To: Governor Larry Hogan
Gov. O'Malley: Defend Clean Energy. VETO the Anti-Wind Power Bill
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Thank you for your courageous leadership over the years on climate change and clean energy. Please continue that leadership now by vetoing HB 1168, a harmful and unnecessary anti-wind power bill in Maryland that could stymie clean energy development in Maryland and across the country for years to come.
Why is this important?
With Governor Martin O’Malley at the helm, Maryland has become a national leader in fighting climate change and promoting clean energy. Governor O’Malley has championed bills for cleaner cars, greater energy efficiency, and—most recently—offshore wind power. This is the kind of leadership America urgently needs, especially as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that we need to switch to clean energy much more rapidly over the next 15 years to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
Unfortunately, the Maryland state legislature recently passed a harmful and unnecessary anti-clean energy bill that would significantly undermine Maryland’s progress towards a clean energy economy, while setting a damaging national precedent that could stymie land-based wind power development across the country for years to come.
The bill, HB 1168, would establish a moratorium on land-based wind energy in over 40 percent of the state and nearly 90 percent of Maryland’s most viable wind development areas. The bill was ostensibly written to address concerns about interference with military radar facilities in southern Maryland. But those concerns have already been addressed in an agreement negotiated between the U.S. Navy and developers of the most mature wind farm set to begin construction on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
In solidarity with Maryland’s major environmental groups, Governor O’Malley vigorously opposed this anti-wind power bill during the state legislative session. The governor explicitly urged state lawmakers not to undermine wind power development. But with ferocious lobbying from special interests and their political allies, the bill passed anyway. Now Governor O’Malley—whose 8-year stint as Maryland’s governor ends this year—can leave office with perhaps his most heroic action yet on climate change: vetoing a harmful bill for the sake of clean energy in Maryland and across the country.
Unfortunately, the Maryland state legislature recently passed a harmful and unnecessary anti-clean energy bill that would significantly undermine Maryland’s progress towards a clean energy economy, while setting a damaging national precedent that could stymie land-based wind power development across the country for years to come.
The bill, HB 1168, would establish a moratorium on land-based wind energy in over 40 percent of the state and nearly 90 percent of Maryland’s most viable wind development areas. The bill was ostensibly written to address concerns about interference with military radar facilities in southern Maryland. But those concerns have already been addressed in an agreement negotiated between the U.S. Navy and developers of the most mature wind farm set to begin construction on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
In solidarity with Maryland’s major environmental groups, Governor O’Malley vigorously opposed this anti-wind power bill during the state legislative session. The governor explicitly urged state lawmakers not to undermine wind power development. But with ferocious lobbying from special interests and their political allies, the bill passed anyway. Now Governor O’Malley—whose 8-year stint as Maryland’s governor ends this year—can leave office with perhaps his most heroic action yet on climate change: vetoing a harmful bill for the sake of clean energy in Maryland and across the country.