Two great things happened this year. In Maryland, we passed one of the strongest caps on global warming pollution in the country.  And, for the first time ever, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a nationwide clean energy and global warming bill. 

On Sept. 30, the Senate unveiled their version of federal global warming legislation -- the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act.  The bill improves on the House version with better short-term pollution limits and by not rolling back EPA authority to regulate global warming emissions from power plants.

Environment Maryland released a white paper on federal legislation on Sept. 28.

On a different front, the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a new rule to require coal plants and other big smokestack industries to meet modern standards for global warming pollution.  Environment Maryland is working to build the public support EPA needs to finalize the proposal. 

However, the coal industry is trying to use the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act in Congress to block any EPA action to require existing coal plants to meet performance standards for global warming pollution.  Senator Cardin has already shown his support for keeping EPA authority and our environmental protections intact.  We're calling on Senator Mikulski to do the same.

Urge Sen. Mikulski to keep EPA authority to clean up old, dirty power plants intact.

Global warming is the most profound threat to our environment that we now face. From the increasingly severe hurricanes along the East Coast to the disappearing glaciers that are causing sea level rise, the effects of global warming are happening now. How much worse it gets depends on how soon we act to reduce our use of fossil fuels.

Clean energy is the solution to global warming.  But most coal plants, like the aging gas-guzzler in the driveway, are paid off, and therefore cheap to run, even though they impose major costs on the environment and public health.

Right now in Maryland we're stuck getting too much of our power from old, dirty coal-fired power plants – the nation's single largest source of global warming pollution.  To add insult to injury, old coal plants also are responsible for disproportionate amounts of smog, soot, and mercury pollution, which threaten our health and the environment.

In the fight against global warming, the stakes are particularly high for Maryland. We are already losing 260 acres per year to rising sea levels, and scientists predict that warming will cause sea level in Maryland to rise by three feet or more before the century's end. Warmer seas will produce more severe tropical storms and hurricanes—causing damage to towns along the Chesapeake Bay and more floods throughout the state.  It will also cause great damage to agriculture by disrupting traditional weather patterns.

We can reverse the trends that are causing the planet's temperature to rise. But we need to act quickly to establish real solutions.  We need to:

• Require that America generate 100 percent of its electricity from clean sources such as wind and solar power;
• Cut our dependence on oil in half; and
• Reduce heat-trapping global warming pollution 80 percent by 2050.