Maryland Clean Energy Center Announcement
Maryland Clean Energy Center Announcement
[As Prepared]
Thank you all for joining us, With us today are County Executive Leggett, Mayor Moyer, Mayor Katz, Maryland Energy Administration Director Malcolm Woolf, and Jeff Eckell who serves on the Board of the Maryland Clean Energy Center.
We're here today to talk about sustainability - which, along with skills and security, is - I believe - one of the three greatest challenges our country faces in a world that is growing smaller and warmer by the day.
And we're here to announce that we will be locating the Maryland Clean Energy Center here in Montgomery County at the University of Maryland's facilities on the Universities at Shady Grove Campus!
The More Sustainable Future We Prefer
The keys to our economic potential as State and as a country - not to mention our survival as a species -- will likely rest in our ability to unlock, harness, and advance green technologies, and to bring them quickly to scale for ourselves and the world.
At the State level, we view clean energy as an important piece of our larger efforts to put Maryland families first by fighting to strengthen and grow the ranks of our upwardly mobile middle class - especially given the devastating impact that rising energy prices have had on our families, whose budgets are already squeezed.
Last month, I announced a plan to move us forward toward our goal of creating 100,000 green collar jobs in Maryland by 2015. Today, we're here to talk about an important tool for helping us get there, The Maryland Clean Energy Center.
ARRA and Clean Energy
Before I get to today's announcement, I briefly wanted to mention that it says a lot about President Obama's leadership -- and the leadership of Senator Mikulski, Senator Cardin, Majority Leader Hoyer, and the rest of our delegation - that they had the vision and foresight to make green investments a large part of the Recovery and Reinvestment package,
For clean energy alone, we in Maryland are receiving $61 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for weatherization, $52 million to help local authorities with energy efficiency improvements, and $51.8 million which will support an array of State clean energy initiatives, including solar and geothermal grants and home energy retrofits to help our families save on their energy bills.
Clean Energy Center Announcement
We created the Center in legislation I signed last year, which will be funded by a combination of private fundraising, financial support from Montgomery County, and a loan from the Maryland Energy Administration. We've charged it with three important goals:
1. To attract new, clean energy-related green sector jobs to Maryland.
2. To promote green innovation and entrepreneurship, and to serve as an incubator for those businesses seeking to create new consumer-based products and services that can promote clean and renewable energy in Maryland.
3. To serve as a hub for our efforts to provide our existing workforce and future graduates with the skills required to compete and succeed in the green sector economy.
There are a number of people who have worked very hard to make this day possible, and none harder than County Executive Leggett who is providing more than $600,000 in funding, and who has pledged the support of County employees and facilities.
We are also grateful for Chancellor Kirwan's leadership with the University of Maryland System - USM will be providing State of the Art facilities and access to the University of Maryland's network of campuses and faculty, along with student interns and volunteers.
Across the board, the creation of this Center represents a tremendous partnership between the County, the University, our state government, and several additional county and municipal partners throughout our One Maryland, such as the City of Annapolis - which will be providing the Center with access to the 500 acre Annapolis National Clean Energy Park. Thank you Mayor Moyer for your commitment to building a more sustainable future for our State.
Conclusion
In the past two years, together as One Maryland we've set some of the most ambitious goals in America for reducing energy consumption 15% by 2015; we've raised our renewable portfolio standard and led the charge for America's first ever cap-and-trade auction of greenhouse gases,
Together we've passed landmark clean cars legislation, together we've created incentives to help homeowners and businesses utilize green energy, and this past Friday, together we passed legislation which set ambitious goals for reducing our carbon footprint.
Our journey will be a marathon, not a sprint - but it's a race worth running, and together we are making important strides. Thank you.