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Indivisiblehocomd FAV SB560 Uploaded By: ALEXANDER, PETER Position: FAV IndivisibleHoCoMD_FAV_SB560 Uploaded by: ALEXANDER, PETER Position: FAV Bill No. SB560 – RPS – Eligible Sources to Eliminate Waste Incineration Name: Peter Alexander, PhD Position: Favorable RE: Testimony before the Senate Finance Committee Date: February 25, 2020 Madame Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, and members of the Committee, My name is Peter Alexander and I represent the 700+ members of IndivisibleHoCoMD. I am writing in support of SB560, Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard - Eligible Sources, which removes trash incineration from Maryland’s Renewable Energy Portfolio. IndivisibleHoCoMD is a member of the Maryland Legislative Coalition, and SB560 is a high priority for MLC. Burning trash is not clean energy and shouldn’t qualify for RPS subsidies which are intended for energy sources such as wind and solar. Trash incineration currently receives the same subsidies as these truly clean energy sources. The fact that trash incineration receives any utility rate payer-funded subsidies is a misappropriation of those utility bill dollars. To produce the same amount of energy, trash incinerators emit more greenhouse gasses than coal plants do (1). Air pollutants from waste incinerators have also been shown to increase the risk of pre- term births, and lung and blood cancers (2). An Environmental Integrity Project assessment shows that Maryland’s incinerators emit higher levels of mercury, lead, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide than our coal plants per kilowatt of energy produced (3). A Chesapeake Bay Foundation study found that Baltimore City’s trash incinerator emits particulate matter that creates adverse health effects that cost people in our region over $55 million every year (4). Burning and burying our waste are not the only options. Recycling, composting, re-use, and source reduction can eliminate the need to burn or bury so much waste. Composting is a sustainable alternative to landfills and incinerators, with many benefits to air and water quality, soil health, local business development, and fighting climate change. A waste characterization study by Prince George’s County found that 77% of its landfilled waste could be composed, recycled or diverted (5). The county has adopted successful zero waste strategies that have extended the life of the county’s landfill and the county is now home to the East Coast’s largest municipal composting facility, a profitable revenue stream for the county. Last year, the Frederick County Compost Workgroup launched a pilot program to work with students in three county schools to divert their waste for composting (6). This year, they’ve expanded to 14 schools. In a waste separation study at Urbana Sugarloaf Elementary School, they found that 87% of the school’s trash could be diverted from the landfill (7). Composting Maryland’s organic waste could reduce our waste stream while creating exciting opportunities for local business development. As an added benefit, compost sequesters carbon and builds healthy soils. Composting even creates jobs: composting a ton of waste in Maryland employs twice as many people as landfilling it, and four times as many people as incinerating it. Let’s stop subsidizing trash incineration as a so-called clean energy source and use those subsidies to support truly clean energy sources while developing viable alternatives for diverting waste from our landfill. We urge a favorable report. References (1) http://www.energyjustice.net/incineration/climate (2) Tait, et. al., (2020). The health impacts of waste incineration: a systematic review. Australian New Zealand J. Publ. Health. 44(1):40.48. (3) EIP Report: Waste-to-Energy Incinerators Pollute More Per of Hour of Energy than Coal-Fired Power Plants and Are Not Renewable; Oct 2011. (4) Thurston, G.D. (2017). Written Report of George D. Thurston Regarding the Public Health Impacts of Air Emissions from the Wheelabrator Facility. (5) SCS ENGINEERS (2016). Waste Characterization Study Summary of Results 2014/2015, File No. 02201056.95. June 2016. (6) https://frederickcountymd.gov/1739/Composting (7) https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/education/schools/public_k-12/elementary/foodwaste- biggest-hurdle-still-to-come-as-fcps-expands/article_a6d398f5-0bee-54bf-9524254e6f4331e5.html TerrelAskew_FAV_SB560 Uploaded by: ASKEW, TERREL Position: FAV Testimony Supporting HB438 / SB560 House Economic Matters Committee / Senate Finance Committee February 20, 2020 / February 25, 2020 Position: SUPPORT My name is Terrel Askew and I'm a Leadership Organizer with United Workers. I'm a lifelong Baltimorean, residing in the 43rd district. I have at least two people in my family who suffered from asthma: my aunt and her son. They lived in East Baltimore, along the truck routes where the trash is hauled to the incinerator. They are both gone now, I may never know just how much the trash burning affected them. Maryland needs to remove Incineration from its RPS because incineration is a 19th century solution to a 21st century problem. We are producing more goods than at any other time in history. A great deal of these products are not reusable and have a limited shelf life, which is completely unsustainable. Their production is a drain on our natural resources and their consumption provides more waste for landfills. Incineration does nothing to address this growing problem, and to the contrary, encourages us to buy more. What it does do is take away precious resources from alternatives like composting and recycling, which would reduce our current waste; and policymaking that would reduce our litter stream. If this was all the harm, these subsidies would be fiscally irresponsible; but no, it gets worse. Burning our waste releases harmful toxins such as mercury, lead, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and fine particulate matter into the air we breathe and the water sources we depend upon. These substances are known to cause respiratory issues such as asthma, as well as birth defects, cancer, heart problems, and even death. Given their locations, the communities that suffer the most are usually low income and persons of color; not to mention animal life, who have little say in the matter. The Environmental Integrity Project released a report that showed that Baltimore City’s rate of asthma hospitalizations is more than twice the state's, and nearly 3x the nation’s. So what we as ratepayers are actually subsidizing is the decimation of our own communities, both marine and human. And for what? Due to the by-products of incineration, we are still using landfills to bury the two types of ash created. Amounting to about a third of the total waste, fly ash and bottom ash require special hazardous landfills to dispose of them properly. This creates a possibility for further contamination of the soil we use to grow our food. This is a recipe for disaster, one that we could be minimizing by building up our zero waste infrastructure. We in Baltimore City have already started to do just that. The Commission on Sustainability has released a plan for zero waste, the Mayor is focused on doubling recycling rates and there is ongoing discussion about locating a public composting facility in the city. Actual clean, green energy sources like wind and solar provide more jobs than incineration, and are healthier choices for us and our planet. Similarly, zero waste jobs such as recycling and composting create five to ten times more jobs than incineration ever could. We need only to act: to stop subsidizing our fears and misinformation, put that money toward strengthening the zero waste infrastructure we already have, and to stand firm with the communities, human and animal, man-made and nature-made, with whom we share our most basic resource...the earth. Please support HB438/SB560. Thank you. EllenBarfield_FAV_SB560 Uploaded by: BARFIELD, ELLEN Position: FAV Testimony Supporting HB438 / SB560 House Economic Matters Committee / Senate Finance Committee February 20, 2020 / February 25, 2020 Position: SUPPORT As a resident of District 43 and a Maryland ratepayer, I am writing to express my VERY strong support for HB438/SB560 and the effort to remove trash incineration from Maryland’s Renewable Portfolio Standard. Burning trash is NOT clean energy, and Maryland’s renewable energy subsidies should ONLY be used to support TRULY green energy like wind, solar, geothermal, tidal, NOT trash incineration which pollutes our air. My beloved husband, a long-time and worsening asthma sufferer, died in June of 2016 of a heart attack while he was trying to use the asthma nebulizer he had had to use for the last few years as his breathing got worse. Mercury, particulates, ozone, all result from burning mixed trash. That is in NO WAY CLEAN. A Chesapeake Bay Foundation-commissioned study showed that over $55 million a year in adverse health effects are caused by fine particulates emitted by the BRESCO incinerator. Of course there is NO price which can be placed on my sorrow. That study also showed that living near the incinerator is like living with a smoker. Neither he nor I smoke or smoked, but we couldn't and can't help breathing the incinerator's foul emissions. Cells in our bodies damaged by pollution sadly don't have little flags showing what poison or poisons did the damage, but I have absolutely NO doubt the BRESCO incinerator contributed to my husband's death. For all of these reasons and many more, I STRONGLY urge the House Economic Matters Committee and Senate Finance Committee to support HB438/SB560 and END subsidies for trash incineration in Maryland. Thank you. Sincerely, Ellen E Barfield 814 Powers St Baltimore, MD 21211-2510 EmilyBryson_FAV_SB560 Uploaded by: BRYSON, EMILY Position: FAV Testimony Supporting HB438 / SB560 House Economic Matters Committee / Senate Finance Committee February 20, 2020 / February 25, 2020 Position: SUPPORT As a resident of Baltimore City and a Maryland ratepayer, I am writing to express my strong support of HB438/SB560 and the effort to remove trash incineration from Maryland’s Renewable Portfolio Standard.
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