COUNTY: At DEP, we truly believe that our partners are key to making Montgomery County as green as it can be. This series profiles a local leader, advocate, or trailblazer who is dedicated to improving energy efficiency and helping the county realize its goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by the year 2050. Find out more about Bryan Bomer, Green Building Manager with Department of Permitting Services.

COUNTY: The Solar Co-op this year also includes electric vehicle (EV) charging, have you joined yet? Montgomery County’s Department of Permitting Services (DPS) and the Department of Transportation (MCDOT released its first ever guidelines for installing EV)charging stations at home. The guidelines regulate and provide for permitting the installation of privately-owned car charging stations in garages, driveways and in the public right of way adjacent to County streets. The new guidelines can be viewed here.

COMMERCIAL: The building energy benchmarking deadline was June 1^st. So far DEP has received reports from 650 properties spanning over 80.5 million gross square feet. If you own or manage a business that is 50,000 square feet or greater and have not yet reported please contact energy@montgomerycountymd.gov for more information and help with complying.

MUNICIPALITIES: The City of Gaithersburg has three vacancies on the Environmental Affairs Committee (EAC). The EAC advises the Mayor and City Council on environmental issues, promotes environmental education and outreach activities, and explores new environmental initiatives. If you live or work in in the City of Gaithersburg, we encourage you to come to a meeting and see if you would like to join us.  Check out our website or email environment@gaithersburgmd.gov for more information. 

The Montgomery County Energy Team receives tons of newsletters and articles every day, and these are a few articles that we wanted to share this month. These articles range from county, state, national and international stories, we hope you find them as interesting as we did.

Bike: The United States is facing a shortage of bicycles as anxiety over public transportation and a desire to exercise has sent the demand surging, www.nytimes.com

Carbon Dioxide: The amount of CO2 in the air in May 2020 hit an average of slightly greater than 417 parts per million (ppm). This is the highest monthly average value ever recorded, and is up from 414.7 ppm in May of last year, www.washingtonpost.com

Climate Change:  Breaking our addiction to  fossil fuels and moving on to superior and sustainable renewable energy means we should be looking to create a 12 step program, www.cleantechnica.com

Electric Cars: Worldwide electric car registrations are set to fall 18% this year, but those of combustion engine cars are set to drop even faster, www.reuters.com

Food: Reducing food waste is the No. 1 solution for reversing global warming. Eating plant-rich diets ranks No. 3, www.washingtonpost.com

Hydrogen: An energy company is going to produce the clean fuel of the future, creating hydrogen from plasma heating technology — originally developed for NASA — to disintegrate the city’s paper recyclables at temperatures as high as 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit, www.latimes.com

Oil: The nation’s biggest oil and gas companies could end up even bigger by the end of the coronavirus pandemic. Analysts expect a coming wave of bankruptcies should the price of oil remain low, www.washingtonpost.com

Parks: Trust for Public Land created 2020 Parkscore Index that ranks the country’s largest 100 cities on a variety of park-focused metrics, www.routefifty.com

Renewable Energy: The momentum behind the renewable energy transition is unstoppable. To date, 162 local governments, 13 states and the District of Columbia, and 229 global companies have committed to 100% renewable energy, www.imt.org

Renewable Energy: In 2019, U.S. annual energy consumption from renewable sources exceeded coal consumption for the first time since before 1885, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Monthly Energy Review, www.renewableenergyworld.com

Seasons: The Earth is warming and disturbing the balance of the seasons. Data makes it clear that summers are expanding while winters are substantially shortening, www.washingtonpost.com

Storage: Energy storage poised to tackle grid challenges from rising EVs as mobile chargers bring new flexibility, www.utilitydive.com

Snow: Green snow created by blooming algae in the Antarctic Peninsula is likely to spread as temperatures increase as a result of climate change, researchers have said, after creating the first large-scale map of the organisms and their movements, www.cnn.com

Thrive Montgomery 2050: Planning Board and community members provide feedback and direction on next steps for update to the county’s General Plan; Working Draft of the plan scheduled for presentation September 2020, www.montgomeryplanning.org