Climate Plan Announced Two Weeks After MD Advocacy Groups Sent a Letter Calling for its Release
ANNAPOLIS, MD — Today, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s Department of Environment released its plan to reduce its legally mandated Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan. This comes two weeks after 26 Maryland-based advocacy organizations sent a letter to the agency expressing “deep concern” that they had not yet released the plan nearly ten months after it was due.
Mike Tidwell, Director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, stated in response:
“Governor Hogan’s plan to fight climate change is like a homework assignment turned in nearly a year late and with incomplete work. The plan includes insufficient research, inattention to detail, and a failure to follow the assignment. The tardiness of the plan would seem to call into question the Governor’s seriousness in truly tackling the climate crisis. The plan was mandated by the General Assembly to come out in 2018.
“The substance of the plan only deepens the skepticism. While promises of 100% ‘clean’ electricity sound good, the Governor counts fracked gas as clean energy. He also dramatically underestimates the atmospheric harm that comes from the use of fracked gas. And while pledging to expand the use of electric vehicles and to reduce carbon pollution in other parts of the economy, the Governor’s plan fails to specify exactly how Maryland will invest real resources to achieve real solutions. The Maryland public and the General Assembly should demand better from the Governor.”
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The Chesapeake Climate Action Network is the oldest and largest grassroots organization dedicated exclusively to raising awareness about the impacts and solutions associated with global warming in the Chesapeake Bay region. For 16 years, CCAN has been at the center of the fight for clean energy and wise climate policy in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.chesapeakeclimate.org
CONTACT:
Denise Robbins, Communications Director, denise@chesapeakeclimate.org, 608-620-8819
Mike Tidwell, Director, mtidwell@chesapeakeclimate.org, 240-460-5838
