A tale of 3 cities and 2 very bad bills

Two bills before the General Assembly right now, SB 128 (McDougle) and HB 1300 (Kilgore), would limit the Air Board’s authority to regulate polluters in non-attainment areas. When a region fails to meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, set by the EPA to protect public health, the EPA will designate that area as a non-attainment region. Currently only Northern Virginia is listed as a non-attainment region in Virginia. However, Richmond and Hampton Roads are expected to be designated as non-attainment areas by March 2011.

Living in a non-attainment area is bad for your health. Smog and soot, measures used to determine ambient air quality, are linked to So2 and NOx which are in turn connected to decreased lung function, aggravated asthma, chronic bronchitis, irregular heartbeat, heart attacks, premature death. According to the American Lung Association, “Ozone smog threatens the health of infants, children, seniors and people with . . . lung disease. . . . Even healthy young adults and people who exercise or work outdoors can suffer from high levels of ozone pollution.”

Not only is a non-attainment area a major health issue but it is an economic development issue as well. Regions of non-attainment encounter significant federal restrictions. Businesses looking to develop in Virginia do not want to locate in Non-Attainment areas because of these increased restrictions. Getting out of non-attainment is critical for public health and economic development.

Now, back to the bills. SB 128 and HB 1300 would limit the Air Board in how it regulates a non-attainment area. Currently, the Air Board can prohibit major polluters in non-attainment areas from purchasing credits for excess pollution, thus forcing them to actually clean up their acts. With the passage of these 2 bills, the Air Board would no longer be able to prohibit this trading practice. What this means is that major polluters can continue to pollute in non-attainment areas while small businesses will continue to be heavily regulated, making it that much harder for areas to clean up their air.

SB 128 was amended to exclude existing non-attainment areas (NoVA) from this new regulatory change. Delegate Kilgore, the patron of HB 1300, promised he would make the same amendment, but this morning as he presented the bill before committee, he kept it as is. The bill passed out of committee without the NoVA carve out. If both bills pass they will be placed in conference committee to reconcile the differences. Either way, this isn’t good news for Richmond or Hampton Roads. Please call your state senator today and ask them to vote NO on HB 1300 when it comes to the floor.

Video: Kicking Coal's Ash in Maryland!

From cradle to grave, Maryland’s power is dirty. This dirty energy leads to adverse health and environmental impacts. Maryland has some of the most ambitious environmental laws in the country; now we need your help to make sure that the laws we worked so hard to pass are implemented and enforced!

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241 Students Demand Answers at Town Hall Meeting

This blog (cross-posted from Students for a Sustainable Campus’s blog) was written by student Zoe Keller about a recent action on MICA’s campus- showing the strong student support for sustainability!

When a small group of Students for a Sustainable Campus members met with Fred Lazarus, Timothy Millner, Dusty Porter and Mike Molla last year, the administrators asked how many MICA students really care about sustainability. SF/SC seized MICA’s Town Hall Meeting as the perfect opportunity to respond. The MICA Town Hall Meeting is the big meeting between administrators and students that happens once per semester. Spring 2010’s Town Hall took place on Wednesday, February 17th in Main 110. Even with the school closed due to snow for the week leading up to the meeting, SF/SC still managed to gather 241 signatures in a creative petition.

Town Hall meetings have, in the past, used an index card system to ask questions; instead of raising your hand and directly asking an administrator about building hours, for example, you filled out your question on an index card and the moderator (the SVA president) sorted through the index cards and read as many as time allowed. SF/SC members wrote out 5 important questions about sustainability on a huge stack of index cards, and students were asked to sign the card with the question they felt most passionately about. Continue reading

Knock, Knock Senator Webb: Stand up for the Clean Air Act!

Today a group of Virginia climate change activists stopped by Senator Webb’s Falls Church district office to urge him to stand up for the Clean Air Act. Armed with hand-made signs and “Stop CO2” stickers, they talked to his staff about the importance of opposing the Murkowski Amendment. The amendment would block the Clean Air Act’s ability to limit global warming pollution by stripping the EPA of its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

Despite already hearing from many of his constituents, Senator Webb is still considering supporting this crippling amendment. We delivered almost 100 more comments from clean air supporters today, and we have to keep the pressure on. Don’t wait to add your voice by calling his office today to tell him to stand up to big polluters and protect the Clean Air Act!

Smart Energy Super Tuesday

This past Tuesday was a pretty big day for the Smart Energy Now Campaign, our latest legislative effort to assure Maryland’s Clean Energy future.

Over in Annapolis, Delegates Manno and Hecht’s comprehensive energy planning bill, HB 522 had its big hearing before the Economic Matters Committee. The legislation aims to keep the state on track towards its long term clean energy and environmental policy goals by requiring the Maryland Public Service Commission to approach long term energy planning and short term energy decision making in a way that is consistent with those goals. Though it faced predictable opposition from the utilities, and unfortunate and misplaced opposition from the PSC, the bill emerged from the hearing no worse from the wear after receiving a solid series of endorsements in testimony from a variety of allies including the League of Conservation Voters, and the Maryland Energy Administration to name a few.

Overall, the hearing was a good start to bill’s journey through the House, but with a number of legislators still on the fence, there’s still a lot of work to be done to ensure the bill makes it out of committee.

To help with this effort, Grassroots activists gathered at a town hall meeting in Burtonsville Tuesday to demonstrate their support for HB 522 and encourage the support of local Economic Matters Committee members including Delegate Brian Feldman and Herman Taylor. Feldman was a no show, but Taylor sent a representative, Chris Bradbury, who announced the Delegate’s strong support for the bill to enthusiastic applause from the audience. Legislative District 14 Delegate Anne Kaiser also attended to discuss the need for strong clean energy policies in Maryland. Other speakers including me, Gary Skulnik of Clean Currents, and Reuven Walder of EcoBeco engaged the audience in a discussion about ways that we can individually and collectively ensure a clean, affordable and reliable energy economy for Maryland.

The Burtonsville THM was the first of a string of five Smart Energy Now THMs that are taking place throughout Maryland through the first week of March. Other venues include Largo (Prince George’s County) next Tuesday the 23rd, Glen Burnie on March 3rd, and Baltimore and Salsibury on the 7th. The events are so located to build support in the districts of key members of the Economic Matters Committee, including the lynchpin himself Chairman Dereck Davis, who is slated to speak at Tuesday’s meeting in Largo. Chairman Davis’ stance on the bill will be one of the key determining factors of its fate, which makes Tuesday’s town hall a pretty big deal, and the need for a big turnout critical. So if you live in Prince George’s or anywhere nearby, please be sure to RSVP today and drop by Prince George’s Community College on Tuesday at 6:30. If you absolutely can’t make it on Tuesday, you still have three other chances to make a difference in this critical campaign. Jump online to RSVP for a town hall today.

Virginians Rally for Stream Saver Bill

George Mason students stand up for southwest Virginia's streams that have been buried by coal mining waste.Last Thursday, I joined hundreds of Virginians in support of SB 564, the Stream Saver Bill. The bill was introduced by state Senator Patsy Ticer and would ban dumping waste from surface mining into streams. 1,900 miles of streams in Appalachia have been buried or degraded by this practice, impacting clean water supplies for residents of southwest Virginia.

Snowbound students at George Mason University collected over 80 photo petitions in support of the bill and on the same day, 800 people rallied at the Kentucky General Assembly for “I Love Mountains Day” in support of a similar bill, according to the Kentucky Herald-Ledger.

Snowbound students at George Mason sent in over 80 photo-petition pictures as support for SB 564. A planned rally was cut short in order to allow supporters to get in line for the special hearing held by the Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources committee. Due to turnout, I sat in an overflow room. Hundreds had come to speak for and against the measure. Matt Wasson with Appalachian Voices presented on the environmental and economic destruction that mountain top removal leaves in its wake. During the 45 minutes each side had for public comments, residents of southwest Virginia spoke passionately about their concern for their family and friends’ health and for the mountains.

Many opponents to the bill spoke about their concern for job loss in the already struggling area. A legitimate concern yet coal mining employment in the United States has plummeted over the past century. Currently there are only about 4,797 coal mining jobs in the Commonwealth, 1,433 of them surface mining jobs. Coal is an important part of the economy in southwest Virginia but it’s also keeping diversified economic opportunities from investing in the area, such as tourism.

“The mountains that have been lost can never be brought back,” stated Wasson. “The streams will be polluted for a long time.”

Virginia's AG's already making headlines!

Today was another day for Virginia to make headlines. Like most headlines of late, this wasn’t a good one either. Our new Attorney General has made the environment one of his top priorities. Shouldn’t this be a GOOD thing you ask? In some instances, yes, but not when his goal is to make every federal law regulating greenhouse gas emissions illegal in our state.

After sending out an email to his listserv last week disputing global warming all together, our AG, Ken Cuccinelli held a press conference today, announcing his petition to the EPA to reconsider its finding that global warming threatens our livelihood. His reasoning for this petition? Climategate. Remember that little mole hill climate deniers successfully made into a mountain? Our state government has decided this is such an important issue that we should spend staff time and taxpayer money on it. Meanwhile, we’re looking at a $1.2 billion budget shortfall. Great idea guys. Let’s spend money on this.

So let’s recap here. While our new Governor is backroom wheeling and dealing over serious budget cuts, including a $730 million cut to K-12 education programs over 2 years, and more Virginians are out of work and without health care, the new AG is spending money on frivolous lawsuits against the EPA because he is concerned that the EPA is finally going to do its job. Whew, we are not off to a good start.

Climate and Political Tipping Points

There’s a famous quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” However, according to Wikipedia, it may be that this concept was first expressed by a U.S. labor leader, Nicholas Klein of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, in 1914.

According to a report of the union’s convention that year, Klein said, “And, my friends, in this story you have a history of this entire movement. First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you. And that is what is going to happen to the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.”

I thought of this insightful and concise set of observations recently in connection with the statements by various members of the 21st century equivalent of the Flat Earth Society about the mid-Atlantic snow storms of February 5-10. I’m referring to people like James Inhofe, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. Their ignorant statements are the latest in a series of efforts by the coal industry, oil companies, their public spokespeople and the climate change deniers Continue reading