Climate Change Commission issues strong recommendations

The Maryland Commission on Climate Change has issued its report with recommendations for the current session of the Maryland General Assembly. These recommendations include a commitment to science-based global warming pollution reductions and measures related to energy efficiency and renewable energy.

When Gov. Martin O’Malley created the commission last year, it was uncertain whether the group would study the issue ad nauseam or get to work putting programs in place. Fortunately, officials at the Maryland Department of the Environment and other state agencies pushed to produce real recommendations in time for the legislative session.

After 70 meetings and conference calls by technical workgroups, the commissioners approved the report on Dec. 4.  Environment Maryland State Director Brad Heavner served on three workgroups specific to setting pollution caps, increasing clean energy production, and reducing energy consumption.

Commitment to reduce pollution

Scientists tell us we need to reduce emissions 20 to 45 percent by 2020 to avoid the worst impacts of global warming. The report recommends a binding commitment to reductions of 25 percent by 2020 and 90 percent by 2050.

Energy efficiency standard

The commission recommended the creation of an Energy Efficiency Resource Standard, which would require that utilities meet a portion of electricity demand each year with programs that reduce demand.

Renewable energy standard

In 2004, Maryland adopted a renewable electricity portfolio standard requiring that 7.5 percent of the state’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2019. The General Assembly added 2 percent for solar power last year and the commission is recommending that Maryland expand the standard to 20 percent by 2020.

Green buildings

The commission report included several recommendations to promote low-energy design techniques for buildings, including stronger codes for all buildings, higher requirements for government buildings, and incentives for some buildings to do more than the basic requirements.

In addition to serving on commission workgroups, Environment Maryland expanded its efforts to build grassroots support for addressing global warming. We helped build the Alliance for Global Warming Solutions, which now includes 50 organizations and 40 businesses.

Environment Maryland citizen outreach staff collected 8,000 comments from citizens throughout the state urging the commission to take strong action. We delivered these comments to the governor on three separate occasions, in June, August and October.

The commission’s next report is due in April. It will include a full list of policies the state will need to adopt to meet our goals. Similar processes in other states have yielded recommendations for 50 or more policies, which as a whole can reduce costs to consumers and build the economy while reducing pollution.