Washington, DC and National

The plunge must go on! On February 13th, hundreds of climate activists will come together virtually to take the plunge for our climate.

There are many ways to join the plunge. You can dump an ice-cold bucket of water on yourself, jump into a cold bath or kiddie pool, or even run into a nearby pond or creek. All that matters is that you and bear-y cold water come into contact.

Join the CCAN team, Bill McKibben, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, and Congressman McEachin for this fun virtual event! Our annual plunge is our largest fundraising event of the year. Sign up at www.keepwintercold.org.

With Biden’s inauguration we have a rare window to enact sweeping national climate policies. We are preparing to have the largest impact on these national policies as possible, to help make sure they are passed and fight to put racial equity at the center of those policies. We have doubled down on our grassroots efforts in West Virginia and we will be ready to push Senator Manchin to support real climate solutions. With a closely divided Senate, no climate policy will be able to pass without Manchin’s support. 

CCAN has also been a movement leader in making sure we protect access to the courts for municipalities suing the fossil fuel industry. We are building relationships with lawmakers in each committee of jurisdiction over climate legislation in the House. In coordination with our allies at the Center for Climate Integrity and the American Association for Justice, we will make sure that any climate policy that passes the House will include language explicitly protecting access to the courts. 

There are a lot of unknowns about the early months of 2021. Whether it’s the Georgia Senate runoffs or the COVID-19 vaccine, we just don’t know what will happen. What we do know is that we have the best odds we have ever had to pass national climate legislation at the scale of the problem. Whatever happens, CCAN will be there, doing all we can to enact justice centered climate policy.

Maryland

On December 2nd, members of the Board of Public Works voted 3 to 0 to approve a key permit for the Del-Mar Pipeline to carry fracked gas into the Eastern Shore region of Maryland. The Del-Mar Pipeline is one of the two controversial, dirty-energy pipelines proposed for the region in an era of rapid climate change and environmental justice sensitivity.

A lot happened in the months leading up to the vote. A commissioned study uncovered troubling environmental justice issues with the pipeline, and the Mayland NAACP added the pipelines to their list of environmental justice priorities and local county chapters took a stance in opposition. And CCAN, with help from our partners at the Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club and the Wicomico Environmental Trust, released a white paper outlining concerns about the economics of these pipeline projects. Ultimately, over four thousand emails and 700 letters were sent to the Board of Public Works urging them to reject the pipelines. But BPW didn’t even consider applications for renewable energy sources.

By approving the Del-Mar pipeline, the Board elected to ignore numerous climate and environmental justice concerns. That is an injustice. As a next step, CCAN will continue to fight and organize against the pipeline, including the Chesapeake Utilities portion which is expected to come before the Board in the next couple of months. Help us win by signing this petition. 

As climate activists, we’re more than grateful for a Biden win. With his leadership, we can look forward to a bold new climate plan and our re-entry into the Paris Climate Accord. However, even if Democrats gain a Senate majority, states will still need to wholeheartedly commit to their own net-zero emissions policies if we hope to make sweeping federal legislation a reality. 

Our top priority legislation -- The Climate Solutions Now bill, introduced by Sen. Paul Pinsky and Del. Dana Stein -- seeks to do that and more. Most critically, it will position us to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2045; right in line with internationally recognized scientific mandates as well as recent recommendations from the Maryland Commission on Climate. Beyond just setting targets, it also revises several flaws in our state’s climate planning process by requiring use of best available scientific information, banning the expansion of highways and unproven carbon capture technologies as emissions pathways, and adjusting the way we account for the impacts of highly potent methane as a greenhouse gas. It also takes immediate climate-forward job creating actions -- such as planting half a million trees annually for the next decade and increasing efficiency requirements through the highly successful EMPOWER program. A new workgroup created by the bill will oversee labor impacts and ensure that new career opportunities are being filled fairly. And in keeping with the national dialogue on racial and economic justice, it comes with a heavy focus on investments in “disadvantaged” communities.

Last year’s version of this common sense bill experienced bipartisan committee support for good reason - it’s a logical next step for Maryland to stay relevant in our fast changing economy. We have great precedent for strong economic success from our state’s participation in climate programs. For example, our participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative has both reduced our emissions and brought significant revenue to our state’s coffers. And because of the 2019 Clean Energy Jobs Act, we were seeing excellent job gains to the clean energy industry before COVID hit. To regain this ground and continue to showcase our ability to be a player in the new green economy, it’s imperative that our state adopt this winning policy. Sign here to add your support for Climate Solutions Now.

Virginia

The MVP continually meets opposition and “stop work” orders, thanks largely to resistance fighters on the ground, including direct action in the form of aerial resistance at the Yellow Finch tree sites. Meanwhile, a dedicated team of citizen scientists, Mountain Valley Watch, has recorded hundreds of violations for faulty erosion control and violations of the Clean Water Act. There are ongoing legal battles to hold the corporation accountable and halt work until it can receive all of the necessary permits. 

The project itself has pushed back its completion date, yet again, this time until late 2021. It was supposed to finish at the start of this year. While MVP claims to be 92% finished, an analysis of their own data indicates it’s only around 50% complete. The price of the pipeline continues to grow exponentially, from $3B to almost $6B in the past few years. This makes the MVP the most expensive pipeline project per mile to date. Fortunately, investors are scaling back, as we continue to try to push banks to divest. 

The MVP has refiled their certification with FERC, and we're submitting comments. If you'd like to get involved, you can personally divest from banks who are funding the MVP, and urge others to do so as well. And if you’d like to support the direct action on the ground, consider donating to our partner, Appalachians Against Pipelines, which is providing legal aid and material goods to the tree sitters.