By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Political Writer
Tmcqueen@afro.com
Photo credit: Photo courtesy of the Maryland Office of the Governor
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) signed an expansive executive order supporting Maryland’s climate goals and efforts to move away from fossil fuels. The order will impact all government agencies and buildings throughout the state.
“It is bold and we will get it done,” said Moore to a lively crowd of Henderson-Hopkins School students, educators and state legislators in East Baltimore. “Today’s order ensures that the state of Maryland focuses on environmental justice and economic justice in all of our climate work. Climate justice is economic justice if you’re doing it right. We are going to craft policies that reflect that mindset.”
The “Implementing Maryland’s Climate Pollution Reduction Plan” executive order directs the Department of the Environment to develop new policies to decrease building emissions, direct the Maryland Energy Administration to create a framework to reach 100 percent clean energy by 2035 and implement new policies that include reducing energy use by enforcing zero-emission heating standards.
The order also calls on all state agencies to submit a Climate Implementation Plan.
“Each plan is going to center on how we can meet our goals of cutting emissions by 60 percent by 2031 and achieving net zero in our state by 2045,” said Moore. “These proposals must be submitted by every single state agency because every single state agency is going to have a role to play and is going to have accountability measures we must meet.”
The Maryland Department of the Environment will be the center of the state’s whole-of-government approach to addressing climate. The Maryland Department of the Environment will submit an annual report directly to Moore about each agency’s progress on the climate change initiatives mentioned.
Moore said Henderson-Hopkins was chosen as the location for the executive order signing due to its Solar4Us project, which will provide solar power to 175 low—to moderate-income households in the school community and surrounding area.
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