February, 28 2022, 03:43pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
KC Chartrand, Chesapeake Climate Action Network and CCAN Action Fund, KC@cheseapeakeclimate.org, 240-620-7144
Mike Tidwell, Chesapeake Climate Action Network and CCAN Action Fund, Mtidwell@chesapeakeclimate.org
As Ukraine War Pushes Up Gas Prices, Top Maryland Environmental Leaders Challenge Legislators to Pass Strong 'Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022'
Advocates call for fast action on transformative bill as climate change accelerates and fossil-fuel price spikes hurt vulnerable Marylanders.
WASHINGTON
As climate change impacts worsen and war in Europe triggers spikes in fossil fuel prices, top Maryland environmental leaders gathered today for a Zoom press conference. Their message: Maryland's General Assembly must keep its promise to meet the climate crisis by passing strong legislation in 2022, starting with "The Climate Solutions Now Act."
"Top leaders in the Senate and House said they plan to pass 'historic, bold, and far-reaching' climate legislation," said Mike Tidwell, executive director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network/CCAN Action Fund. "The Climate Solutions Now Act fulfills this goal, and it couldn't come at a better time. The war in Europe is turning already volatile gas prices into a roller coaster ride. So electrifying more homes and moving away from gas - as this bill will do - addresses both pocketbook issues for low income families AND newly emerging geo-political threats to our national economy from the Ukraine war."
To watch the entire press conference on YouTube, click here.
Speakers at today's press conference included the Maryland Sierra Club, Maryland League of Conservation Voters, and Chesapeake Bay Foundation as well as Chesapeake Climate Action Network/CCAN Action Fund. Several noted that the United Nations has just released its latest climate science report, which found that delaying climate action would cause the world to "miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all."
To address this crisis, advocates spoke in support of the "Climate Solutions Now Act" (SB 528), which has 27 Maryland Senate co-sponsors. Introduced by lead sponsor Senator Paul Pinsky, it calls for: a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 below 2006 levels and all newly constructed buildings in the state have fully electric energy systems for space heating and hot water no later than 2024. There is a slate of bills introduced in the House that would reach the same goals, known as the "Climate Solutions 2022" legislative agenda.
Utility companies Baltimore Gas and Electric and Pepco are now objecting to the Climate Solutions Now Act, saying they need more time to transition from gas to electricity in order to ensure that their infrastructure can meet the energy demand. Yet Pepco's parent company Exelon voted in favor of the Maryland Commission on Climate Change's recommendations for an all-electric standard for new buildings and one of their recent studies said that their infrastructure was ready to handle the additional load.
"Profit is [utilities'] bottom line, but we need to understand they are not the scientists, they are not the credible communicators on this," said Josh Tulkin of the Maryland Sierra Club. "We need the members of the General Assembly to look to the scientists and the architects and the engineers. This is the year for Maryland to take action."
"For the last two years, we gave the Maryland General Assembly an F and a D on climate," said Kim Coble of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters. "We should be taking a leadership role when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. That's what they'll do by passing SB 528."
"We need climate solutions," said Josh Kurtz of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. "This bill is not only a solution for the climate, it's also a solution that reduces co-pollutants. When you burn fossil fuels, you're also producing other gasses such as NOx. When it's deposited in our waterways that flow to the Bay, it contributes to the deadzone and other issues we've been combatting for years. We know that when we combat pollution, we combat its human health impacts as well."
Chris Parts, AIA, LEED AP, and Principal of Hord Coplan Macht said: "Buildings account for approximately 40 percent of energy consumption in the US. If we work collaboratively, the building industry can make a significant impact in reducing emissions and combating climate change. We are designing buildings across all types as electric buildings now. We can continue to focus on designing smarter buildings to passively demand less energy to heat and cool them, and continue to take advantage of efficiency technology to reduce energy demand."
"It's an interesting and exciting time to be an electrical engineer," said Ben Roush, Principal of FSi Engineers in Baltimore, speaking of his work electrifying buildings. "The cost of gas service savings is so great that it more than pays for the cost of installing the heat pumps. You can save money by building all-electric buildings. It's feasible now."
"We've been incremental in our response to climate change all over this planet... and across the US... and here in Maryland. But the climate is not changing incrementally. It's changing massively, with freight-train speed," said Tidwell in closing." The Climate Solutions Now Act is not a heavy lift. It is a bill that makes sense, that sets a framework for more climate action later but it must include core provisions like 60% reduction in emissions by 2030 below and full electrification for new buildings in order to fulfill its promise."
The Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) is the first grassroots, nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to fighting global warming in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Our mission is to build and mobilize a powerful grassroots movement in this unique region that surrounds our nation's capital to call for state, national and international policies that will put us on a path to climate stability. - See more at: http://www.chesapeakeclimate.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view;=itemlist&...
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US Voter Registrations Surge as Republicans Try to Limit Ballot Access
One group said it has registered over 100,000 new voters since U.S. President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race.
Jul 26, 2024
The group behind a popular get-out-the-vote technology platform said Friday that it's registered more than 100,000 new U.S. voters since President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race, a surge that came amid mounting Republican efforts to make it harder to register and vote.
Vote.org said that 84% of voters registered in the new wave are under age 35. Nearly 1 in 5 new registrees is 18 years old. Andrea Hailey, the group's CEO, said that "since 2020, we have led the largest voter registration drive in U.S. history," with more than 7.8 million people registered.
After dropping out, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to face former Republican President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) in the November election. The new presumptive Democratic candidate has already earned endorsements from many Democrats in Congress and groups advocating on issues including climate, labor, and reproductive rights.
Vote.org's success comes as Republicans at the federal level are proposing and passing legislation creating obstacles to the ballot box.
Earlier this month, U.S. House Republicans passed Rep. Chip Roy's (R-Texas)
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However, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.)
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Lee said the SAVE Act underscores the need to pass her recently introduced Right to Vote Act, "which would establish the first-ever affirmative federal voting rights guarantee, ensuring every citizen may exercise their fundamental right to cast a ballot."
Earlier this year, U.S. Senate Democrats also reintroduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, legislation its sponsors say will "update and restore critical safeguards of the original Voting Rights Act."
Meanwhile, Republican-controlled state legislatures and red-state governors are enacting laws imposing tough restrictions on voter registration, with violations punishable by stiff fines that critics say are meant to dissuade people from registration drives and similar efforts.
Again under the guise of preventing fraud, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last year signed legislation limiting voter registration drives, with fines of up to $250,000 for violators.
"These draconian laws and rules are like taking a sledgehammer to hit a flea," Cecile Scoon, an attorney and president of the Florida chapter of the League of Women Voters,
toldThe New York Times in an article published Friday.
Three years after Kansas passed a law making "false representation" of an election official a crime, campaigners say it's become extremely difficult to sign up new voters.
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In Louisiana, Republican state lawmakers quietly passed legislation making it easier for election officials to toss out absentee ballots with missing details, limiting how people can mail in other voters' ballots, and restricting the ability to assist people with disabilities with their ballots.
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In Nebraska, Republican Secretary of State Bob Evnen last week
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"We refuse to accept thousands of Nebraskans having their voting rights stripped away," ACLU of Nebraska legal and policy fellow Jane Seu said in a statement. "We are confident in the constitutionality of these laws, and we are exploring every option to ensure that Nebraskans who have done their time can vote."
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"You thought Project 2025 was just a threat after the election? It's actually happening *right now,*" said one climate campaigner.
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Climate and environmental defenders on this week implored U.S. senators to block a permitting reform bill introduced this week by Sens. Joe Manchin and John Barrasso that one campaigner linked to Project 2025, a conservative coalition's agenda for a far-right overhaul of the federal government.
Common Dreamsreported Monday that Manchin (I-W.Va.) and Barrasso (R-Wyo.)—respectively the chair and ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee—introduced the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024.
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"This dangerous bill doesn't deserve a floor vote."
These are nearly identical policies to what's proposed in Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership. The plan, which was spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, calls for "unleashing all of America's energy resources," including by ending federal restrictions on fossil fuel drilling on public lands; limiting investments in renewable energy; and rolling back environmental permitting restrictions for new oil, gas, and coal projects, including power plants.
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Hartl said the bill "deprives communities of the power to defend themselves and gives that power to Big Oil by making it harder for communities to challenge polluting projects in court," and "prioritizes the profits of coal barons over public health."
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Hartl added that "to preserve a livable planet," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) "must squash this legislation now."
Manchin—who has said this will be his last term in office—has been a steadfast supporter of the fossil fuel industry, partly because his family owns a coal company. The senator says his permitting reform bill "will advance American energy once again to bring down prices, create domestic jobs, and allow us to continue in our role as a global energy leader."
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"Don't be fooled: The Energy Permitting Reform Act is another dirty deal to fast-track fossil fuels above all else."
NRDC managing director of government affairs Alexandra Adams said Wednesday that "this bill is a giveaway for the oil and gas industry that will ramp up drilling and environmental destruction at a time when we need to be putting a hard stop to fossil fuels."
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Sudan's military is blocking United Nations aid trucks from entering at a key border crossing, causing severe disruptions in aid in a country that experts fear may be on the brink of one of the worst famines the world has seen in decades, The New York Timesreported Friday.
The border city of Adré in eastern Chad is the main international crossing into the Darfur region of Sudan, but the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), the state's official military, which is engaged in a civil war with a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has refused to issue permits for U.N. trucks to enter there, as it's an RSF-controlled area.
U.S. and international officials have issued increasingly alarmed calls for steady aid access to help feed the millions of severely malnourished people in Darfur and other areas of Sudan.
Last week, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States ambassador to the U.N., said that the SAF's obstruction of the border was "completely unacceptable."
Both warring parties in Sudan continue to perpetrate brazen atrocities, including starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. This piece focuses on the SAF's ongoing obstruction of essential aid. The situation is catastrophic. The policy is criminal. https://t.co/FKhqQh3EI9.
— Tom Dannenbaum (@tomdannenbaum) July 26, 2024
The Sudanese who've made it out of the country and into Adré reported dire and unsafe conditions in their home country.
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Another mother, Dahabaya Ibet, said that her 20-month-old boy had to bear witness to his grandfather being shot and killed in front of his eyes when the family home in Darfur was attacked by gunmen late last year.
Now the mothers and their families are refugees in Adré, where 200,000 Sudanese are living in an overcrowded, under-resourced transit camp.
In addition to those that have made it out of the country, there are 11 million people internally displaced within Sudan, most of whom have become displaced since the civil war began in April 2023.
An unnamed senior American official told the Times that the looming famine in Sudan could be as bad as the 2011 famine in Somalia or even the great Ethiopian famine of the 1980s.
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The U.S. last week announced $203 million in additional aid to Sudan—part of a $2.1 billion pledge that world leaders made in April, which some countries have not yet delivered on.
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Sudan's civil war has seen a great deal of international interference. Amnesty International on Thursday published an investigatory briefing showing that weapons from Russia, China, Serbia, Turkey, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had been identified in the country. And The Guardian on Friday reported that the passports of Emirati citizens had been found among wreckage in Sudan, indicating the UAE may have troops or intelligence officers on the ground, though the UAE denied the accusation.
The International Service for Human Rights on Friday warned that both the SAF and RSF were engaged in wrongful killings and arrests, especially targeted at lawyers, doctors, and activists. The group called for an immediate cease-fire.
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