What's New

The Maryland Commission on Climate Change has released its final report: a “Climate Action Plan” for Maryland.  The plan outlines how we can achieve science-based reductions in greenhouse gas emissions statewide, including a reduction of 25% below 2006 levels by 2020.

The plan lays out 42 policy options to achieve those reduction goals and gives the results of a cost-benefit analysis for each policy.  The conclusion: Maryland will save money by reducing global warming pollution, and Maryland’s economy will grow as we invest more in energy efficiency and clean energy.

The next step is for Gov. O’Malley and the General Assembly to put this plan into practice.  Environment Maryland will be working this fall and next legislative session to make sure 2009 is the year of global warming solutions for Maryland.

How You Can Help

Send an email to Gov. O’Malley. Thank him for his leadership, and urge him to introduce legislation implementing the Commission's plan.

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.