What's New
Despite strong backing by the O'Malley administration and unprecedented grassroots support, the General Assembly voted this April to dismiss the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2008.
The centerpiece of the bill was a plan to reduce our emissions 25% by 2020. By dropping this bill, the legislature missed a golden opportunity to put Maryland at the head of the curve on clean energy.
A number of other strong energy bills passed that will help protect Maryland from the worst effects of global warming and lower costs for consumers:
- EmPOWER Maryland (SB 205/HB 374) codifies Governor O'Malley’s goal to reduce statewide per-capita electricity consumption and peak demand by 15 percent by 2015. The bill will save Marylanders $4.1 billion in energy savings by 2020 and reduce greenhouse gas pollution.
- Maryland Strategic Energy Investment Program (SB 268/HB 368) gives the Maryland Energy Administration the resources to offer energy efficiency services to underserved markets that utility companies are not addressing. The fund will be financed through the upcoming sale of carbon allowances to power plants as part of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which Maryland joined as part of the 2006 Healthy Air Act.
- Renewable Portfolio Standards (SB 209/HB 375) increases the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) from 9.5 percent to 20 percent, which would increase the amount of clean, renewable energy used in Maryland. This will make our electricity system more reliable by diversifying our energy sources; it will also promote economic development while limiting greenhouse gas pollution.
- Solar and Geothermal Tax Incentive and Grant Program (HB 377/SB 207) expands the Solar Grant program. This program has been successful in urging consumers to install small-scale solar and geothermal projects at home. Increasing our use of clean, renewable energy like solar and geothermal is necessary in curbing global warming.
How You Can Help
Email your state senator and delegates to let them know the Global Warming Solutions Act is important to you. Legislators need to hear from everybody we know that this is a priority.
Brief Summary
Maryland can address global warming while stimulating innovation, creating jobs, lowering costs to consumers and businesses through energy efficiency upgrades, and making our power system more secure and reliable by diversifying our energy sources. The productive investment in clean energy industries that will be vital to reducing the effects of global warming will have immediate benefits to the state.
This bill will help us develop a long-term plan for an orderly transition toward a modern clean energy system. By phasing in the start-up costs appropriately, this transformation will come at a net savings to the state and boost the economy.
Policies to address global warming are under debate in national and international forums, but will not be adopted there for years. Maryland can emerge as a green industry leader, raising the bar for other regions and ensuring us a seat at the table as we teach other states and nations how to build a new energy future.
There is no doubt that we must address our own global warming pollution. In Maryland, we emit 109 million tons of global warming pollution every year, and we are particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels and more severe storms because we have a lot of coastline and low-lying land. We can do our part to reduce global warming effects and jump start the technology and investments that the clean energy future holds. With all of our assets in science, education and technology, Maryland can be to clean energy what Texas is to oil.
The coast of the Chesapeake Bay is particularly vulnerable to sea level rise, given its low slope. The problem in Maryland is exacerbated by the gradual sinking of land due to geological forces. Sea level rise already consumes at least 260 acres of coastal land in Maryland each year. Large portions of the 26,000-acre Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge are already flooded.
Increased storm activity will also result from global warming. We all remember the devastating impacts of Hurricane Isabel. If storms similar to that were to occur more frequently, it would do immense damage to the state’s economy.
Other impacts of global warming include increased spread of infectious disease, reduced crop yields, worsened health impacts of air pollution, deadly heat waves, and ecosystem shifts.
The federal government is not taking action on this issue, but America is acting nonetheless. State by state, governors and legislatures are making commitments to real reductions. Taken together, this action is putting a big dent in global warming pollution and will stimulate federal policy and international treaties.
Scientists predict that we will need to reduce emissions of global warming pollution by 25 percent by 2020 and 90 percent by 2050 if we are going to avoid the worst impacts of global warming. Maryland should commit to making the reduction that science finds to be necessary. Policy makers and business leaders can design programs that achieve the reductions in the most cost-effective way once the commitment is made.
Fortunately, we know all of the first steps that are needed to achieve the necessary reductions in pollution. The most important decision is to put them into place without delay. Over the next 15 years we can deploy the cleaner technologies that we already have but are not using much. This gives us time to develop and implement more advanced technologies after 2020.
The steps to meet our 2020 goals include measures to:
* Modernize appliances and machinery so that they use less energy.
* Increase renewable energy.
* Set standards for green buildings.
* Upgrade power plants so they waste less energy.
* Phase in fuel from natural sources like soybeans and switchgrass.
