Maryland creates “Clean Energy Center” in auto-dependent location

This looks like an April Fool’s joke, but isn’t. On Tuesday, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley announced that the new Maryland Clean Energy Center will be locate in a remote part of Rockville far from any transit, which will require all visitors to drive, adding to traffic, energy consumption, and pollution. The new center will be a quasi-governmental nonprofit organization to coordinate efforts on Maryland’s progress toward sustainable use of energy. It’s first step should be to rethink its own location.

According to the Baltimore Sun, the new Clean Energy Center will also conduct technological research at a new exurban research center, the Annapolis National Renewable Energy Park, on a 500-acre greenfield at the intersection of US-50 and I-97. Researchers there will investigate ways to reduce Maryland’s dependence on fossil fuels, such as those the researchers consume while driving to reach the center.

The Center will also conduct operations in Frederick and Baltimore, spreading job creation and ensuring long drives for Center employees as they shuttle between the various sites. “The location chosen by Governor O’Malley for the center actually works against the goals of conserving energy and fighting global warming,” said Montgomery Sierra Club President Pam Lindstrom. “The center will save energy with one hand while demanding more energy with the other.”

“I have the utmost confidence that the Maryland Clean Energy Center will grow to be a shining example of our State’s leadership in and commitment to creating a Cleaner, Greener Maryland,” said O’Malley. For its first major action, the new center could move to cancel all operations at the center and cancel all jobs. This will immediately move Maryland closer to its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, while saving the state budget millions of dollars as well.