New Poll Demonstrates Mounting Support for Offshore Wind Initiative

For Immediate Release
January 17, 2013 
 
Research finds that 72% of Maryland voters support investment in offshore wind development; Nearly four times as likely to vote for a legislator who supports wind power
 
ANNAPOLIS — A new poll released today shows a growing number of Maryland voters and a strong majority – 72 percent – across all political and geographic subgroups, support investing in the development of offshore wind power. These results represent an 8% increase since similar polling was conducted in December 2011. 
 
“With popularity increasing among voters, legislators who vote for offshore wind power stand to benefit at the ballot box,” stated Karla Raettig, Executive Director for Maryland League of Conservation Voters. According to the poll, Marylanders are almost four times as likely to vote for a legislator who supports offshore wind power rather than against them in the next election.

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Groups support MDE settlement to clean up Genon's toxic coal ash pollution in Charles, Montgomery and PG Counties

For Immediate Release
January 14, 2013

Contact:
Diana Dascalu-Joffe, (240) 396-1984, diana@chesapeakeclimate.org

MDE Lauded for Legal Action to Stop Ground and Surface Water Contamination and Prevent Additional Pollution at Coal Ash Sites; GenOn to pay a civil penalty of $1.9 million

BALTIMORE—In a victory for Maryland communities and waterways, the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) filed a consent decree in federal court requiring utility company GenOn to clean up widespread ground and surface water pollution at three of its coal ash disposal sites. MDE and environmental groups have accused GenOn of illegally discharging toxic pollution into groundwater and local waterways at the Faulkner Landfill in Charles County, Brandywine Landfill in Prince Georges County, and the Westland Landfill in Montgomery County.

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Would you drink this water?

On Wednesday, fracking activists held a fracking water taste test directly in front of the State House to showcase for legislators the threat that fracking poses to drinking water in Maryland. In states like PA and Wyoming, concerned homeowners have pointed to fracking as a cause of drinking water contamination.

Dozens of Marylanders from across the state donned red Fracking Moratorium Now! t-shirts, buttons, and stickers to make sure the issue of fracking was on legislators minds as they headed in for their first day of the 2013 General Assembly session.

To convey the dangers and risks of fracking to Maryland water sources, we had a series of water samples collected from PA and Maryland  The first sample was clearly contaminated drinking water taken from an abandoned home near a fracking site in Butler County, Pennsylvania. The previous owners, the McEvoy family, suffered severe health impacts from drinking and bathing in the contaminated water and had to move away. Their community, called the Woodlands area, includes 12 families who are still without a clean water source. Please visit: http://www.marcellusoutreachbutler.org/ for more information.

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Activists launch fracking moratorium campaign with ‘water taste test’ on Lawyer’s Mall

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 9, 2013

CONTACT:
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022 or 717-439-0346, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org
Mike Tidwell, 240-460-5838, mtidwell@chesapeakeclimate.org

Lawmakers are greeted with the choice of polluted well water from a PA fracking area or clean water from a MD State House drinking fountain to underscore risk to state water resources

ANNAPOLIS—As the 2013 Maryland General Assembly session commenced Wednesday, dozens of activists came out to kick off an historic campaign to pass a legislative moratorium on fracking by holding a “water taste test” for lawmakers on Lawyer’s Mall. Activists have declared 2013 the year for legislators to finally put a moratorium in place and guarantee protections for communities at risk of water and air pollution, health problems and other harmful impacts associated with this controversial drilling process.

“Our neighbors in Pennsylvania have drilled first and asked questions later, and the polluted PA well water sample we brought to Annapolis today shows the potentially dire costs of that approach,” said Mike Tidwell, executive director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “Lawmakers need to make our state policy clear in 2013: As long as the gas industry continues to block thorough study of the dangers of fracking in Maryland, there should be no fracking in Maryland—period.”

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No study, no fracking

The Baltimore Sun

Our view: The potential impact of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in Maryland, both good and bad, is too great not to merit a thorough, unbiased study

Most of us have probably seen or heard the ubiquitous ads promoting domestic natural gas drilling. While they don’t tend to use the word “fracking,” their message about hydraulic fracturing of shale is clear enough — little kids playing happily on green patches of grass and the promise of bountiful clean energy, jobs and all-around happiness all rolled into one.

Two things can be inferred from the ads. First, that those in the oil and gas industry are absolutely intent on selling their product with extraordinary promises; and second, that they are willing to spend an enormous sum to do so.

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Drilling Down: Maryland’s first statewide fracking conference

UPDATE (12/10/12): Read on to take action and to download and view featured presentations from the conference.

On Saturday, nearly 300 Marylanders from across the state are gathering in Baltimore to discuss a big emerging threat to our communities: fracking.

Fracking is a dangerous method of drilling for natural gas linked to widespread environmental and health impacts in neighboring states. The conference is the first to bring activists from across Maryland together with state lawmakers, national climate and health experts, and people on the front lines of fracking in western Maryland and Pennsylvania to discuss the risks of fracking and how our state should respond.

To join us on Saturday and for more details, go to: http://mdfrackingconference.eventbrite.com.

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Sandy Reminds Us to Harness Winds and Mitigate Their Wrath

Maryland was just hit by Hurricane Sandy, the largest storm ever recorded to hit the East Coast, but not as hard as states like New Jersey and New York:

“We all dodged a bullet on this one,” Anne Arundel County Fire Battalion Chief Steve Thompson said Tuesday from the county’s emergency operations center. “If that storm would have wiggled a little bit south, with those winds, it would have been a doozie.”

Yet, 300,000 people from Virginia to Baltimore remained without power Tuesday evening and many areas of the state experienced extensive flooding.  The fishing pier on Ocean City’s iconic boardwalk is now half-gone.  Sadly there were also a couple storm related deaths in Maryland as well as a number of injuries.

As we begin to rebuild, the first thing we must do is make sure everyone is safe and has what they need to survive in our state and across the country.  Please donate if you can to the American Red Cross as they most certainly will need more robust funding in the coming years and decades.

Once we get back on our feet, with the metro running in DC and the subways back on track in New York City, we must immediately focus on what we can do to lessen the wrath of ever-worsening storms like Sandy.  Perhaps Stephen Lacey and Joe Romm put it best when describing the link between human-caused climate change and these new super-storms: 

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Celebrating 10 Years/Recharging for Many More

It was 10 years ago, in 2002, that CCAN began when Mike Tidwell decided to change his life. Moved by his growing appreciation for the seriousness of the climate crisis, he stopped being a book author and journalist and, instead, began devoting his time, energy, passion and skills to the cause of slowing and stopping global warming.

On September 29th, during a wonderful CCAN picnic on a wonderful fall day in Rock Creek Park, Mike talked to the 100 or so people present about the changes we have helped to bring about over those 10 years, among them:

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Marylanders: Renewable Home Heating Rebate Program

By Melissa Bollman (Cross-Posted from Alliance for Green Heat)

On September 7, 2012 the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) launched a pilot rebate program for some of the cleanest wood and pellet stoves available, marking the first time that a state has integrated wood and pellet stoves into a renewable energy rebate program.

The pilot program offers a $400 rebate for wood stoves and $600 for pellet stoves. Wood stoves must emit less than half the particulates that are allowed by the EPA to be eligible.

“We are thrilled that Governor O’Malley and Malcolm Wolff, the Director of the Maryland Energy Administration, extended the renewable energy grant program to appliances that low and middle-income families can afford,” said John Ackerly, the President of the Alliance for Green Heat.

 

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