Hannah Laub is CCAN’s Virginia Grassroots Coordinator. Here’s her story.
Tell us a little bit about yourself!
Hi there! I was born in raised in Charlottesville, Virginia. I left VA for the first time when I went to Kenyon College in Ohio, where I studied Sociology and Studio Art. After college, I did two years of Americorps – first in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and then in Seattle, Washington. About a year ago, I came back to Virginia and am happy to be back in the place I call home.
What woke you up to the climate crisis?
I went to Baton Rouge in 2016, when Louisiana experienced unprecedented flooding. I worked in a middle school, and our students were out for a week because the flooding caused destruction throughout the city. People lost their homes, businesses, and cars. Some had relocated to Baton Rouge from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, only to face the impact of climate change all over again. I spent that week gutting out people’s homes and working at donation centers, and even when students were back at school, the flood’s devastation lingered. It was shocking to see the impact three days of rain had on an entire community, and specifically how it impacted my students’ chances to have a happy, healthy school year.
What impacts of climate change currently hit home to you?
For me, the way climate change impacts public health really hits home. The air we breathe and the water we drink have a real impact on our health, and low-income communities are hit the hardest with these problems.
What brought you to CCAN?
I love CCAN’s concentration on justice and their belief in the power of grassroots resistance.
What has inspired you most working with CCAN?
The people! It really gives me hope to see the way CCANers advocate for our communities and the meaningful connections they make.
What have you contributed to bringing about a clean energy revolution that youare most proud of?
I just joined CCAN, so this answer will evolve. But for my previous job, I registered high school students to vote and helped them conduct get out the vote campaigns in their schools. So many of the students I worked with passionately cared about climate change. (That was truly the #1 issue students consistently brought up!) I’m hoping that by getting them more civically engaged, they will become lifetime advocates for climate justice.
What do you hope to see happen in terms of climate in the next year?
I hope that the pipelines continue to meet resistance and eventually stop construction. I also hope VA comes closer to adopting a clean energy policy, because we could be doing a lot better.
What do you like to do when you’re not working on climate change?
I love all things outdoors – hiking, swimming, just hanging out outside! I also try to stay active and make time to be creative by watercoloring and doing embroidery. I love spending time with friends and family, but my true love is eating.
During my freshman year writing class at the George Washington University this past spring, I wrote a research paper about the “Fridays for Future” climate change movement led by teenage Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.
This week, I met Greta face to face.
This month was historic for climate activism. Greta has inspired millions of people around the world since she started skipping school to go on a “climate strike” every Friday for over a year. As her movement gained traction, she became the central image for the climate change movement and gave speeches to government officials more than twice her age at events such as the COP 24, World Economic Forum, and the EU Parliament. Then she finally crossed the Atlantic towards New York City on a sailboat, the only carbon-free solution she could find. Her first arrival in North America since beginning the movement has led to a crazy few weeks for climate activists — not only in DC, but also in America and the world as a whole. I was fortunate enough to see her twice.
Striking in Front of the White House with Greta Thunberg
It was announced on Wednesday, September 11, that Greta would carry out her 56th strike on September 13 in outside of the White House — only two days later. I arrived very early; I was excited to interact and strike with a woman I had been admiring for a long time. At first, it was just myself and the organizers in attendance, and I watched the crowd surge in size and anticipation while waiting for Greta to arrive. The crowd at this strike was young — it looked like a lot of kids actually skipped school to come. A few hundred people ended up striking with merely two days notice, and lead strikers noted that they were used to only having around 20 people join them in the typical Friday strike.
Besides the over-eager press corps looking to catch a glimpse of Greta in action, this strike felt authentic, like it accurately reflected the Fridays for Future movement as a whole. The speeches took place on the south side of the White House. The crowd squeezed into the narrow sidewalk, and the lead strikers only used megaphones and their own voices to convey their anger with American lawmakers but hopefulness for the movement as a whole. When it was finally Greta’s turn to speak, it was brief, only for about a minute. She echoed the messages of the speakers prior, and said “see you next week on September 20th” for the global climate strike. And then it was over.
Greta Thunberg marching with Friday for Future strikers on the National Mall.
Amnesty International Honors Greta and Other Youth Activists with Top Award
My excitement grew over the next few days as I anticipated watching her accept Amnesty International’s “Ambassador of Conscience” award a few days later on my campus, the George Washington University.The Ambassador of Conscience Award is Amnesty’s highest honor to profound individuals and social groups working to protect human rights. As a current GWU student, I was lucky to obtain a free ticket to the event. The award ceremony was much more formal than the White House “strike.” Greta, along with a few other notable youth environmental activists, were being honored for their work in the movement. One of the recipients was Tokata Iron Eyes of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation. Her speech was actually my favorite of the night as she spoke about her commitment to environmental justice and indigenous rights since she protested the Keystone Pipeline when she was only 12 years old. I had goosebumps when she spoke.
Greta spoke towards the end, again keeping her remarks short. Following her acceptance of the award, she engaged in a panel discussion with other leaders of Fridays for Future in North America. I got the impression that while Greta recognizes her significance in the movement, she didn’t want to dominate the spotlight. Instead she wanted to recognize other important youth activists she works with. On the panel, she only answered one question that was directly asked of her. Most of the time, she would pass the questions on to her colleagues to allow them to publicly reflect on their time in the movement instead.
Greta Thunberg accepting Amnesty International’s 2019 Ambassador of Conscience Award for the Fridays for Future Movement.
DC Climate Activists Take Over Capitol Hill
After these two events, of course, came the massive “Global Climate Strike” on September 20. This strike was to be much bigger than the White House strike with Greta, with people of all ages in attendance. Overall, the event seemed like a success for the lead strikers who watched their Fridays for Future branch grow from a usual crowd of 20 students to a mass of over seven thousand participants.
It wasn’t as big as some other strikes that took place around the world that day, like the 300,000 that turned out in New York City, but the creative homemade signs and high-energy atmosphere reminded me of the Women’s March and the March For Our Lives. And it is worth considering the cumulative numbers: that same day, strikes took place in more than 1000 cities around the world, including locally in Baltimore, Newport News, Richmond, and Virginia Beach (all places where CCAN had a presence). Overall, more than 4 million people across the world took part in a climate strike. This number is historic.
Strikers at the DC Global Climate Strike on September 20, 2019.
Unpacking my Wild Week of Climate Activism
We all knew Greta Thunberg’s arrival in America was a huge deal for the international climate movement. But after having the opportunity to witness first-hand the movement she created, I compiled two major takeaways.
First, the Fridays for Future movement makes me feel old! I’ve spent the past week listening to brilliant and compelling speeches detailing the severity of climate change and the failure of older generations to act on it. I’m only 19 years old and I was still older than nearly every speaker. When a 12-year-old has the courage to speak out in front of hundreds of strikers, onlookers, and possibly even climate change deniers about society’s ignorant inaction on climate change, it becomes too difficult not to feel complicit and part of the problem. When I was 12, I was afraid to give an oral presentation to my 6th-grade class — let alone a massive crowd of climate activists. I feel old, but I know that I am still young enough to have a future I want to protect.
Second: this movement is so much larger than just Greta Thunberg or any one individual skipping school. During the first strike I attended, Greta tried her best to blend into the crowd and become a normal student striker. She made the same effort during the Amnesty International ceremony, which could have easily turned into a night to honor solely Greta. Instead, she brought her top American and Canadian strikers on the stage to accept the award with her and reflect on the inner workings of the movement as a whole.
Greta Thunberg, Jerome Foster III, and more North American Fridays for Future activists participating in a panel for Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience 2019 Award ceremony.
These events have strengthened my belief in just how important it is to be involved in the climate movement right now. As a student in DC, it amazes me to witness any social movement come to life on the national scale first hand. But having the opportunity to witness a movement so personally relevant and important to me is something that I will never forget. As the UN Climate Summit takes place during this week and more Friday climate strikes in the future, I remain optimistic that eventually our world leadership will shift its course on climate action. It is times like these that remind me why I chose to pursue my higher education in our nation’s capital.
Washington, DC — Today, more than one thousand “climate strikes” are taking place across the world, along with dozens of actions in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC. These are taking place as part of the “Global Climate Strike” mobilization to demand climate action just before the United Nations will hold a climate summit in New York City.
The Chesapeake Climate Action Network’s Executive Director Mike Tidwell issued the following statement:
“Today, across the DMV, thousands of students and their parents and friends are going on strike — leaving schools and jobs — to demand immediate action on the climate crisis. We at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network stand in complete solidarity with the young people who led today’s strike, which is why we are heeding their call to strike alongside them and demand strong climate action.
“What good is a classroom to a student who is handed a dead planet after graduation? And what better future can we offer young people than a safe global climate with cleaner air and cleaner water? Hats off to every student who stood up today to show their elders what true leadership is all about.”
Anthony Field is CCAN’s Maryland Campaign Coordinator. Here’s his story.
Tell me a little bit about yourself!
I was born in Plano, texas and went to High School in Wylie, Texas. Both are located in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. I moved to Denton, Texas to attend the University of North Texas (UNT) with a full ride and pursued a BA in Political Science and a minor in Peace Studies and Diplomacy.
I left UNT to serve as a 2015 White House Intern for former President Obama and after began managing the ground efforts for ballot initiatives and State and Federal races in Texas, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Virginia and also managed disaster relief efforts for FEMA in the wake of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Maria.
What woke you up to the climate crisis?
I had always been aware of the issue, but it was not until I began increasing my political activity after high school that I fully understood the scale. During my time at UNT I joined the local effort to institute a citywide fracking ban. Myself and dozens of other activists were able to take on the big oil interests and made Denton the first city in Texas to ban fracking! While this ban was eventually overturned by Governor Abbott in May of 2015, I am proud to have been a part of this incredible movement. Additionally, seeing the increased strength and frequency of hurricanes like Harvey opened my eyes to how we are already experiencing the negative effects of climate change. Thousands lost everything, a family friend included. Many thousands more had to evacuate and stay in shelters all across Texas. I had friends volunteer as translators for more than 12 hours a day for consecutive days. Tragedies like this will only become more frequent if we do not do something.
What impacts of climate change currently hit home to you?
The destruction of entire ecosystems, the danger posed to predominantly minority and low-income communities, the rapidly increasing health risks, the increased danger of water shortages, destructive weather patterns, the fact that we may not have a planet to live on in a few short decades… Ya know, small things.
What brought you to CCAN?
CCAN looked to be, and I am happy to find, an organization at the forefront of the fight against climate change and for environmental justice. They take a grassroots approach to organizing and have a commitment to including as many groups and people as they can in their fight.
What has inspired you most working with CCAN?
Being able to work every day surrounded by people who are passionate about the work that we are doing and seeing just how dedicated activists and community members are!
What have you contributed to bringing about a clean energy revolution that youare most proud of?
I am proud of my work with Frack Free Denton and my time helping candidates who support initiatives like the Green New Deal get into office. Something that is no less important that I do is utilize my reach on social media and other networks to educate and make people aware of the growing climate crisis.
What do you hope to see happen in terms of climate in the next year?
I had a dream that President Trump rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement. I would like to see that happen in real life.
What do you like to do when you’re not working on climate change?
I like to relax at home with my two dogs Loki and Prim, play video games, and spend time watching movies at home and in theaters with my girlfriend, Haley.
Who would you high five?
I would high five Elon Musk. Though I have my issues with him and various companies he has been involved with, I admire his passion and drive. I am thankful that he has put space travel, space exploration, and space tech development back in the spotlight. It has been my dream since I was a little boy to witness the rise of accessible space travel and to see the vastness of open space with my own eyes. I just hope we can continue to develop better, more sustainable ways to reach the stars that will not harm our own planet or ecosystems.
Washington, DC is a national icon when it comes to climate action. We don’t always get as much recognition as states but hey… we’re used to that. In December 2018 we officially became one of the strongest national climate action leaders. After years of intense advocacy, coming from actors such as CCAN, DC Climate Coalition, and DC residents, the DC Council unanimously passed the Nation’s most ambitious clean energy law.
The DC Climate Coalition fights for clean energy, 2018.
100% renewable (NOT nuclear) energy by 2032.
Emissions free public transportation and privately-owned fleet vehicles by 2045.
Strong new energy efficiency standards for new and existing buildings larger than 50,000 sqft (which make up 74% of DC’s electricity driven emissions).
This. Is. Climate. Leadership.
DC’s climate leadership doesn’t stop there. In July 2019, the US Green Building Council released a report ranking the country’s greenest states by LEED square footage per capita. DC didn’t make the top ten list… but not because it isn’t the greenest, but because it isn’t a state. Actually, DC boasts more square feet of LEED certified construction per capita than any state in the US.
AND, this year, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy ranked DC 5th on the city scorecard, which compares emissions reducing initiatives in 75 of the largest cities around the country.
AND, the District’s median Energy Star efficiency score is 74 while the national average is only 50.
We are setting a top tier example for other cities and states, and for the world. Go us!
Proposed 2-megawatt solar array, shown in this rendering, that will consist of more than 5,000 solar panels and be located on land owned by the Washington Archdiocese in northeast Washington D.C. (Catholic Energies).
AND, the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, along with
others, recently announced a plan to create DC’s largest solar array of
about 5,000 panels.
AND, In August, PEPCO, the largest distributor of electricity in the District, reported that 5.4% of the energy they supply to DC is coming from renewable sources. According to the new law, 17.5% of DC’s energy needs to come from renewables by December 2019. This is where RECs (Renewable Energy Credits) come in. Pepco will make up for the 12.1% difference with these credits. When we reached out to Pepco they said they are “on track” to meet the 2020 RPS.
Sidebar: [However, as Tyrion Lannister once said, “nothing someone says before the word ‘but’ really counts”]
BUT there is more work to be done.
You probably remember that the IPCC has said we have 12 years to make unprecedented changes to our current system. The headline was everywhere. The IPCC was basically repeating what scientists and environmentalists like me (and maybe you) had already known for years. Climate change is a real AND time-sensitive issue.
Headlines after the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 1.5°C Special Report was released.
That’s why DC’s climate legislation is so important. It sets a legally binding timeline for DC to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2032, and sets us on the path to a carbon neutral economy in the District. Although it’s one of the most ambitious climate laws in the country, it may not be ambitious enough. The climate crisis, which we are already experiencing in DC, calls for something as tough as – if not tougher than – what we enacted.
Twelve years from 2018 (when the IPCC 1.5°C special report was released) is 2030. The District won’t even be running on 100% renewable energy by then, let alone be carbon neutral.
Michael Marshall, in an opinion piece for Forbes, explains what the IPCC’s warning really means, stating “the reality is that there is no such cut-off: just a problem that gets worse and worse the later we leave it.”
What Climate Change Means for the District:
On July 8th the District received a month’s worth of rain in an hour. Let me say that again… a MONTH’S WORTH IN AN HOUR. It’s predicted that in DC, a 1-in-100 year storm will become a 1-in-25 year storm by 2050, and a 1-in-15 year storm by 2080. We must act now before this becomes our reality.
During the deadly heat wave in late July, DC’s Heat Emergency Plan was implemented. Six lives were lost due to the heatwave. Not normal. Not okay. This is climate change. No. These are signs of a climate emergency.
What’s worse? Despite the climate emergency being felt locally, the important timeline that the climate law mandates is perhaps in jeopardy.
The District’s public transportation system is supposed to be emissions free by 2045, yet WMATA doesn’t even have a plan in place to transition to electric buses.
Vehicles are the second highest emitters in the District, comprising 23% of all emissions. The Clean Energy Act requires the DC Department of Motor Vehicles to create a vehicle excise tax incentivizing fuel efficient vehicles by January 1, 2020, yet there are no public reports on current steps being taken by these agencies.
In July, MOMS Clean Air Force, a grassroots organization of over a million moms and dads hosted the play-in for climate action. Children from all over the country came to the Capitol to tell the hill to act now. CCAN, MOMS and others lobbied DC Council to implement the provisions of our new law before it’s too late.
In DC, low-income residents spend as much as 12% of their income on energy utility bills. The Clean Energy Act requires that in 2020, the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) and the DC Sustainable Energy Utility (DCSEU) will allocate at least 30% of the funds from the sustainable trust fund increases to low income residents for programs including energy bill assistance and workforce training. To date, no progress has been reported on these initiatives. Accountability and transparency are critical to making sure we achieve the change we need for a livable future.
Our new law funded the DC Green Finance Authority, effectively establishing one of the nation’s first Green Banks. It’s expected to attract $5 private dollars to every $1 public dollar to help fund clean
energy projects in places such as low-income communities around the District. However, corruption is already a concern for the DC Climate Coalition. Denise Robbins, Communications Director at CCAN, wrote an op-ed featured in the Washington Post, illuminating issues with the newly confirmed nominees to the DCGB board. Conflicts of interest tamper with the effectiveness of an organization that has the ability to have a positive effect of this magnitude.
Stories like these put a bad taste in DC residents’ mouths. When we lose hope, we lose this battle.
The DC government isn’t doing a great job at generating trust. And this is a government-heavy law. DC residents need transparency and clarification as to how the law is going to be implemented. There is danger in resting now. The government must be held accountable through the implementation process. We have the opportunity to solidify our role as leaders in a global transition away from carbon.
We want our law to set an example of what is possible when people work together to solve complex and seemingly insurmountable problems at a local level.
Here’s what needs to be done:
The DC Council should request updates from the DMV and DOEE regarding their plans to create the excise tax by the established deadline of January 1, 2020.
The DC Council should ask the DOEE and the DCSEU to report on their progress in establishing plans, including community outreach and engagement, for meeting funding goals for low income residents by 2020.
WMATA should develop and implement an electrification plan immediately.
The D.C. Council should pass an amendment that requires the Green Bank to establish strong oversight policies as law.
Please join us in this fight. Sign up to volunteer, stay updated through our email list, donate — one or all of the above. Anything helps. Together, we can keep moving DC forward.
For all I know, the old yellow mailbox was there on the porch on July 20th, 1969. The Takoma Park homeowners must have gotten letters from relatives and friends afterwards, everyone explaining where they were when astronauts first walked on the moon in black-and-white TV glory.
When I moved into the house in 1991, the aged, free-standing mailbox was still there, at the top of the porch stairs. For nearly two decades it remained. Then, about ten years ago, something odd happened. Bigger and bigger storms – including the 2011 Derecho — kept blowing the unattached mailbox (and lawn chairs) right off the porch. I put a stone in the back of the mailbox but the winds got stronger still. Last year I finally gave up and screwed in a new mailbox directly into the porch wall.
As extreme weather stories go, I’m lucky. I don’t have the surprise cascades of water flooding my basement or trees pancaking whole rooms like many Washingtonians. But here’s the truth: We all have climate stories now.
And so this week, as we mark the 50th anniversary of the first moonwalk, many people are thinking much more about the planet Earth than the faraway moon. So much has changed here at home since those first “Earthrise” photos appeared from Apollo. The massive, white polar ice caps, seen in the late 1960s through wispy clouds on an otherwise blue planet, have substantially disappeared. “It’s like looking at your ‘60s high school yearbook photo compared to who you are now,” says author and activist Bill McKibben. “That old Earth is long gone.”
What a leap of sci-fi imagination it would have taken for those 1969 Americans, so full of optimism and technological hope, to see us now: Washingtonians in July 2019 scrambling to the roofs of their cars to avoid drowning after six inches of rain fell in some places in one hour. The same city experiencing a heat index approaching 115 degrees by the end of July. Shopkeepers, meanwhile, in Annapolis and Norfolk and worldwide, boarding up waterside shops because those same blue oceans – so serene from space – are now massively swelling and crashing into continents. And across the DC area, beginning about ten years ago, varieties of the heat-loving Palmetto tree are now able to grow year round.
The same scientific method that got us to the moon has, for the past 50 years, been telling us the planet will warm and unravel if we keep using fossil fuels. Yet here we are today, still with no inspired national strategy – no 10-year moonshot plan — to solve the problem in the few years scientists say we have left to try.
Core blame, of course, rests with the oil companies like ExxonMobil who have funded climate-denying politicians and think thanks to confuse and lie to the public. But one day soon, to the sound of investigative gavels pounding on Capitol Hill, those same companies will wish they were the tobacco industry based on the staggering health implications and legal liabilities of their deception.
More immediately and locally, I worry about the media coverage of this crisis. Climate-enhanced Lyme disease is skyrocketing (I’ve suffered for ten years). Local vinyards are shutting down due to devastating early blooms. And, god, the flash flood warnings – beeping and flashing — blow up our phones almost daily. And yet the coverage in the Washington Post and elsewhere – while growing – is patently insufficient in volume and in connect-the-dots context. Yes, Post cartoonist Tom Toles’ keeps it real with his near-weekly focus on the irony and urgency of climate disruption. But shouldn’t every reporter and nearly every columnist be covering the issue with Tolesian frequency and urgency? Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodricks, a lifelong fisherman who has seen his favorite rivers and bays physically changed by global warming, recently pledged that one-third of all his columns will henceforth relate to climate change in some way. “What story is bigger than this?” Rodricks asks.
Finally and sadly on this moon walk anniversary, here’s a message for Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos: stop investing in space travel. Bezos’ quixotic company Blue Origin won’t be colonizing space anytime soon if that fragile, original experiment with organized life shuts down on the only blue planet we know. Better to put those billions of dollars into expanded Post coverage of the climate crisis and into direct financial investments in a moon-shot plan to electrify the Earthly economy with wind and solar power within the decade.
Finally, finally: If I could write a hopeful letter to the 2069 inhabitants of my home – both the Takoma Park ones and the planetary occupants – what would I say? Here’s what: “Happy 100th anniversary of the moon walk. Thank god we learned the right lesson – in time.”
Mike Tidwell is director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network
I’m choosing not to broadcast their names, but they are 14 and 20 years old. They came to live with me and my mom when they were 5. I’m exceedingly proud of both of them. The accomplishments of the older brother are borderline obnoxious — a ranked chess player at 12, he went on to score in the top one percent of hispanics on the PSATs, become a star rugby player, and graduate with a 4.5 GPA. He now attends college on a prestigious full ride scholarship, still playing rugby, and still being a generally awkward dork. The younger (also a ranked chess player) just finished his first year at high school. Already he’s received an award for a research project on Alzheimers — though no matter what he accomplishes, I will always remember him as the little boy who woke me up nearly every night of senior year to get in my twin-sized bed and protect him from nightmares.
This is what I used to think about when seeing my brothers. But lately, I think about what would happen if they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Both of them are half-Mexican and half-Salvadorian. They are also thankfully birthright citizens. But citizenship didn’t stop even a Marine Veteran from being erroneously detained, or more recently, a teenage boy named Francesco Galicia, who was held for 23 days.
Francesco’s story terrifies me. What could happen to other brown teenage boys who, frankly, act like teenage boys? What could happen to my brothers?
Thankfully, immigrant communities and allies across the country are working overtime to protect families and fight back against encroaching facism. Nonprofits like CASA, RAICES, and Families Belong Together are working to warn people about raids and assist with legal proceedings. Faith communities across the country are acting as sanctuaries for families and individuals to hide in. Jewish allies especially have been putting bodies on the line with “Never Again” demonstrations and making explicitly clear the connections between these actions and Nazi Germany.
This week, I asked my mom to make my brothers carry their passports with them. I hope that if anything should happen, the passports will be enough to get them home safely. The way things are going, it feels like only a matter of time before that citizenship status becomes a question, especially as Trump’s administration has already made moves to this end.
If you care about climate change, you should care about immigration and racialized xenophobia. The two are inextricably linked. Climate change is already forcing millions to leave their homes for safer ground. Over the next 30 years, — estimates range between 25 million and 1 billion people being displaced due to the impacts of climate change.
As we move forward into the next decade of climate transformation, it is up to all of us to be watchful of fear and hatred that threatens families like mine.
So much has happened in a few short months! Let me start at the beginning — right before this year’s legislative session. At the beginning of the year, we were ready to ride the green climate wave to victory. Nearly a supermajority of legislators in both houses pledged their support of the Clean Energy Jobs Act during the electoral season prior to the start of session. An omnibus bill, the legislation was to include all of the following:
A doubling of our state’s renewable energy requirement to 50% by 2030 and a plan to reach 100% by 2040
A $7 million dollar grant fund for veterans, women, small business owners and people of color to enter the green energy economy
An additional $8 million in workforce development funds, including $1 million earmarked for investment in high schools
An end to incentives for trash incineration as a qualifying renewable source
With so much support behind us, it seemed like session would be smooth sailing. Full speed ahead, we started the first day of session with one of the biggest Annapolis rallies in the history of our organization. We soon learned that we had extremely stormy weather on the horizon. Following the passage of stricter emission standards for incinerators in Baltimore City and on the heels of County Executive Mark Elrichs’ declaration that he would shut down the BRESCO incinerator, the incinerator lobby came out in force. The provision to remove subsidies from incineration was stripped out of the bill. Yet, with the support of clean energy champions like Delegates Mosby, Llewis, Charkoudian and an unlikely ally in Republican Senator Hough we worked to introduce two stand-alone bills also removing incineration incentives. In the weeks to follow, it became clear that the stand alone bills around incineration did not have the votes required to pass, and that the house was heavily divided on the issue. Meanwhile, the session clock kept ticking. But finally, a ray of hope broke through the clouds – the Senate passed their version of the bill with a bipartisan super majority, fully intact. However, due to the heavy delays, the bill ended up in the Rules committee, where many bills meet their end. And then, more waiting. It felt like years that the fate of our energy future was held in limbo. It was only in the final week – , intense grassroots pressure, and the mounting climate and solar energy crisis on everyone’s mind- that House leadership made the decision to move the bill out of Rules and to the floor for a vote, without including the incineration provision. Finally, at 10 pm on the final day of session and after hours of floor debate, the Clean Energy Jobs Act reached final passage from the General Assembly. Following our tumultuous session, we had a lot of discussion — with our community, and with ourselves. We knew the bill accomplished many things, but not everything we had worked so hard for. We wrote this summary of our perspective here, where we outlined the good and the bad about the very good but not perfect Clean Energy Jobs Act. Ultimately, we decided that because of the urgency of the climate crisis, and the benefits that the bill did provide, we would move forward with pursuing a signature from the Governor. This presented another challenge, as he had previously vetoed the Clean Energy Jobs Act of 2016. We were joined in our efforts by the amazing father and son duo, Vinny and Jamie DeMarco, who had previously biked over 400 miles across the state after the last clean energy jobs legislation was vetoed. They took to their bikes again and this time rode 150 miles, starting in Annapolis and making their first stop in Ellicott City. After their ride, it was time again for even more waiting. On nearly the last possible day for action, Governor Hogan wrote a letter announcing he would not be vetoing the Clean Energy Jobs Act. We’d reached final safe harbor at last. I and all of CCAN want to thank all of our supporters who stuck with us through this journey. To do that, we will be celebrating the passage of this bill with a party soon — details TBD. So get ready to celebrate and hang tight for more exciting updates about our next big move!
Following the action on the floor from atop the Maryland State House’s Senate chamber during the 2019 legislative session’s final hours, the CCAN team was tired but alert with anticipation after an entire day mingling with lobbyists and policymakers in Annapolis. Looking down onto the space’s grey-stroked cream marble pillars and wall paneling, gleaming wooden tables and leather chairs and crimson carpet embellished with the state seal, I could smell the musty scent of history being made time and time again. Kallan Benson, her dog Osage, Denise Robbins and Julia John stand before the Maryland State House on the last day of the 2019 legislative session. CCAN had spent two years pushing for the Clean Energy Jobs Act. The act aimed to double Maryland’s renewable energy to 50 percent of its total electricity consumption and create tens of thousands of solar and wind jobs by 2030 in an equitable transition to a clean energy economy. These were the last moments that would determine the result of all the unwavering energy the organization and its partners had poured into the bill. CCAN communications director Denise Robbins, digital campaign coordinator Stacy Miller and executive director Mike Tidwell sat by me, expecting it to pass. Although I’d only been helping with the Clean Energy Jobs Act for the past three months as a communications intern, I shared with them a strong desire and stomach-suspending excitement to witness the approval of the legislation now. When I first walked into CCAN’s quaint little headquarters on the edge of Takoma Park at the beginning of the year, I knew I wanted to contribute to the nonprofit’s determined efforts to catalyze regional policies combating climate change. I also intended to enhance my social media, search engine optimization and letter to the editor and op-ed writing skills. But with a journalism background that had restricted me from publicly taking sides, even on environmental issues I cared deeply about, I wasn’t sure exactly what I was getting myself into. Five months and one successful bill later, however, I’m happy to say my CCAN internship exceeded my expectations and taught me more about policy-focused climate advocacy than I could have imagined. A board in the Senate chamber shows the Clean Energy Jobs Act just passed 31-15. I’ve learned so much I can carry forward in my professional and personal endeavors. Besides getting a refresher on producing opinion pieces, I picked up the art of writing letters to the editor and had the opportunity to write one that Ray Lewis, of Baltimore Ravens fame, placed his name on. I got the hang of drafting effective social media posts and tweets and of identifying ways to improve their impact by applying insights obtained from conducting monthly analyses of the reach, impressions and engagements they achieved. What’s more, I received a solid introduction to using a search engine optimization tool to make web content more prominent and accessible. I also gained experience in putting together campaign communications materials, including video scripts and social media packets for climate activists, and in researching and contacting media outlets and reporters to increase coverage and grassroots support for CCAN events and actions. Around 10:20 p.m. on April 8, after a nerve-racking saga of proposed amendments and back-and-forths prolonged by adversarial delegates and senators, the Maryland General Assembly passed the Clean Energy Jobs Act. The electronic board to our left showed the Senate vote as 31-15 in bright green and red digits. Combined with a 95-40 victory earlier that evening in the House of Delegates, this gave the statute the votes it needed to override a possible veto from Governor Larry Hogan. While I was abroad for most of the ensuing month, I kept my eyes peeled for news regarding progress on the legislation’s signing. I was glad to find out that on May 24, it turned into law with neither the governor’s rejection nor his signature, committing the state to a path of climate leadership and completely renewable power in just two decades. One of my biggest takeaways from CCAN is an appreciation for the enormous extent of operations and communications work required to realize significant successes like the Clean Energy Jobs Act. From strategic fundraising to careful messaging, I had little sense of the high level of intricate planning and broad collaboration involved in convincing residents and legislators to back crucial climate policy. I consider myself very lucky to have been able to assist such a dedicated group of climate advocates with their well-deserved history-making win.
The good: The Maryland Clean Energy Jobs Act (SB 516) passed the state General Assembly on April 8th with a stunning veto-proof majority. The bill is the strongest clean-energy legislation ever passed in Maryland in the fight against climate change. It requires that 50% of the state’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2030 with a mandatory plan to get to 100% by 2040. It will create 20,000 new solar jobs in the state, turbo-charge the state’s offshore wind industry, invest in job training for minority communities, and reduce carbon pollution in Maryland and across the region equivalent to taking 1.7 million cars off the road. For these reasons, the bill passed by landslide margins — 95-41 in the Maryland House of Delegate and 31- 15 in the Senate. The bill was supported by most of the state’s largest environmental and civil rights groups, including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, Interfaith Power and Light of MD/VA/DC, the Maryland State Conference of the NAACP, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and many others. It was also supported by ten of Maryland’s leading climate scientists. The bad: Like most complex bills, this one has some significant shortcomings. Perhaps the most significant is an abhorrent loophole in state law that allows trash incineration to count as clean energy, thus gaining subsidies under the state’s clean electricity standard. This means that harmful, polluting incinerators will make up about three percent of the state’s renewable energy portfolio in 2020. (Wind, solar, and hydropower will make up 83 percent). Environmental and justice advocates, including CCAN, fought ferociously to close this loophole during the legislative session. We succeeded as part of a Senate version of the Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA) and we fought for two stand-alone bills in the House and the Senate to close the loophole. But none of our efforts garnered enough votes to pass out of the House Economic Matters Committee. In the end, the version of CEJA that passed both chambers did not close the loophole. For reference, Maryland’s two waste-to-energy plants for trash are the BRESCO facility in Baltimore City and the Dickerson plant in Montgomery County. Some legislators shared our deep disappointment over this setback. But every member of the House of Delegates from Baltimore City voted for the final version of the Clean Energy Jobs Act. And every senator from Baltimore City did the same. In Montgomery County, every Senator and Delegate voted for the bill save one, who didn’t vote at all. More details: Why did these legislators vote for a bill that failed to close the trash loophole? Several reasons have been offered by lawmakers:
As a whole, CEJA is a remarkable bill: The bill takes huge and historic steps to fight climate change and create jobs, as described above. And, without passage, 400 Maryland families were predicted to lose jobs in the solar industry in 2019. The industry lost 800 jobs when the bill didn’t pass in 2018.
Meanwhile, during the 90-day legislative session, local leaders in Baltimore and Montgomery County pledged to shut down the trash incinerators back home: The session, which began on January 8th, saw local elected officials back in Baltimore and Montgomery County make bold pledges and take extraordinary steps to begin shutting down the existing trash incinerators entirely and permanently. The Baltimore City Council voted 14-0 on February 11th to effectively shut down the polluting BRESCO plant by 2022. The newly elected County Executive in Montgomery County, Marc Elrich, announced on his first day in office on December 3rd that it is his goal to shut down the county’s Dickerson plant during his tenure. In the minds of some Annapolis legislators, this made action at the state level appear less urgent and environmental advocates began to lose their support for closing the loophole in state law.
And throughout the Annapolis session, organized labor and some elected officials fought all efforts at incineration reform: Lobbyists from the incineration companies Wheelabrator and Covanta encouraged legislators to take “helpful” tours of the incineration plants and pressured labor leaders into declaring that lost non-union jobs at these plants could lead environmentalists to threaten unionized jobs elsewhere in the combustion industries. This resistance created a politically insurmountable force in the House of Delegates. Many lawmakers told environmental advocates that they were very aware of moves toward plant shutdowns at the local level and they were very concerned about the simultaneous resistance to anti-trash legislation in the CEJA bill from labor and other quarters. Outside of this swirling controversy, legislators said they wanted to make sure that the bill’s dramatic incentives for wind and solar power were not lost.
So Annapolis lawmakers decided to leave trash incineration reform to local leaders for now while voting for a very-good-but-not-perfect Clean Energy Jobs Act. The stunning numbers — 95 yeas in the House, 31 yeas in the Senate — speak to the popularity of wind and solar jobs as well as the support for good climate policy. But a very big number of lawmakers have no intention of giving up on trash incineration. They intend to come back in 2020 to try to close the loophole forever, working with advocates. With the failure to close the loophole this year, energy generated through trash incineration will comprise 4% of the statewide mix of renewable electricity in 2020. The goal is to get that number to zero as soon as possible. Under the Clean Energy Jobs Act that just passed, 83% of the state’s portfolio for renewable electricity will be truly clean power like wind and solar by 2020. Specifically, by next year, it will be 57% wind energy, 21% solar power, and 5% small hydro power. Under this same bill, by the year 2030, 91% of the state’s portfolio will be wind and solar and small hydro. Local next steps: Advocacy groups will work with local governments to create “Zero Waste” plans and to shut down the incineration plants back home: The Chesapeake Climate Action Network and a host of groups have pledged to work tirelessly with elected officials and others to shut down the trash-burning plants in Baltimore City and Montgomery County AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. This will require working collaboratively with citizens, government agencies, and private industry to create and execute “Zero Waste” plans for these jurisdictions. Annapolis next steps: Advocacy groups will return to the Statehouse in 2020 to continue to build the political will needed to close the legal loophole for trash incineration in the state’s renewable portfolio standard for clean energy and to protect the health and well-being of our communities. CONTACT: Mike Tidwell, mtidwell@chesapeakeclimate.org; Brooke Harper, brooke@chesapeakeclimate.org
