A campaign aimed to make the University System of Maryland carbon neutral is underway at eight of the eleven Public Universities in the University System of Maryland. This campaign is being run by the student group Clean Energy for UMD at The University of Maryland College Park. As of October 29th over 1,500 petition signatures have been gathered supporting the campaign’s Carbon Neutrality statement. Clean Energy for UMD aims to get 5,005 signatures by January, when they will present their signatures (along with the petitions gathered at other Universities) to the University system’s governing body, the board of reagents. This act hopes to convince the reagents that comprehensive policy regarding climate change is required for all of the public research and educational institutions in Maryland.

It’s been a long, hot summer here in Maryland and we have some good news… The University of Maryland Sustainability Office and UMD Energy are in the news again!

You may have caught Sam Snellings a couple of months ago quoted in the Cornell Sun talking about clean energy efforts at the University of Maryland, or this piece by the Baltimore Business Journal, but this time we have made Grist’s top 15 list of ‘Green Colleges and Universities!’ Sure, we just sneaked onto the list at number 15, but that is quite an honor for the only state school on the list.

The University of Maryland also signed onto the President’s Climate Commitment last June, which means that they are now in the process of developing a greenhouse gas inventory and working on new sustainability measures for the fall. You’ll hear more from us as the school year begins, so keep a look out.

91%.

Let me repeat that - 91%.

That is the percentage of the undergraduate population who voted to voluntarily increase their own student fees to pay for clean energy. This vote comes at a time when the University just raised out of state tuition by $860, fees have increased by $292 after increasing $347 and $284 during the past two years, and when a College Board report shows that Maryland undergraduates pay $4,000 more than other public universities. And then, just weeks before the vote, it was announced that all seniors and rising seniors would be kicked out of campus housing, creating a run on the rental market.

Students have spoken: campus sustainability and environmental stewardship are worth the cost.

And with the state of Maryland voting to mandate even higher amounts of renewable energy, including 1,500 Megawatts of solar by 2022, a clean, renewable University of Maryland is only a matter of time.

As of 8am this morning voting in the Student Government Elections is open.

If you support our work and our mission, please navigate to testudo.umd.edu, click the link at the top that reads ‘Student Government Elections’ and VOTE!

We are lucky enough to have a clean energy referendum on this years ballot so every vote you cast brings us a step closer to making the University of Maryland a clean energy campus.

The text of the referendum:

The University of Maryland, College Park currently buys its electricity primarily from fossil fuel plants whose emissions are detrimental to air and water quality. Purchasing electricity instead from renewable, non-polluting sources such as wind, biomass, and geothermal helps protect the environment and human health as well as reduces our country’s need for foreign energy imports.

Currently each undergraduate consumes approximately $409 worth of electricity produced by fossil fuel plants every year while on the University of Maryland, College Park campus. If each undergraduate was to pay an additional $12 a year, the university could potentially purchase 100% of student consumption in clean, renewable energy.

This fee would begin at $4 dollars and increase by $2 dollars a year for a maximum of $12. Would you support the implementation of this fee to help pay for clean energy and energy efficiency programs?

Thanks again for everyone’s support, especially the 1,200 of you who signed our petitions and really pushed us to make this a reality!

Again, more digitized signatures! Unique to this set are that the vast majority of them were collected in 48 hours. We had received word Sunday night that we should begin collecting signatures on a petition featuring the exact clean energy referendum that we wanted on the Student Elections Ballot, made the petition form Monday morning, and, by 6pm on Wednesday had over 600 signatures. Not bad.

Check them out here

The first set of hard-copy petitions have been digitized and are now available online.

There were 697 signatures in this first batch, all from an early petition that UMD for Clean Energy circulated. There are still several hundred of this petition type that have yet to be digitized, and over 700 signatures on the second Referendum Petition (great work guys!) that have yet to be touched.

Thanks again to everyone for their support and please remember to vote for clean energy next Wednesday on Testudo!

Attempts at getting a bill written and submitted to the legislature to put a referendum on clean energy on the 2007 Student Elections Ballot fell behind schedule and we are now close enough to the election date that the bill is unlikely to pass in time. By 6pm on Wednesday I need at least 300 signatures from current University of Maryland, College Park undergraduate students in order to have a chance at getting the question on the ballot.

This is where you come in. (more…)

UMDEnergy strongly supports energy efficiency and renewable energy programs at the University of Maryland, College Park. To that end we have drafted a statement that embodies our convictions: (more…)

This Thursday, March 22, 2007, there will be a briefing addressing:

the impacts of the President’s FY 2008 budget on energy efficiency and renewable energy (EE/RE) programs, including impacts upon states and low-income consumers. Energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies are critical cornerstones of a national energy policy that will meet the nation’s goals of reducing energy imports, moderating energy prices, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and improving the economy, national security, the environment and public health.

The panel will cover the implications of the FY 2008 budget on federal energy efficiency and renewable energy programs, focusing primarily on DOE’s energy efficiency and renewable energy R&D technology programs.

The briefing will be held in the Rayburn House Office Building room 2325.

Please visit EESI.org for more information and the original release.