Howard County Executive Calvin Ball has announced numerous measures to help stem the causes of climate change in our community. Video here. Article here. 

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Sunrise Movement
#GreenNewDeal
 YouCAN/HoCo Sunrise Hub

YouCAN Weekly Zoom Calls
Saturdays
Details
 Join these weekly Zoom calls and get ready for action.  

ALSO: Green New Deal forums are a way for Sunrise hubs to attract membership and connect with others in the community. Sign up to participate in a three-part online training to learn how to do this work.
Our path to victory is uniting communities to strengthen the people power we need to make the #GreenNewDeal happen.  Check out the zoom call that launched the #GreenNewDeal. In addition, Bill McKibben, Naomi Oreskes, and Daniel Schrag discuss the Green New Deal. 
More on the #GreenNewDeal here and here. Sign this petition for climate leadership in Congress here.


Plastic bag fee in Howard County 


 Terri Hill's legislation, Ho. Co. 4–19, which allows Howard County to consider a  tax on plastic bags at checkout, passed in the General Assembly. Next up: get the County Council and County Executive to support it. The tax would not apply to paper bags, plastic bags used for bulk vegetables or produce, dry cleaning, newspapers or prescription drugs.The law would be intended to reduce the use of single-use plastic, as most ends up in a landfill now that China no longer buys our plastic for recycling -- and soon Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia won't either. See Baltimore Sun article about the bill.     
 
 More than 1,000 people marched in Annapolis on March 2 to call for a ban on fracking. 
// photo by Nadine Grabania of CitizenShale

Gov. Larry Hogan signed the fracking ban bill on April 4, 2017. 
Maryland is officially FRACK-FREE Forever. 
The week after our HUGE march and rally in Annapolis, the House of Delegates passed its BAN FRACKING bill on a 97-40 bipartisan vote. Abundant thanks to our delegates in Howard County: Terri Hill, Eric Ebersole and Clarence Lam of District 12; Vanessa Atterbeary, Shane Pendergrass and Frank Turner of District 13; and Robert Flanagan of District 9B. News coverage of the vote here, here, here and here -- and of a Western Maryland delegate's conflict of interest here.
Then on March 16, 13 activists, including faith leaders and Western Marylanders, were arrested at the State House calling for the Senate to pass the ban. 

               

[Fractivists arrested at the State House, including a member of HoCo Climate Action (left).]

The day after, the governor threw his support to the ban, leading the way for the Senate to also pass the ban, including with the support of Howard County's Sens. Guy Guzzone of District 13 and Ed Kasemeyer of District 12. (Sen. Gail Bates of District 9 had numerous discussions with her constituents about fracking, but she voted NO on the ban.)
The anti-fracking movement across the country has been watching Maryland. Passing a fracking ban here is a huge victory for our movement and sends a message to the president and the fossil fuel industry that we won’t let them poison our communities and destroy our climate. Now we can shift our our efforts to energy efficiency (the real "bridge fuel"), renewable energy and climate and environmental justice. 
THANKS TO ALL FOR THE HARD WORK OVER MANY YEARS ON THIS EFFORT. 

 

WHAT IS HO CO CLIMATE ACTION? 
 
HoCo Climate Action  (formerly HoCo Climate Change and Climate Change Initiative of Howard County) is an all-volunteer group of Howard County citizens working to reduce Howard County's carbon footprint and to promote a clean energy future. We can't do it alone. We need your help. Explore our website to learn ways you can get involved, through discussion circles, advocacy, local events, and more. As the historian Howard Zinn said, "Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world."  We are a local 350.org group.

PLEASE join our E-News list to get emails about our activities and area climate action. Our website isn't as current as our Facebook page and our e-newsletters. Fill out mail form here or email us at: hococlimateaction@gmail.com to get our e-newsletter. (You can expect emails about twice a month).    
Like us on Facebook  Follow @HoCoClimate on Twitter    
Download our recently updated brochure here.
 What Can You Do?

There are many ways to get involved.   

You can reduce your carbon footprint by 8.5 METRIC TONS per year in less than 15 minutes, by signing up for clean wind energy now. 

Check out energy savings from your utility -   BGE  here; Pepco here or Potomac Edi­son here. 
Discussion circles meet to read articles on climate change and discuss the information.  These discussion circles are an excellent way to meet other people in the community who are interested in climate change. 
We also need volunteers to help with numerous activities including

·         Starting new discussion groups

·         Facilitating discussion groups

·         Updating the HoCo Climate Action web site

·         Writing/editing announcements

·         Writing articles for the web site and blogs

·         Advocating for climate change solutions

Climate change is happening faster than we all anticipated.

The time to act is now.

 

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