Statement
Statement from County Executive Marc Elrich on West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency Ruling
For Immediate Release: Thursday 30 June
This month has been one setback after another for civil rights, reproductive rights, and public safety due to rulings from a right-wing, extremist dominated Supreme Court. Today’s SCOTUS ruling on West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency severely inhibits the U.S. EPA’s authority to implement the Clean Air Act, thus jeopardizing necessary efforts to combat climate change and ensure a clean environment for future generations.
This ruling does not change the fact that the widespread use of fossil fuels is causing the Earth to warm abnormally. Human-induced climate change poses grave threats to public health, economic prosperity, and the planet’s ability to sustain the ecosystem services that we depend on. We must continue to take bold climate action at the local, state, and federal levels in order to swiftly bring down greenhouse gas emissions.
We here in Montgomery County are affected by the actions of West Virginia and other states that refuse to take steps to reduce harmful emissions and instead accept higher pollution levels. Our region shares the same air and drinks the same water as these states, and we will all experience the negative impacts on our environment due to today’s ruling.
Montgomery County will continue to do its part. We have a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2027 and 100 percent by 2035. Our Climate Action Plan provides a roadmap for combatting climate change, and we have many foundational climate initiatives already underway:
- The County is currently implementing Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS) for commercial and multifamily buildings.
- Amended and improved the Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) program that allows building owners to finance energy efficient upgrades to make our buildings more resilient.
- The County is developing a Community Choice Energy program that will enable the County to offer more renewable energy supply to customers.
- The Council is evaluating the Comprehensive Building Decarboninzation legislation (Bill 13-22), which will require all-electric building standards for new construction, major renovations, and additions and limit fossil fuels, which not only impact our climate negatively but create poor indoor air quality for County residents.
- The Capital Area Solar Co-op, now in its second year, uses collective purchasing power in our region to drive down the cost of installing solar panels.
- County-owned buildings are pursuing net-zero construction and additional microgrid projects are planned.
- The County is adding multiple Bus Rapid Transit routes to encourage people to leave their cars at home and use public transit.
- The County is transitioning the County’s fleet of passenger vehicles, Ride-On buses, and school buses to electric vehicles. Ride-On currently operates four battery-electric buses with plans to procure another 96 buses over the next three years.
- Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) signed a contract to replace 326 diesel school buses with electric school buses over the same period, with 25 received to-date.
- Montgomery County’s transit fleet is transitioning from diesel to electric power, while reducing lifetime emissions by over 155,000 tons.
- To encourage private sector EV adoption, the County has begun the process of building our EV charging infrastructure with 40 Level 2 chargers located in County parking facilities and is finalizing a contract to install publicly accessible charging at over 60 additional County locations.
- The FY23 Operating Budget establishes new positions and programs to prioritize our climate mitigation and adaptation efforts.
- Increased funding to improve and expand pedestrian and bike infrastructure (9% increase over the previous 5-year budget.)
- The County increased funding of $18.6 million to the Montgomery County Green Bank—the nation’s first local-level green bank organization. The Green Bank continues to leverage private capital to improve the energy efficiency and resiliency of our built environment and expand renewable energy in the County.
- The County is an inaugural member of the White House Building Performance Standards Coalition.
We will also continue to work with our regional partners and neighbors to address the urgency of climate change.
See the Climate Action Plan and quarterly updates to the Climate Work Plan for more information on how the County is responding to our climate emergency at https://montgomerycountymd.gov/climate
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Media contact: Scott Peterson, 240-255-9462
Release ID: 22-021