that Knight Hall became the first university-owned building to be certified with a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold rating, the second best LEED standard a building can obtain. Oakland Hall is likely to follow with a LEED-gold rating. What made these accomplishments even more impressive was the fact that the university’s existing green building standard &- which was set in 2008 &- is for all new campus buildings to be LEED-silver. Continue reading

Congress wants to pass the Dirty Air Act?

Ok, here’s a shocking statement (insert sarcastic tone):

As reported by The Hill on September 14th: U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Petroleum Institute, National Mining Association and National Association of Manufacturers want to block the EPA from regulating pollution that causes climate change!

Is that news to you? Of course the country’s biggest polluters want to stop action that would curb pollution Continue reading

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind

Next week, some of the CCAN staff is headed to Ocean City, Maryland, where we’re part of a coalition of organizations organizing a town hall meeting about efforts to harness Maryland’s offshore wind power. The winds blowing off Ocean City’s Atlantic Coast have the strength to power thousands of homes, or provide up to one third of Maryland’s current electricity needs.

Offshore wind power offers many advantages over dirty fossil fuel sources like oil and coal. Choosing to build wind farms off our shores, rather than drill for oil, alleviates the horrifying risk that Ocean City would ever suffer from an oil spill like the devastating spill in the Gulf. Currently, Maryland imports much of its electricity from dirty coal plants in surrounding states, which sometimes makes our energy supply unreliable and costs unstable. Clean, renewable wind power offers price stability because the fuel is free, and it would be more reliable because it would be harnessed locally. Also, a moderate investment in offshore wind development could provide 15,000 new jobs for Marylanders over the next 20 years. This means more stable, year-round employment opportunities for Ocean City, where many jobs leave town with the tourists at the end of the season.

A human wind turbine
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Power Vote Kicks Off in Maryland!

Youth across Maryland are ready to make their voices heard this election season: letting elected officials know that they are voting for clean energy and healthy communities. Schools are starting kick off events in style- with BBQ’s, open mic nights and socials! Check out the Power Vote crew at Morgan St. To start the year they blanketed the campus in green Power Vote shirts to collect pledges and hand out flyers for the open mic night. The event was a big success- over 50 people came out to perform and learn more about the campaign.