Help stop the war on solar in Howard County

Help STOP a war on solar
in Howard County
before it gets started

Councilman David Yungmann (R-5) has introduced legislation, CB55-2019, that would impose a one-year moratorium on commercial solar on land zoned for agriculture in Howard County (zoning of Rural Residential and Rural Conservation, which is mostly in District 5 in western Howard County but includes some areas in Districts 1 and 4). Yungmann wants to halt commercial solar until his proposed Commercial Solar Facilities Task Force (CB133-2019) examines existing policies.The hearing is set for Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. at the George Howard building in Ellicott City.
The moratorium bill calls commercial solar installed under current regulations a "threat to the sustainability of the agricultural industry and the public health, safety and welfare." For starters, that ignores the huge threat that climate disruption poses for health, safety and food-growing.
In addition, this bill impedes our transition to renewable energy, particularly because "commercial solar" is a source of community solar. Sign petitions about that here and here.
Farmers who want to install commercial solar already must apply for a conditional use permit. In addition, recent studies have shown that adding solar increases agricultural production. (More on that here and here.) During a #ClimateEmergency, legislation that blocks solar is not part of the solution. Write to your councilmember to oppose this bill. Sign up to testify here. To let us know you will attend (and get ideas for testimony), email us at HoCoClimateAction@gmail.com. Talking points here.

#NoNewPipelines in MD
Meeting #1 of four
Allegany College of Maryland
12401 Willowbrook Road
Continuing Education Building, Room #20
Cumberland
Friday, Oct. 11, 11:15 a.m.

We banned fracking in Maryland, but that's not stopping Governor Hogan from embracing plans to build fracked-gas pipelines in our state. In approving the AltaGas merger in 2017, the Hogan administration pledged to spend $33 million to "kick-start" fracked-gas infrastructure in Maryland. (Plus AltaGas could spend another $70 million -- from ratepayers -- on this, too.) The General Assembly, in Senate bill 52, required the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) to hold four meetings in 2019 about this scheme, so this is the first. We need YOU to say NO to Hogan’s terrible, horrible no good, very bad fracked-gas plans. Please attend one of the meetings or send your comments. The comment form is here; email comment as a pdf to SEIFComments.MEA@maryland.gov.
A far better use for that money would be to repair fracked-gas pipeline leaks, which release climate-disrupting methane and can cause explosions, like the one in Columbia in August.
Instead of building new fracked-gas pipelines and compressor stations, we need to move Maryland toward clean and renewable energy.

Facebook event here .
We'll keep you posted about the other meetings.
The meeting will be broadcast on the MEA Facebook page here.

HoCo Climate Action appreciates your support.

Steering/Advocacy Team
Tuesday, Oct.15
7 p.m.
at Betsy’s house.
Email Betsy or call
410-730-7740
if you plan to attend.

Saturday, Oct. 19, 2 p.m.
First Presbyterian Church
of Howard County
High school and college students and recent graduates won't want to miss this opportunity to hear . representatives of environmental companies and organizations
discuss federal employment, environmental licensing and certification, and trends in environmental employment. Details.

Campus Sustainability Day
Thursday, Oct. 24
10 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Workshops, movies, local agencies & groups, tours, sustainable food and much more.
Visit and help us table Sign-up here.

Reversing Global Warming
More opportunities for the Introduction to Drawdown Workshop
Webinar
Thursday, Oct. 24
6 - 8 p.m.

Howard Community College
Burrill Galleria - Academic Commons
presentation by Lore Rosenthal, Greenbelt Climate Action Network
RSVP here

Plastic Pollution
and the Solutions
Sunday, Nov. 3
noon - 1 p.m.
Emmanuel UMC -Youth Room
Pat Hersey and Alisa Niefeld-Batiz of Less Plastic Please
will talk about the threats from plastic pollution and the need to reduce plastic production..
Details

Know Before You Throw:
Are you recycling right?
Wednesday, Nov. 6, 7 p.m.
Emmanuel UMC -Fellowship Hall
Gina Bonomo, Howard County recycling coordinator, will explain the many recycling opportunities available to Howard County residents. Q&A follows.
Details

#NoPotomacPipeline

Second Hands Across the Potomac
Sunday, Oct. 13, noon to 2 p.m.
Facebook event here

Let's keep the pressure on to stop the pipeline and the polluting Rockwool factory it would serve. In August, a federal judge rejected Columbia Gas' plan to use eminent domain to construct the Potomac pipeline near Hancock. Columbia Gas has appealed this decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. In September, the National Park Service voted to grant a permit for the project, saying it would have "no significant impact." To carpool, email HoCoClimateAction@gmail.com

More events and updates on Our Events Webpage:
www.hococlimateaction.org/events/MD-DC-Events

Bill McKibben, in his latest New Yorker essay, says we in the U.S. must stop telling ourselves "a persistent fable" that we have made progress in cutting GHG. In switching from coal to fracked gas, we have increased methane emissions: "So, we have wasted the past decade on a strategy that reduced our carbon-dioxide emissions but had no net effect on our total emissions of greenhouse gases. Indeed, by promoting the use of gas around the world, the United States has helped to insure that similar emissions charts for other countries will look much the same."
After the hottest June and July ever recorded, and the 2nd-hottest August, the Earth endured its hottest September.
Saltwater from sea-level rise along the mid-Atlantic coast is killing trees far from the ocean, leaving ghost forests.
Southwest PA residents are angry with their governor and other state officials for failing to study a potential link between fracking and a number of rare cancers among young people.
Naomi Klein discusses her latest book, On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal: "I feel like this is a moment when we need a much more expansive discussion of the interlocking crises of our time. If we don’t get out of this idea that these are separate crises, then the truth is that climate will always be pushed out of the way. Because it’s not more urgent than kids being ripped away from their families and dying in the desert — anyone who tries to win that argument is monstrous themselves. We either merge, join forces, or we lose."
"There will not be another Standing Rock. There will be dozens, maybe even hundreds, by the time the fight to avoid the encroaching [climate] crisis is finished, if it ever is," Nick Martin writes in The New Republic. This article has numerous links and covers climate justice, laws against protestors and much more.
Twenty fossil fuel companies, led by Chevron, are directly linked to more than one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the modern era. Michael Mann responds: “The great tragedy of the climate crisis is that seven and a half billion people must pay the price – in the form of a degraded planet – so that a couple of dozen polluting interests can continue to make record profits. It is a great moral failing of our political system that we have allowed this to happen.”
The Guardian created a timeline showing what the petroleum companies knew about the climate risks from burning fossil fuels. .

HoCoCA posted these items and so much more

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How to donate to HoCo Climate Action
Please make checks payable to CCAN
(Chesapeake Climate Action Network)
with HoCo Climate Action on the memo line.
Mail to HoCo Climate Action
10306 Champions Way, Laurel, MD 20723
HoCo Climate Action has partnered with Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) to achieve non-profit status. Donations are tax-deductible.

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