Today, 13 environmental and social justice groups announced the creation of the Reclaim Renewable Energy Coalition (Reclaim REC); formed to clean up Maryland’s Renewable portfolio standard (RPS).
Maryland’s RPS was created by the state legislature in 2004 as a way to ramp up the supply of emission-free electricity on our grid, and reduce the use of polluting fossil fuels. Despite good intentions, the RPS has in fact had little impact on state greenhouse gas emissions reductions, as described in a report from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Additionally, the report notes, energy from several sources currently counted as renewable emits even higher levels of asthma and cancer causing pollutants than sources of energy already excluded from the RPS, such as natural gas.
