The following is a guest post by Suzannah Mullen, a local progressive activist with Our Revolution Baltimore who MC’d last week’s Beyond Coal Forum, and worked with the Maryland Sierra Club on planning and outreach for the event.
Maryland State Delegate Robbyn Lewis
speaks at the forum.
Hey friends!
Last Tuesday the Sierra Club and Our Revolution joined together for an amazing Beyond Coal Forum! As the Organizing Director for Our Revolution Baltimore City/County, I had the pleasure of emceeing the event and we had a great turnout. I consider this an early step towards implementing the Green New Deal in Baltimore. It is easy to fall into stress and worry about the climate crisis and the state of our planet today, but this event was an example that we can do something about it...and that people are doing something about it. The first step is awareness and action will follow! I was extremely impressed with both our speakers and our attendees. Our attendees were well-spoken and well-informed on the subject of coal and fossil fuels. The questions from the audience provoked extraordinary discussion during the Q&A session.
First, we heard a fantastic presentation from Matt Dernoga, our Beyond Coal representative from the Maryland Sierra Club. His presentation laid out how we in Maryland are being affected by the air pollution from coal and a strategy as to how to transition from coal to renewable energy. Here are some “fun” facts from his presentation:
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Six coal plants in Maryland pumped out the same amount of climate pollution in 2017 as over 2,000,000 cars.
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Five coal plants in the state were operating with expired water pollution permits in 2018.
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Baltimore recently received an F grade from the American Lung Association regarding its Sulfur Dioxide levels. Sulfur Dioxide is a major coal plant pollutant that in excessive levels is like causing sunburn on your lungs.
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Baltimore has one of the highest asthma hospitalization rates in the country, and highest pre-mature death rates due to air pollution.
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On June 28th of this year Baltimore metro area hit code purple, which means “avoid all outdoor activity.
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The Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA), which just passed the Maryland General Assembly sets a goal for Maryland to get 50% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.
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CEJA includes a 14.5% solar carve out by 2028 (previously we were at 2.5% by 2020). The solar carve-out alone in this bill will provide more MWh from solar than all of the electricity produced by Maryland's coal plants in 2017.
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The legislation includes an additional 1200 MW of offshore wind, putting us at nearly 1600 MW by 2030.
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By the end of 2020, the goal is to secure an enforceable commitment to retire Maryland’s coal-fired power plants by 2025.
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Secure just transition and protections for impacted communities and workers.
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Workers and communities affected by the phasing out of fossil fuels are treated fairly and justly, particularly given the burdens they have borne;
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The jobs created by climate action programs and policies must be quality, family-sustaining jobs;
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Overburdened and underserved communities and constituencies must receive equitable access to the benefits of clean energy-related economic opportunities
Our second speaker, Joshua Harris, the Vice President of the Baltimore NAACP, gave a fiery speech about the urgency of acting against the climate crisis.
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We're behind the rest of the world on the transition to a clean energy economy, and we know that we have lower life expectancy due to the pollution and grade F air quality standards in many parts of Baltimore City and we have all sorts of issues with environmental justice issues. You don't see much movement as an environmental issue, but if you talk about it from an economic perspective, you get more movement. The most affordable way of energy creation right now is wind, followed by solar. There's no good reason to use coal as a way to create energy in the state of Maryland.
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If you look at it from pricing and efficiency, this should be one of the key motivators to move away from coal plants and to generate revenue. It's an opportunity. We're a blue collar town without blue collar jobs - we need to be a green collar region and lead the region in clean energy direction. We can create thousands of living-wage jobs by shifting in this direction and retraining those who are currently working at the coal plants in MD. We have 12 years to reduce our carbon footprint before it is irreversible. There's an urgency for being a leader in this transition.
Kristin Koehler, an associate professor from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, gave an excellent presentation on her research regarding air pollution (which causes 90,000 deaths per year nationally).
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She pointed out the relationships between air quality and health risks and disease are significant and we have no choice to breathe the air. Coal burning for power contributes to (92% of use) many air pollutants and in 2018, about 30% of power in the US came from coal.
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She is conducting a research project that questions neighborhood-level differences in Baltimore air quality due to energy-related factors. Her project utilizes portable monitoring technologies that create opportunities to measure air pollution exposures for individuals accounting for where they spend time. If you have any interest in being part of this project, let us know!
Our final speaker, Delegate Robbyn Lewis began with a recap on what she's done, what she is doing currently, and then finished by asking the audience what they want from her.
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She's car-free and prior to the General Assembly, she worked on public health and public awareness with a focus on infectious diseases. She highlighted how in the last three years the General Assembly has banned fracking (only state in the union that has frackable gas that has banned fracking), banned styrofoam, created a standard of 50% renewable energy by 2030 in MD.
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She also expressed a willingness to sponsor a bill for our coal transition plan from the Sierra Club.
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She talked about the need to pass the Green Amendment in Maryland enshrine in our constitution, the guarantee that every person in MD will have a healthy environment. Bill was introduced this year and they’ll get it back in the works.
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Making sure that the promise in the Green Energy Jobs Act to actually create jobs. She’s also working on the incinerator (that burns trash) that contributes to major air pollution in Baltimore City and it’s in a residential neighborhood. Incineration is currently considered renewable energy!?)– and she was disappointed to not have that removed as part of the Green Energy Jobs Act. Wants to create a taskforce in South Baltimore to legislatively move away from incineration.
During the Q&A, we had some outstanding questions and suggestions for solutions from the audience:
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Funding for a coal community transition fund, and the merits of that coming from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative’s Strategic Energy Investment Fund vs new money coming into Maryland. Delegate Lewis for example mentioned funds from the possible legalization of marijuana.
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Fossil fuels are subsidized! Whether there is money going to fossil fuels subsidies could instead fund the transition from coal.
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The possibility of building a coalition of institutions getting behind the effort, such as John Hopkins, and if these public can divest from fossil fuels.
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Carbon Tracker – An international group’s website that has analysis on feasibility of moving on from coal, show companies where it would behoove them to move on to alternative energy - it's cheaper to create new alternative energies than it is to keep the existing ones going on - the Brandon Shores and Wagner Plant would save taxpayers 25% overall if we immediately move into for solar in Anne Arundel County. Matt asked to follow up with the questioner to look into this information.
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Retirement for coal workers? - We definitely need a coal transition plan that would take care of workers at retirement age - A bill outline ready at the end of the month, in development - Job retraining is great if you plan to go back out into the workforce, but if you're at a retirement age, then it's absolutely critical - We know that the number of coal-plant supported jobs in MD is under 1,000 - supports for workers are extremely doable from a financial perspective, Maryland Sierra Club is currently asking local jurisdictions that are considering coal resolutions to call for this.
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What's wrong with the Public Service Commission that approves new power plants and how can we fix it? Delegate Lewis talked about legislation she had tried to get passed to require them to consider the public health impact of proposed power plants. It may come back in a future session.
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How do we get Senator Cardin on the Green New Deal? Delegate Lewis encouraged attendees to write or even show up in person to address Senator Cardin on the GND.
One of the greatest takeaways from the event was the importance of groups with over-lapping priorities such as Maryland Sierra Club, Our Revolution Baltimore, and the Baltimore NAACP to be collaborating on solutions that can address environmental justice, economic justice, and racial justice concerns in Baltimore. We all agreed to continue to work together around both coal community transition, as well as the systemic challenges that jurisdictions such as Baltimore City faces. This forum was a great start, and I’m excited for what comes next.