Wall Street’s recent pains have sparked a response in the White House that has been unprecedented. The threat raised by bad investments and lending practices have compelled the White house Continue reading
Hands in the Middle for Maryland
by Ethan Nuss
Oh yea, Power Vote‘n in MD, baby! This past weekend members of the Maryland Student Climate Coalition (MSCC) gathered to launch Power Vote in style, and set a stellar state goal of 40,000 total pledges! (Two Maryland High School students gathered 400 pledges in the 5 days after returning from the Mega Camp training in MN. Booyah!) The MSCC is also planning multiple coordinated Green Jobs Day of Action events across the state and looking to garnish some high profile media like the Washington Post. But wait it doesn’t stop there…. the MD students heard that the Governor and several of their US congresspeople will be doing a campus speaking tour the first week of September. Expect to see Maryland students there in Power Vote T-shirts, green hard hats, and waving signs, because I smell some sweet bird-dogging.
But before we get ahead of ourselves with the excitement of the Sunday gathering (see silly video). Let’s rewind to Friday when they got their first campaign victory. Maryland students and community members went to an in district meeting with Rep. Elijah Cummings. What was the result of that meeting, you ask? They got Rep. Cummings to become the second member of congress to sign onto the 1Sky platform and commit to Green Jobs, Science based carbon reductions, and a moratorium on new coal plants. Yay! Look out Maryland elected officials because the MSCC is here to Kick this country into action!
Hey Congress – We Want Funding for Green Jobs!
It’s that time of year again – appropriations time. That time when all those great laws (or not-so-great laws) that were passed by Congress get money so that they can actually be implemented. Continue reading
Gov. O'Malley supports global warming solutions; old guard still wrong on jobs
Huge news for Marylanders today: Governor Martin O’Malley is going to announce his support for the Global Warming Solutions Act! Check out the AP and Sun articles about it. Last year, O’Malley’s support meant that the Clean Cars bill passed. This year, it means that the pressure on Sen. Miller and Del. Busch is building, and might help push them off the fence in favor of the Global Warming Solutions Act.
The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2008 (SB-309, HB-712), which is in Senate hearings TODAY, would require Maryland to reduce its global warming pollution 25% by 2020 and 90% by 2050 as cost-effectively as possible, as recommended by the Maryland Commission on Climate Change. These targets, based on what scientists recommend is necessary to avoid the worst impacts of global warming, would be the strongest in the nation. Read more about the bill>>
There’s still strong opposition to the bill, largely from interests that FALSELY think that the bill would lose jobs for the economy. “It’s not going to be at all positive for the economy, but this legislature and this administration [don’t] care,” says Republican Sen. David R. Brinkley, the Senate minority leader from Frederick County. “They are more interested in making political statements about saving the Earth than saving Maryland jobs.”
Instead of relying on Senator Brinkley for information on how this bill will affect jobs in Maryland, I like to rely on business leaders. Leaders like Rex Wright, of Johnson Controls, Inc. Rex is the Installation Manager for the Mid-Atlantic Region. Johnson Controls specializes in building efficiency and Rex will testify before the Senate Committee on Education Health and the Environment today. Here’s a snippet of what’ he’ll have to say:
“Sustainability initiatives create jobs,” stated Rex Wright of Johnson Controls, Inc., a business specializing in building efficiency. “The soon to be completed energy efficiency initiatives between Johnson Controls, Inc. and Baltimore City Public Schools, for example, created over 200 jobs, over 50 of which were created for minority and women -owned businesses. Sustainability works; it creates jobs.”