Global Warming

Environment New Hampshire releases a report that highlights the role clean energy and environmental policies have played in moving states toward meeting targets to reduce carbon emissions, while challenging claims that actions to reduce emissions undermine economic growth. The New Hampshire Legislature is considering legislation to repeal the cornerstone clean energy program, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Inititiative (RGGI).

Boston, MA – Governor Deval Patrick and Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Richard Sullivan were joined today at the Hatch Shell by Ben Wright from Environment Massachusetts and more than 200 activists to celebrate Earth Day by highlighting environmental progress that has been made and to look forward to the opportunities to do even more.

As lawmakers prepared to pass Gov. Martin O’Malley’s offshore wind power legislation out of the Maryland House of Delegates, an environmental group stood in front of the state house with minority and business leaders to hail offshore wind’s benefits for Maryland.  The group, Environment Maryland, released a new report, “What Offshore Wind Means for Maryland: Environmental, Economic and Public Health Benefits Across the State,” detailing regional benefits throughout Maryland of clean energy and reduced global warming pollution.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today proposed historic new limits on carbon pollution from new power plants.  Carbon pollution fuels global warming, which leads to poor air quality that triggers asthma attacks and other respiratory problems.  Scientists also predict that global warming will lead to more devastating floods, more deadly heat waves and the spread of infectious diseases. Coal-fired power plants are the largest single source of carbon pollution in the U.S., yet there are currently no federal limits on this pollution from power plants. The standard proposed today will correct that for new power plants by limiting their emissions of carbon pollution.

After a year that saw many parts of the country hit by scorching heat, devastating wildfires, severe storms and record flooding, a new Environment America report documents how global warming could lead to certain extreme weather events becoming even more common or more severe in the future. The report found that, already, 4 out of 5 Americans live in counties affected by federally declared weather-related disasters since 2006. Last year’s Hurricane Irene, which resulted in the death of 45 people in the 13 states hit by the storm, and an estimated $7.3 billion in damage, is one of the extreme weather events highlighted in the report.