The past few months have seen a flurry of movement on clean energy legislation in the MD General Assembly, both exciting and potentially troublesome. Read on for an update on our priority energy bills and how you can help us win major victories for clean energy this spring. Then, mark your calendar for the next Energy Committee meeting on April 8th in Baltimore to where we'll be planning our final push! [Follow the link for more details.]
Act Now: Unexpected Attack on Wind Energy in MD
Wind and Solar energy are both under attack during this legislative session in Annapolis. Your help is urgently needed to combat this misguided and blatant attack on renewable energy.
Call your legislators today and ask them to oppose these bills:
SB899 – which would roll back the historic O’Malley Off Shore Wind bill of 2013 by prohibiting the Maryland Public Service Commission (MPSC) from awarding offshore renewable energy credits (ORECS) inside the BOEM-designated Wind Energy Area. This bill would also prohibit on-shore wind in almost all of Maryland. Pioneer Green, developers of the Great Bay Wind Project, proposed for Somerset County have already pulled up stakes in Maryland after a series of political attacks against them made their project financially unviable. Here is a link to that story: http://www.wboc.com/story/28602580/company-pulls-plug-on-somerset-county-wind-project
MAKE NO MISTAKE. This bill will destroy on-shore and off-shore wind power in Maryland under the guise of protecting Patuxent River Naval Air Station, in a ruse that masks the real motive.
Patuxent will be just fine, but if the Maryland Legislature passes SB899, the residents of Maryland – the Eastern state with the dirtiest air – will continue to suffer the health effects of breathing dirty air, which include asthma, lung disease, and even early death. Maryland desperately needs renewable energy, and both off-shore and on-shore wind can help provide that.
Call, email, and write your legislators immediately! Visit
http://mdelect.net/ to look up your legislators, and click on their names to view their contact information.
Please call today!
The Good News: Community Solar (HB 1087) Passes The House!
As many of you have probably heard, a community solar bill officially passed through the Maryland House of Delegates! The bill creates a 3-year pilot program for community solar, followed by a state study that provides recommendations (if needed) on the extension of the program. This is a great opportunity to expand access to solar across the state, and we now have our sights set on passing this bill through the Senate.
Community solar projects are an exciting opportunity for neighbors and communities to pool together resources and take control of their energy generation choices. The pilot program will provide multifamily apartment complexes, neighbors, churches, and other groups the opportunity to invest in a solar array and receive credit on their power bills through a program best known as virtual net metering. The bill is a great example of how communities can pool together their interests and resources to play an even more active role in transitioning Maryland to a clean energy economy.
As we move forward to push this bill through the Senate, we’ll want your help to advocate for the passage of this bill. We don’t want to see the bill get weakened any further and we need your help to let Senators know that we need to start getting these projects on the ground!
MD Clean Energy Advancement Act (HB 377 & SB 373)
The MD Sierra Club has been working with a broad and diverse coalition of environmental and public health officials, business leaders, labor leaders, faith leaders, academics, low-income advocates and social justice advocates on a bill called the MD Clean Energy Advancement Act that would increase the state’s clean electricity standard to 25% by 2020. The state’s current goal is 20% clean power by 2022. For just $0.52 per month for an average Maryland ratepayer, 25% clean electricity will significantly improve the state’s air quality while preventing 50 to 110 deaths per year and increasing economic growth by $458 million to $1.0 billion annually throughout the region due to better health outcomes.
Both versions of this bill have made it through hearings in their respective chambers and are awaiting a vote to cross over to the other chamber. Fortunately, the usually firm deadline for this vote called the "crossover date" has been relaxed this year due to an unusually high volume of bills and a large number of first year delegates and senators. So, this bill and others like it still have a strong fighting chance to make it to the Governor's desk!
Sierra Club volunteers have been working hard alongside our coalition partners to get this far. We've been out in the cold at numerous rallies and lobby nights, and we've delivered thousands of petitions and letters from Maryland residents, business owners, organizations, and churches to our legislators in Annapolis. Our grassroots presence is stronger than it has ever been before in Annapolis, and we need your help for the last push!
Make sure to call and write your legislators in support of this important bill, and please contact
seth.bush@sierraclub.org to learn about other ways you can help including a "literature drop & photo op" on Monday, April 6th!
Healthy Air for All Act (HB 1042 & SB 892)
The Healthy Air for All Act is the legislative priority we never expected to undertake. After more than 15 months of strong grassroots organizing and meetings with top state air quality policy makers, health experts, and the coal industry, the MD Department of the Environment released an effective and appropriate plan to improve our state's smog problem by cleaning up Maryland's dirtiest coal-burning power plants. The plan was signed and ready to be enacted when Governor Hogan yanked it from the printing press. The Healthy Air for All Act puts the power to clean up our failing air quality in the hands of our legislators instead, and it would effectively codify the plan as-written into law if the Governor refuses to take equivalent or better action toward cleaning up smog-forming pollution from dirty coal plants.
This bill made it through a hearing in the House Economic Matters Committee on March 12th, and we expect it to come up for a vote in the House of Delegates very soon. Fortunately, the usually firm deadline for this vote called the "crossover date" has been relaxed this year due to an unusually high volume of bills and a large number of first year delegates and senators. So, we still have a chance!
Visit sc.org/HealthyAirVote to send an email to your legislator about this bill TODAY!
Contact seth.bush@sierraclub.org for updates on this bill and ways to get involved.