President Obama Touts Renewable Energy, Efficiency in Climate Plan

President Obama announced on his climate action plan at the end of June, which includes significant goals related to renewable energy and energy efficiency. The plan directs the U.S. Department of the Interior to issue permits by 2020 for enough renewable energy projects on public lands to power 6 million homes, while also designating the first-ever hydropower project for priority permitting, setting a new goal to install 100 megawatts of renewable energy on federally assisted housing by 2020, and maintaining the existing commitment to deploy renewable energy projects on military installations.

Maryland climate plan passes key tests in UMD studies

Maryland's plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2020 meets a series of benchmark tests set by state lawmakers, concludes a new pair of studies by the University of Maryland Center for Integrative Environmental Research (CIER). The findings should help clear the way for adoption of a full Climate Action Plan next year, the researchers say.

Maryland's 2009 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act ordered independent studies to make sure that its provisions won't hurt the reliability of the state's electricity supply or damage the manufacturing sector of the economy. The CIER studies give State plans a passing grade on these scores and project some upsides: