Activists Issue Letter to MD House Speaker and Senate President: Pass Offshore Wind Bill in 2012 for Jobs and Health
CCAN congratulates Obama administration on decision to delay Keystone XL tar sands pipeline & examine climate impacts
12,000 Activists Surround White House to Demand Stop to Keystone XL Tar Sands Oil Pipeline
To Protest Gov.’s Energy Conf., Activists Submerge Famous VA Structures in the James River to Show Global Warming Impacts
POLL: Strong Majority of Marylanders Support Offshore Wind Power
D.C. Demonstrators Swarm Outside Final State Department Hearing on Scandal-ridden Tar Sands Pipeline
Health & Environment Experts Ask Maryland General Assembly to Embrace Full Benefits of Offshore Wind
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Jamie Nolan Mike Tidwell
240.396.2022 240.460.5838
jamie@chesapeakeclimate.org mtidwell@chesapeakeclimate.org
ANNAPOLIS, MD – Offshore wind power provides electricity with dramatically lower economic, health, and environmental costs than conventional sources, experts testified at a Senate Finance Committee study session today in Annapolis.
By developing just one 500-megawatt offshore wind park, Maryland would save approximately 700 lives and over $4 billion in health costs over 25 years, according to expert calculations.
“Maryland cannot afford to continue paying higher medical bills for largely preventable exacerbations of childhood asthma, heart, and lung disease. We have strong evidence that the air pollution from coal-fired power plants makes these illnesses worse,” said Cindy Parker, Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, who testified at the hearing.
According to a study published in February by Harvard Medical School professor Dr. Paul Epstein, a “full cost accounting for the life cycle” adds approximately 17.84 cents per kilowatt-hour to the cost of coal power. This accounting includes carcinogens, health-hazardous emissions, global warming emissions, mental retardation cases attributed to mercury emissions, and other damages.
“As Maryland currently generates about 60 percent of its energy from fossil fuels, we should take their full costs into account when making decisions about our energy future,” said Mike Tidwell, Executive Director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “Offshore wind power works for Maryland by creating thousands of jobs, reducing the suffering of children with asthma, and helping to solve our climate crisis.”
Since 1950, the U.S. government has provided more than half a trillion dollars in subsidies to the oil, coal, and natural gas industries, according to data published by the National Academy of Sciences. Despite subsidies, Marylanders saw their electricity bills, mostly dependent on volatile fossil fuel prices, roughly double in the last decade, according to the Maryland Energy Administration.
“It’s time that we invest in offshore wind, our state’s largest stable-priced energy resource,” added Tidwell.
The Senate Finance Committee plans to hold three more study sessions on offshore wind power prior to the 2012 General Assembly session. Expert environmental health panelists urged the committee to factor in the full costs of energy and to implement policy that will make Maryland offshore wind power a reality.
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MD Rep. Van Hollen Calls for President Obama's “Closer Scrutiny” of Proposed Keystone XL Tar Sands Oil Pipeline
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jamie Nolan, 410-463-9869, jamie@chesapeakeclimate.org
WASHINGTON, DC — Mike Tidwell, Director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN), today praised a letter sent by Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen to President Obama concerning the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline. Van Hollen, a noted environmental defender, is currently ranking member on the House Budget Committee and a member of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction.
“Congressman Van Hollen’s leadership on the Keystone XL pipeline issue is welcome and appreciated,” Tidwell said. “His letter today to the White House raises key concerns involving increased greenhouse gas emissions, pipeline safety and public health impacts. CCAN urges President Obama to take Van Hollen’s letter seriously.”
In the letter, Van Hollen writes about the need for “closer scrutiny before any final national interest determination on the project is made.” While the State Department has issued its own Environmental Impact Statement, Van Hollen notes that eight executive branch agencies – including the Environmental Protection Agency — must still “review and comment” before a final determination can be made.
Concern over the Keystone XL oil pipeline has been growing rapidly over the last month, galvanized by the arrests of 1,252 people at the White House between August 20 – September 3. Learn more at www.tarsandsaction.org.
Read Rep. Van Hollen’s letter to President Obama here.
The Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) is the first grassroots, nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to fighting global warming in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Our mission is to build and mobilize a powerful grassroots movement in this unique region that surrounds our nation’s capital to call for state, national and international policies that will put us on a path to climate stability. Learn more at www.chesapeakeclimate.org.
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Virginia’s Labor Unions Endorse Virginia Offshore Wind Energy Development
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jamie Nolan, 240-396-2022, jamie@chesapeakeclimate.org
Virginia’s largest unions call on leaders to move forward with offshore wind power to create clean energy and good jobs for Virginia
NEWPORT NEWS – Five of Virginia’s largest labor unions today announced their formal support of offshore wind energy development in Virginia and called on Governor McDonnell and Dominion Virginia Power to take swift action toward its development. Standing in solidarity with the Newport News shipyards in the background were representatives with the United Steelworkers (USW), International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA), Iron Workers, and the Building and Construction Trades Council.
“This is an opportunity to develop thousands of good paying union jobs in Virginia, which would enable our children and our children’s children to raise a family and share in the American dream,” said Bill Harriday, international staff representative for United Steelworkers.
“Our workers stand uniquely-equipped and trained to tackle green energy projects like offshore wind power. We believe our workforce to be one-of-a-kind when it comes to constructing advanced-tech wind turbines,” said Josh Collins, Virginia political and policy director for the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA). “We welcome this opportunity to join forces with our allies in VA 4 Wind Coalition to push for long-term sustainable energy solutions that will be a boon to thousands of unemployed workers.”
According to the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium (VCERC), a 3,000-megawatt Virginia coastal wind energy project built out over 20 years would create 10,000 jobs for Virginians. Specifically, it could create more than 6,000 construction jobs and 5,000 ongoing operation and maintenance jobs.
“Steel working, shipbuilding, construction, forging, manufacturing, you name it. For decades, most of those jobs critical to the wind industry have been union jobs”, said Eileen Levandoski, Virginia Conservation Program Manager with the Sierra Club Virginia Chapter. “Thus Virginia’s unionized labor force, regardless of its ‘right to work” policies, can and will be large and powerful advocates for offshore wind.”
Leaders from Virginia’s union, industry, and environmental communities agree that Dominion and Governor McDonnell should coordinate efforts to develop offshore wind energy. Because Dominion is the commonwealth’s largest power provider, owns much of its transmission capacity, and has a great deal of political clout, Virginia’s offshore wind industry could flourish with the company on board. Governor McDonnell should take a leadership role in this process by making Virginia “the Clean Energy Capital of the East Coast.”
“This is all about new manufacturing, fabrication, and construction jobs right here in Virginia. If the McDonnell Administration fails to act and Dominion does not move forward with offshore wind development, the commonwealth could lose thousands of jobs to other states in the region,” said Randy Flood, executive director of Green Jobs Alliance.
In addition to thousands of new jobs, offshore wind energy offers countless benefits for Virginians, cleaner air and water, stable electricity prices, increased energy security, and reduced global warming emissions.
Beth Kemler, Virginia state director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said: “Especially in the wake of a global warming-fueled hurricane and massive flooding, it’s more important than ever than we take aggressive steps toward the development of clean energy sources like offshore wind.”
VA4Wind is a coalition of Virginia organizations working together to spur offshore wind energy development off of Virginia’s coast. Members include the Sierra Club Virginia Chapter, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Green Jobs Alliance and Virginia Interfaith Power & Light. Learn more at www.va4wind.com.
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