Maryland’s historic climate change legislative session received strong support from the Catholic Church | Earthbeat

The state’s most important legislative session on climate change, which is being called “Maryland’s most significant,” received a lot of support from Catholics and their bishops.

Maryland’s 2022 legislative session was canceled Monday, April 11, at midnight. Environmental activists celebrated a major victory with The Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022. The new law sets goals for the state to slash its greenhouse gas emissions by 60% below 2006 levels by 2031 — the most ambitious near-term emissions goal in the country — and to reach net-zero emissions by 2045.

The law requires buildings greater than 35,000 square feet to reduce their emissions. Utilities must generate the vast majority from no-to-low-carbon sources by 2030. The state’s vehicle fleet, which includes school buses, must be electrified by 2031. A “green bank” is created to support emission-cutting projects. 40% of the resources will be directed to low and moderate income communities. It exempts low-income communities from paying property taxes and expands the Chesapeake Conservation Corps.

It appeared that the comprehensive climate legislation was at one time a potential veto target for Republican Governor. Larry Hogan described it as a “reckless, controversial energy tax bill”. On April 8, he refused to sign it, but he allowed it to become law.

After a similar bill was defeated last year, the Maryland League of Conservation Voters called Climate Solutions Now Act “a historic milestone” and stated that the session “may be remembered as one of most important and significant in decades.”

“It was a very significant legislative session, for what was accomplished for the environment,” said Bob Simon of Maryland Catholics for Our Common Home.

The Maryland Catholic Conference, a lay-led Catholic environmental organization, joined the Maryland Catholic Conference, which is the public policy arm representing Washington and Baltimore archdioceses. It supported numerous environment-related bills during the session.

The Climate Solutions Now Act was not the only legislation that passed, but Hogan has yet to sign it. This legislation would make energy efficiency upgrades available to low-income homes, provide equitable public transportation and limit the use PFAS chemicals in consumer goods. Hogan also signed another bill requiring that climate risks be considered when investments are made in the state’s pension system.

The Maryland Catholic Conference made climate change one of its five priority issues — alongside restricting abortion, support for incarcerated mothers, outlawing ghost guns, and scholarships for students from low-income families — for the legislative session and its statewide Catholic Advocacy Day.

“We recognized climate was a priority for the legislature, and wanted to give Catholics many issues to advocate on their behalf,” Jenny Kraska, executive Director of the conference, explained to EarthBeat in an email.

Overall, the Maryland Catholic Conference offered testimony in support of more that a dozen bills related climate change and environmental issues. These included tax credits for energy efficiency and a constitutional amendment that established the right to a healthy, sustainable environment. This amendment was not adopted. Although the conference did no position on the Climate Solutions Now Act it supported HB 708 in the House.

Maryland Catholics for Our Common Home collected over 700 signatures from nearly three dozen parishes in 33 out of 47 legislative districts to support six priority bills, including Climate Solutions Now Act.

Simon, a former Capitol Hill energy policy expert and climate policy expert, stated to EarthBeat, that the bills responded “to the cry of Pope Francis and the cry and the poor.”

Simon stated, “We try and find bills that both responds to the environmental crisis but also addresses issues of economic equity, economic justice, environmental equity, economic equity for poor of the Earth” as well as the daily needs of Marylanders.

EarthBeat was informed by Kraska that although the conference has previously advocated for climate-related bills, the release “Laudato Si’“Care for Our Common Home” is Francis’ 2015 Encyclical on Environment and Human Ecology. It “greatly helped our efforts to become more vocal about climate and other environmental issues.” For example, the conference quoted Laudato Si’In many of the environmental bills testimonies that it issued.

The Maryland Catholic Conference organized earlier in the legislative sessions Two virtual town hall gatheringsThis included legislators, state officials and scientists, as well as business leaders, religious representatives, and environmental activists. The event was led by Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory, and Baltimore Archbishop William Lori.

Gregory spoke at the March 9 event, stating that Maryland is home to God’s bounty, which surrounds us from the Atlantic to the mountains in western Maryland. Gregory stated that we all have a responsibility to protect our common home and to exercise stewardship over God’s creation according to our abilities and our means.

He said that the church was committed to working with government partners “to ensure that we do everything possible for environmental justice and promote personal accountability to care for the gifts God has entrusted us with.”

Maryland has seen its global temperatures rise as a result. Wetter and warmer. The state has 3,100 miles of shoreline and is therefore most vulnerable to climate change. A February report The National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationProjections show that sea levels will rise 10-14 inches along the East Coast in the next three decades. Annapolis and other cities will experience many damage-causing floods each year by midcentury. This is in contrast to the few “nuisance” tidal surges that occur now.

The town halls were funded by small grants from the Victory Noll Sisters, in partnership with Catholic Climate Covenant. They discussed the state and future of Maryland’s environment, legislative priorities in Maryland, and why environmental concerns are important for Catholics.

Lori stated that caring for the environment is not just about caring for our common home, but also about protecting the dignity and rights of all human beings. Lori spoke at the February 15 town hall. “And this is fundamental for all that the church believes in and teaches.”

Several speakers spoke out about the inequalities and disparate effects of environmental issues on Maryland communities during the town halls. Jill Carter, State Senator, was a co-sponsor for the climate solutions act. Asthma rates in BaltimoreThey are higher than the national and state averages, and this is a problem It could be worseAfrican Americans.

Carter stated that Baltimore’s redlining policies “tremendously perpetuated ecological injustice” by segregating Black and Hispanic neighborhoods from green spaces, clean water, and making investments to create healthy environments.

Lori said in his remarks that Francis warned against Laudato Si’Concerning being too dependent on technological solutions for environmental problems, he stressed the importance to examine the root cause and not just the symptoms. He said that the pope encouraged all members of a community “active participation” in the development of comprehensive solutions to complex environmental problems.

Lori stated that “we have to be very aware of what’s happening to the people living there when there is environmental degradation or those who are poor.” She added that “it is incumbent upon church just to talk about it but to then do something about it.”

The Washington Archdiocese also advocates for legislative reform. Laudato Si action plan for the local Church to put the encyclical words to work — Gregory commissioned a similar document while archbishop of Atlanta — as its way of participating in the Vatican’s Laudato Si’ Action Platform for Catholic institutions and families worldwide.

Maryland Catholics for Our Common Home is activeFor many years in supporting legislative effortsto address the increasing impacts of climate change on the Free State and other environmental challenges. Now, its members will ask Catholics for help to get the governor, who is Catholic, to sign into legislation two bills, one to improve energy efficiency in low-income housing and another to equalize public transportation.

The group will also seek to regroup around several bills which failed to pass the General Assembly. This includes the constitutional amendment to environmental rights and the Maryland the Beautiful Act. It also includes a bill that would reduce polluting energy sources, such as waste incinerators, under the state’s renewable electricity standard.

“Since such facilities are often sited near low-income communities, there is obviously a justice angle here,” Simon said.